This article annoys me for a variety of reasons. Check it out. I’ll wait.
I’m not denying that female only (or male only) space can be a good thing in certain contexts, but this suggestion that we’d all be better off if we go back to gender segregated education is just plain wrong.
For starters, there’s the underlying heterocentric pretense that completely negates the experiences of gay and lesbian students. A gender segregated school system would increase the possibility of sexual and romantic distraction for them, rather than eliminating it as the author suggests.
Second, it puts even more unfair pressure on young transgendered people, who have enough battles to fight on a daily basis and don’t need yet another opportunity be catastrophically misgendered.
Then, here we go again with the pervasive idea that all men are slavering rape monkeys who just can’t be trusted. And according to this article, the answer isn’t to teach our sons not to rape people, it’s to send our daughters to what the author apparently imagines would be a peaceful, penis-free utopia where nothing bad, scary or mean will ever happen to them.
Which brings me to the last and most deeply personal reason why this pissed me off. Because I was never date-raped or sexually harassed in school, but I was relentlessly physically and psychologically tortured by other students. Female students. So you’ll forgive me if I find the idea of being sent to an all girl school to be less than fucking idyllic.
Instead of sending your daughter to Barbie’s Malibu Dream School, how about teaching her to handle herself in the real world, where there are male people, good, bad and indifferent. Where things aren’t always going to be easy and she will need to be strong and focused and confident enough to handle whatever comes her way. Where not everyone she meets will fit into the standard pink and blue cliché of what “girls” and “boys” are supposed to be.
But that would require actual parenting.