You Googled Me?:  “Ari Fleischer married”

Dang, how the h*ll did you get to me about this? 

See this article at USAToday – it’s a transcript of Dubya’s press conference from 07 NOV 02, wherein Dubya mentions Ari’s nuptials.  Yup, appears Ari got married this weekend – don’t ask me for veracity, you’d have to either question Dubya or check with the appropriate county clerk’s office.  That’s it, in a nutshell.

Still surprised you ended up in this blog, though, looking for this kind of information…Mr. Fleischer is not one of my favorite people.  He’s either too literally Dubya’s mouthpiece, or he’s shot off his own mouth too many times.  Hard to tell – but it seems like someone in Fleischer’s position shouldn’t be needing to apologize or clarify statements as much as he has.

6:42:11 PM    comment []

RantsCounterRants:  Sexual Harrassment begins early

My daughter was in first grade only a month when she told me one boy in her class grabbed her bottom.  I was puzzled, asked for more details; I couldn’t tell if this was an accident, if the boy actually intended to grab her bottom, or what.  I didn’t want to make a mountain out of a molehill.  I told her to let me know if it happened again and if she was upset when it happened to tell her teacher immediately.  My daughter was also coached to yell “STOP” at the offender when it happened, to get his attention and the teacher’s attention – she should tell him right away that she did not want to be touched on her bottom (or wherever she felt she didn’t want him to touch).

It happened again, twice more within the month – and he told her she had a nice bottom when he grabbed her the last time.  She told the teacher each time.  I had a conference with the teacher and explained that I was very concerned and that my daughter was getting nervous being near him.  The teacher explained that she’d had several conversations with the student and would talk with his parents.

We’ve not had any further problems with this student, but I don’t know that he’s not doing it to another classmate or elsewhere, or that he won’t do it again at a later age.  It seems incredibly absurd that a first grader, a tiny little girl six years of age, should have to deal with this already.  But there it is, it happens, happened to my daughter in a suburban public school, in a gifted program.  It probably happens all over town, private or public schools, every age and classroom.

This recent article highlighting work by University of Illinois professors Philip Rodkin and Karla Fischer only confirms my fears, that this situation isn’t isolated to the teen years, and that my daughter might be subjected to further harassment any time in the near future.  An excerpt from this article:

“Rodkin and Fischer begin their article by citing a 2001 report, "Hostile Hallways: Bullying, Teasing, and Sexual Harassment in School," published by the American Association of University Women. In it, four out of five eighth- through 11th-graders said they had experienced some form of sexual harassment in their school lives, and many before sixth grade.”

The prevalence and nature of sexual harassment impacts girls seriously, keeping them from feeling like full members of society.  Girls tend to do poorly in certain fields of study once they reach their teen years, in part because of their heightened feelings of inadequacy due to social pressures – including sexual harassment.  While schools have done an enormous job of improving parity in education between girls and boys, there’s still room for improvement when it comes to social equity and justice.

Is what we’re seeing an expansion of sexual harassment to lower grades, or has this always existed?  Is the cause the saturation of sexual material in media and entertainment, or is the cause maladjustment at home?  Is this a self-esteem issue for boys, do they need to see themselves in a controlling mode through harassment to overcome poor self-esteem?  There are so many questions needing answers and so many children at risk, male and female.

I hope the boy who harassed my daughter received the help and guidance he needed; perish the thought that he’s harboring less than equitable thoughts about girls and women, seeing them as potential targets for future subjugation.  What of the other boys in this school system and across the country?

I can’t help but wonder what else American culture is doing to our daughters, encouraging them to be overly sexual at earlier and earlier ages, and whether as a society we’re conditioning them to expect and tolerate sexual harassment as an outcome.  Time magazine’s recent photoessay on the subject of Girl Culture makes me wonder.  Once you’ve viewed Time’s photoessay, let me know what you think – the photo of the five year-old shopping and the photo of the 13 year-olds ready to go to a dance concerned me.  Do you see the same things?

6:23:42 PM    comment []