That’s slightly sexist. I can attest that teenage boys can be very insecure too.
The full quotation is slightly more egalitarian:
he’s got the immaturity of an 8-year-old boy with the insecurity of a teenage girl
Kerry was trying pretty hard to get laughs when he sat with Maher. I always wonder if comedians are thinking to themselves in those situations, “amateurs!”
I’d say that the comedians writing team may well fed the guest a joke or two in general. The host wants ratings more than anything, boring, bad guests won’t get the eyeballs.
Saying teenage girls are insecure is not sexist.
Folks need to lighten up.
It’s kinda the definition of sexist: Take a characteristic of the whole group (teenagers) and attribute it only to the females in the group.
I think what people who don’t think it’s sexist mean by that is that they are white men.
That’s very ageist of you.
It certainly is sexist, teenage girls are somewhat more insecure than boys, but our culture is the main explanation for this fact, not sexual dimorphism:
It may be due to the reason that usually the parents indulge in the discrimination policy towards their female child. Girls’ success in any field is underestimated and that they are not given encouragement and recognition to achieve success in a particular field. Parents overprotect their daughters and this makes them dependent for the whole life. As result girls develop the feelings of insecurity.
I see nothing but benefits in challenging these preconceived ideas, even when they pop up in the form of a joke.
The study you cite only provides evidence that girls are more insecure then boys. The cultural explanation you quoted is mere speculation by the authors, it is not supported by their data.
It’s also worth pointing out that this study was performed in India, so results related to culture may not be generalizable to the US.
Finally, if you think Kerry’s joke is sexist, then why does it matter whether there is a cultural explanation for the association between sex and insecurity?
This is not about insecurity but it covers self-esteem, which is closely related to it. Here’s another author who thinks the differences are mostly explained by cultural issues so is this conclusion “not supported by their data” either? Perhaps you could point towards someone who thinks biological differences are the main culprit.
It matters because our anatomy will not change any time soon (saying that women are physically weaker than men is not sexism) but our culture, which still contains many forms of prejudice, can and should change.
http://www.actforyouth.net/resources/rf/rf_slfestm_0603.cfm
Studies in a wide range of western countries have determined that adolescent females, on average, have a lower sense of self-esteem than adolescent males (Baumeister, 1993; Pipher, 1994). For Americans, adolescence brings a dramatically increased emphasis on physical attractiveness for young women, many of whom feel they are lacking. Boys self-esteem can be affected by contradictory societal messages – on the one hand to appear to be strong and on the other to be emotionally expressive (Pollack, 1998).
Actually, I think that if there is a gender difference in self-esteem / insecurity, then it probably does have a predominant cultural component. But that’s just a hunch. Proving it is much harder. Your first paper didn’t attempt it, and neither does your latest link (in fact, it doesn’t present any data at all).
And of course I think that as a society we should try to rid ourselves of prejudice. But if you think Kerry’s statement was sexist, then you must think that he incorrectly generalized about women. Yet both the articles you’ve linked support what he said, and suggest that teenage girls really do have less self-esteem than boys.
That statement is also sexist, not all 8-year old boy are immature. But I think it was funny (which is pretty rare for John Kerry) but also very apt description of Trump. Overall, Kerry did something comendable on the comedy political circuit, he actually educate folks about the achievement of American foreign policy.
I mean, comedy plays on stereotypes. All the time. When it’s not a gender stereotype, it’s some other social stereotype.
And sexism aside, I suspect that Kerry is intentionally trolling the POTUS. Especially with the reference to teenage girls. Because the angrier Trump gets, the more he tweets, and the better Democrats do in the polls.
Yeah it’s all a bridge too far for me.
I was thinking it. You said it. Thanks.
Let’s not forget Trolling Trump is fun. Hell I wish I was important or good enough troll that he’d read my tweets to him. I reply about once a month
What was the original observation?
That Trump is immature and insecure. Kerry wasn’t exactly going out on a limb with that one…
Why didn’t Kerry choose teenage boys for his metaphor?