Right. I was especially struck by how Peterson jumped from suicide rate among young teenage girls right to "technology-induced political polarization." I mean, you and I and Peterson and Haidt and everyone else who is old enough to remember the good old days of Sam Donaldson, George Will and Cokie Roberts engaged in civil debate on This Week with David Brinkley, realizes that there has been a significant change in this realm, but...IlliniDave wrote:Are you referring to Peterson offering the ideas of intersectionality theory and patriarchy theory (along with technology-induced political polarization and 2-3 others that went unnamed) for Haidt and his co-author to comment on?
OTOH, I can't think of a sub-section of society less interested in politics than young teenage girls. They are mostly interested in Korean pop music and what Cardi B wore to some red carpet event last night. I mentioned the obesity epidemic, because the most negative thing I have heard come out of the mouth of a 12 year old girl recently was a very overweight girl describing herself as a "cow."
After seeing what many of them look at on Instagram these days, I immediately had the thought that many of them must feel as oppressed by their inability to fulfill the new style which requires relatively very large butt as I felt by the no-butt-at-all style popularized by my peer Brooke Shields when I was that age. But, at least I had a couple sisters with whom I could put myself through the torture of the "Adrien Arpel's 3-Week Crash Makeover/Shapeover Beauty Program" or riding on an exercise bike wearing sweatsuit constructed from Hefty bags while listening to Queen's "Fat Bottomed Girls." Now that we are all middle-aged women we laugh until we cry remembering going through this phase, but we also laugh remembering our more simplistically politicized college days, for instance the time my sisters and my other bridemaids thought it would be a good idea to attend a Take Back the Night Rally for my bachelorette party, the theme of that particular rally being Lesbian on Lesbian violence I would further note that the bridesmaid most in favor of that plan is now a very successful investment banker in NYC, married mother of 2, and an obsessive knitter, and I have still never seen a male stripper show
My point being that when young women are feeling riled up about the "patriarchy", the emotional landscape they are inhabiting is almost the opposite of suicidal or anxious. They feel angry (granted perhaps irrational so) and energized. Although not entirely unrelated, what really often brings young women down is the extent to which they always have to be in their bodies while they are simultaneously attempting to succeed in other fields. I think it is wrong to blame individual men, even those who are blatantly offensive, for this, because this double-standard, as well as others, is often most vehemently enforced by other women. That is why a young woman needs a girl crew, a set of "sisters", she can count on to overcome this.
Of course, that is not to say that a good-enough father who clearly communicates that he values his daughter for qualities such as her intelligence, kindness, and good sportsmanship (even if she rarely catches a ball) , as well as her "pretty" is not an equally valuable social asset.