The Myth of Girls' Emotional Intelligence Part 2

First, I apologize for my absence.  I know there are only few of you that regularly check in (and I hope to change that, so please, follow me and comment!), but I have had a lengthy absence due to craziness at home.  In addition, I am about 4 and 1/2 months pregnant, so there are some days I just crash.

Now on to the Myth of Girls' Emotional Intelligence.  I have been in education for 12 years now and sometimes, someone will write something, say something, or present something that gives me the clarity I have been searching for - even if I didn't know I was looking.  One portion of this chapter did that for me. The discussion about girls and how they have no empathy.  The comments where girls basically said, I am who I am and if you can't deal with it, tough s@#$!  The part where - it is your problem, not mine.

Some of it resonated with me.  I remember thinking as a girl and young woman that showing emotion was bad.  I wanted to be tough, and be one of the guys. However, it meant masking my vulnerability.  I like to think I made it through okay, but that was because I grew up in a stable environment with many advantages. These girls that are told to be tough, be strong, go kick some butt; however, they don't know how to do it without sacrificing themselves and how they really feel.

Girls sacrifice expressing themselves - or learning to express themselves appropriately when they are playing the role of tough girl.  If you are tough and don't care, then you don't have to express yourself and you get no practice at how it should be done without being self-destructive. The comments made by school counselors really hit the nail on the head.  I have seen this with girls that age.  What have you seen?