"Boys are Stronger than Girls"

 - Some Ignorant Grandmother I overheard last Sunday when I went swimming.


I... what? What the hell? Ok, firstly, that is sexist. If you're in dispute over this, let me list the other things she said.

"Because you're so much stronger than her."

"That's why boys should never hit girls."

"Because boys are always stronger."

I actually couldn't contain myself, at the time, I kept on murmuring "But that's not true." and "Sorry, but you're wrong." under my breath.

Firstly, that is sexist. It promotes a culture of men being more powerful than women, and women being subordinate as a result, because we do still equate physical strength to power on some level, and the damage this can do - especially as the children she was talking to were still at a formative age - is simply not worth the boorishness. Besides, I know plenty of women who could kick my ass, strength or no strength - and yes, some of them could do it because they're stronger than me, it's not just a technique thing (though for the record, I do know kung fu).

Secondly - and this is arguably the most objectively 'what the fuck, dude' statement she made - 'that's why boys should never hit girls'? Wait, so it's ok for a girl to hit a boy, but the boy can't hit back? No! Fuck that shit! If you're being attacked, you have the right to self defense! If somebody hits you, and looks like they're gonna keep doing so, you've got all the right in the world to use reasonable force in defense of your self, male or female. I mean, for God's sake, we already tell girls that if a boy is being mean to them, its because he likes them, can we not add this to the slush pile of screwed up gender shit, please? And on the topic of boys hitting girls because they like them - no. Just fucking no.

How dare you? How fucking dare you assume that any kind of abuse is indicative of affection? This is a large part of the reason that victims of abuse rarely speak out - they literally do not understand that they are in abusive relationships, because of shit like this! Even if he is hitting her because he likes her, that's not ok! That's not ok at all! Never, never tell your daughter - or your son - that they should put up with abuse, because that's not what they should be doing at all. And besides, I thought we operated on an 'assault is illegal' basis, here? Boys shouldn't hit girls, no. Of course not. But neither should girls hit boys. Ever. Nobody should be hitting anybody. Ok? Ok.

Now.

Let's get to the original point of this post, which may or not be clear by now after that catastrophic derailment of my initial argument.

What was it?

Oh yes.

Boys aren't stronger than girls.

Allow me to explain.

The male sex is more predisposed to muscle growth, yes. This is because of the increased presence of testosterone - almost literally a form of anabolic steroid - during puberty. This does mean, I'm afraid, that men tend towards higher amounts of muscle mass, and indeed they'll always tend towards higher muscle/fat mass ratios, because of their increased testosterone, and because women have - y'know - breasts.

However, we're talking about a young boy and a young girl here, right? Right.

Young boys will have no more - or perhaps, if approaching puberty, marginally more - testosterone than a girl the same age. As a result, it is unreasonable to expect the boy to have any significant amount more muscle than the girl. Indeed, their muscle/fat ratios will be similar too, as neither of them have begun puberty yet, and as a result, apart from their genitalia and reproductive tracts, which are functionally useless at this age anyway, their bodies really aren't that different at all.

And besides, there's actually nothing stopping a woman, even after puberty, from maintaining the same sorts of volumes of muscle mass - and hence strength - as a man. It would be somewhat more difficult, yes, as they are without the advantage of testosterone, but that is something of an impairment, and not at all a preventative.

For example; Samantha Wright.

This woman - although I'll admit I'm more inclined to call her a girl, or lady, because in all seriousness, without trying to detract from her badassitude at all, she's fucking adorable - could literally crush your skull between her thighs, and almost effortlessly break your arms just by grabbing them a little too quick in a fight.

You don't know this about me, but I wasn't joking about Kung Fu. I am trained in a martial art that has been, and is, more than capable of killing people very, very quickly.

And there's no way in hell that I would fight this woman. She's stronger than me, almost certainly faster than me, and probably heavier than me too. And apart from the almost 100% certainty that I'd be dead in a matter of seconds, she's cute too. Why would I ever want to fight her?

See? Fucking cute as hell.

Ok, so we have physical strength out of the way, but what about everything else?

Well, believe it or not, lads, men are actually at a legitimate disadvantage in most other areas - many of which would come into a straight fight.

For example, our hips are narrower - we aren't designed to give birth, after all. But this makes our centre of gravity much higher than a woman's, on average, which means we're genuinely all the easier to push over.

On top of that, our only potential edge, testosterone, is actually part of the reason we won't live as long. Oh yeah, you heard me right, lads, our bodies, as a result of being male, are in fact much more fragile. Evidence to support this?

Premature babies.

Seriously now, male premature babies have significantly worse statistics for survival than the female ones. I'm not joking. It's a serious issue, and, as far as I know, is actually inherent with the male sex, sadly. I know people who have had dangerously premature births in the family, and the doctors would frequently say, when it was female, 'you're lucky you have a daughter. A son would have been unlikely to survive this.'

It's science. Seriously.

And on top of this, as if we needed to be any weaker, boys have smaller pain tolerances.

Because labour, and childbirth? They fucking hurt, my friends. In fact, they hurt more than the human body should logically be able to withstand. Women literally undergo more pain than the human body should be able to take without giving up the ghost and flat up dying, whenever they decide to have a kid - assuming natural birth, that is.

And get this.

Periods?

That's the first stage of labour, induced to get rid of the uterine lining built up in case of ovum fertilisation... every fucking month.

And then you have society. Society is the main weakness we don't see more women doing proper weight training at the gym. It's the main reason we don't see more buff ladies - and also probably part of the reason men don't live as long, too, believe it or not.

Gender Roles, stereotyping, and inherent sexism, play a huge part in why 'girls are weaker' and 'boys are stronger', but also in why men are really weaker.

It's because we're told not to cry.

Men are told to bottle it all up and hold onto it and bury it deep inside them, because boys don't cry.

And then what?

Well, then they kill themselves.

Men have a 3 times higher suicide rate than women in most first world societies. In third world countries, it's even worse. Why?

Because of el machismo.

And this is why I'm not just a socialist, boyos, I'm a Feminist too. Call it what you like, honestly, I don't care. But I am a Feminist, and very, very proud of it.

Because this is a problem inherent with society - but in particular, the conservative, right wing elements of society, and I will give my life to whatever ways I can find to fight that.

For you, for me, and for all the people.

Thanks for having a read. 

~ Baxster Brand