Mike
Well-known member
(CBS) CHICAGO They graduated from pushing and shoving and name-calling to straight up duking it out. Now a furious debate is on over the reasons girls are fighting and how we can stop it.
As CBS 2's Diann Burns reports, the urgency is underscored by the millions of references and thousands of videos of violent fights on the Internet.
The beatings are punishing – fists flying, hair pulling and kicking. This is how more and more girls these days handle disputes.
"Me or my friend bumped into a girl in the lunch line and I didn't say sorry," said Amber Taylor-Hart, a high school senior. "She came at me. We started fighting."
"If you just look at them a certain way, they'll try to fight you," said high school sophomore Shaina Singleton.
"They hit me, they kicked me and one of them pulled my hair," said high school freshman Danielle Sawyer.
"If you hit the girl first and win the fight, then you're popular," said Vanessa Yanes, a high school sophomore. "Everybody wants to be your friend because you can fight."
These girls have taken a cue from the headlines accused of glamorizing, even validating, risky behavior and violence from Girls Gone Wild to the rich and famous.
Catfights are some of the biggest draws on television, in the tabloids and in the movies. Critics argue all that has a heavy influence on girls.
A report, "Girl Violence and Aggression," found that between 1980 and 2003 the rate for girls arrested for simple assault increased 269 percent, nationwide.
And, the number of girl fights increased last year in Chicago Public Schools alone by 31 percent.
Videos of girl fights are all over the Internet. In this generation girl power can be a punch out and a vicious mob attack. What is behind the rage?
"I get really pushed over the edge. I can't have nobody mess with me," Yanes said.
"It's escalating. It's more violent and it seems more deliberate," said Edith Crigler.
Crigler works with girls through the Chicago Area Project, an agency that addresses juvenile delinquency.
"When you sit down and talk to them and ask them why they did it they say they don't know," Crigler said. "Little girls are angry, angry for lots of reason. Sometimes their home environment, sometimes because they don't have what somebody else has."
"Some don't have parents who really teach them how to manage aggression," said author James Garbarino.
Garbarino wrote "See Jane Hit," a look into girls fighting and some solutions to the problem.
"Girls used to get the message that 'girls don't hit, period,' Garbarino said. "And boys were told 'boys do hit.' It's just a matter of learning when to hit, who to hit, why to hit."
"It's usually about someone talking about them or their personal life or spreading rumors and most of the time sadly its about boys," said Bianca Torres, a high school senior.
And boys are right there in the videos, ringside, egging the girls on.
"Because a lot of girls when they get into it they start pulling on their shirts," Yanes said.
That, she says, is why boys like watching the fights. The girls become cheap entertainment, demeaning themselves and may not even realize they are doing it.
"At the time we thought it was pretty funny," Torres said.
Bianca actually fed into the madness. The aspiring filmmaker happened on two of her friends fighting, and posted the video on the Internet.
Video of suburban girls engaged in a violent hazing ritual showed up on the Internet, and cheerleaders in Texas posed for sexually explicit pictures for kicks.
"Anything that cheapens life, so shallow cheap, materialist culture that undermines the spiritual development of kids, those are all toxic influences," Garbarino said.
Taylor-Hart and the others have figured it out.
"If you can't fix stuff with words then just go your separate ways. Live your own life. You don't need to physical fight, because it really proves nothing," she said.
Consider the key factors raised here: children need parenting and to be protected from the distorted lesson of abuse: that people can express love that way.
Society must help girls embrace the value of their bodies and minds.
(© MMVII, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights R
As CBS 2's Diann Burns reports, the urgency is underscored by the millions of references and thousands of videos of violent fights on the Internet.
The beatings are punishing – fists flying, hair pulling and kicking. This is how more and more girls these days handle disputes.
"Me or my friend bumped into a girl in the lunch line and I didn't say sorry," said Amber Taylor-Hart, a high school senior. "She came at me. We started fighting."
"If you just look at them a certain way, they'll try to fight you," said high school sophomore Shaina Singleton.
"They hit me, they kicked me and one of them pulled my hair," said high school freshman Danielle Sawyer.
"If you hit the girl first and win the fight, then you're popular," said Vanessa Yanes, a high school sophomore. "Everybody wants to be your friend because you can fight."
These girls have taken a cue from the headlines accused of glamorizing, even validating, risky behavior and violence from Girls Gone Wild to the rich and famous.
Catfights are some of the biggest draws on television, in the tabloids and in the movies. Critics argue all that has a heavy influence on girls.
A report, "Girl Violence and Aggression," found that between 1980 and 2003 the rate for girls arrested for simple assault increased 269 percent, nationwide.
And, the number of girl fights increased last year in Chicago Public Schools alone by 31 percent.
Videos of girl fights are all over the Internet. In this generation girl power can be a punch out and a vicious mob attack. What is behind the rage?
"I get really pushed over the edge. I can't have nobody mess with me," Yanes said.
"It's escalating. It's more violent and it seems more deliberate," said Edith Crigler.
Crigler works with girls through the Chicago Area Project, an agency that addresses juvenile delinquency.
"When you sit down and talk to them and ask them why they did it they say they don't know," Crigler said. "Little girls are angry, angry for lots of reason. Sometimes their home environment, sometimes because they don't have what somebody else has."
"Some don't have parents who really teach them how to manage aggression," said author James Garbarino.
Garbarino wrote "See Jane Hit," a look into girls fighting and some solutions to the problem.
"Girls used to get the message that 'girls don't hit, period,' Garbarino said. "And boys were told 'boys do hit.' It's just a matter of learning when to hit, who to hit, why to hit."
"It's usually about someone talking about them or their personal life or spreading rumors and most of the time sadly its about boys," said Bianca Torres, a high school senior.
And boys are right there in the videos, ringside, egging the girls on.
"Because a lot of girls when they get into it they start pulling on their shirts," Yanes said.
That, she says, is why boys like watching the fights. The girls become cheap entertainment, demeaning themselves and may not even realize they are doing it.
"At the time we thought it was pretty funny," Torres said.
Bianca actually fed into the madness. The aspiring filmmaker happened on two of her friends fighting, and posted the video on the Internet.
Video of suburban girls engaged in a violent hazing ritual showed up on the Internet, and cheerleaders in Texas posed for sexually explicit pictures for kicks.
"Anything that cheapens life, so shallow cheap, materialist culture that undermines the spiritual development of kids, those are all toxic influences," Garbarino said.
Taylor-Hart and the others have figured it out.
"If you can't fix stuff with words then just go your separate ways. Live your own life. You don't need to physical fight, because it really proves nothing," she said.
Consider the key factors raised here: children need parenting and to be protected from the distorted lesson of abuse: that people can express love that way.
Society must help girls embrace the value of their bodies and minds.
(© MMVII, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights R