[quote=CA renter][quote=zk]
Parents are much more protective these days than 30 or 40 years ago. Kids back then were left unattended most of their free time. They were allowed to do all kinds of things that most parents today wouldn’t dream of letting their kids do. Our culture has gradually shifted from kids doing mostly what they want with whom they want, to one where kids are ultra-closely monitored, and that has left the sexes relatively segregated. Nothing misogynistic about it. Again, the desire to keep girls away from boys is at least as big a part of it as the other way around.
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[quote=zk]I pointed out a reasonable alternative to your theory of why children are segregated. Not dependent on your M.T.G.
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And I pointed out that I was referring to the segregation that happens at a very young age, even infancy. This segregation isn’t due to parents worrying about their kids having sex.
[quote=CA renter]ZK, the examples I’ve mentioned were absolutely based on the fact that these parents didn’t want their boys to be “contaminated” by anything remotely feminine. They made it very clear why they didn’t want their sons to sit with girls or, in the case of the infant boy, to wear pastel clothing. They didn’t beat around the bush at all. I just can’t type out the conversations and social history in a post here, for brevity’s sake.
And the segregation I’m talking about happens at a very early age — infancy, in some cases. I’m not talking about teenagers who are segregated by their parents because the parents are worried about rape, etc. At that stage, the kids are already reintegrating themselves because they are going through puberty and want to have sex with one another. The problem is that this is happening after years of brainwashing and segregation that highlight and exacerbate the differences between the genders and result in people objectifying each other because they don’t know how to relate in a healthy and holistic way. Kids should never be segregated in the first place, IMO; not by gender, race, age, religion, etc., because this amplifies the worst in each group, whereas integration balances things out because people can learn from one another and relate with one another in a more natural way.
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And this statement of yours needs some clarification:
Our culture has gradually shifted from kids doing mostly what they want with whom they want, to one where kids are ultra-closely monitored, and that has left the sexes relatively segregated.
Are you admitting that kids, when left to their own devices, would be less segregated than they are today because today’s parents are encouraging this segregation? Perhaps this “boys want to play with boys and girls want to play with girls” nonsense is made up or encouraged socialized behavior as a result of the parents’ prejudices?
Because we might actually be in agreement on that one. ;)[/quote]
I do think that they would be much less segregated than they are today if left to their own devices. Just like they were 40 years ago. I think boys (especially before they hit puberty) would still prefer the company of boys to that of girls, and girls would enjoy the company of girls. They would still enjoy the opposite gender, and spend time with them. Way more than they do now.
Where we disagree is that I think misogyny has nothing to do with the segregation of the sexes, except in rare, isolated cases.
