Bullying is a man’s game right? Two guys get in a disagreement, throw a few punches, and they are best friends again. Seems so cut and dry. It’s all just a part of the dude way.
But every woman knows that women play a game too. It’s a game of hierarchy, rules, hidden meanings, passive aggressiveness, losing, and winning. Many guys have a hard time seeing it. Many times my husband and I will leave the same conversation, and I’ll ask, “Did you catch that?”. Inevitably he won’t have seen the hidden conversation that took place that was so evident to the females involved. Women have played their game with their own rules since little girls and barbies.
Little is being said about female aggression, but that doesn’t mean that it isn’t shaping each new generation of girls. As Christians, as women, we have a responsibility to understand, talk about, and minister healing through the Gospel to all women. We can’t do this if we don’t acknowledge and seek to understand our relational faults and the redemption possible through Jesus Christ.
“What Makes Mean Girls Tick” is an article The Daily Beast posted this week about female bullying. The article is about a revised version of the book Odd Girl Out by Rachel Simmons that addresses this topic.
As a woman, how have to seen or experienced female aggression/or bullying?
As a Christian woman, how should we address this issue in the Body of Christ?
Most importantly, how can we minister the Gospel to women in a way that bring healing, understanding, and healthy relationships?
awhitestoneblog
I think that for the last 40 years there has been an erosion of self discipline in the US. Women, particularly, are encouraged not to control their emotions and their impulsive behaviors. Just as a man cannot without guidance properly control his impulses, women need to be given clear messages by parents, teachers, schools, universities, workplaces, and society that, while all emotions are valid, not all emotions serve us well. Women constantly, for instance, compare themselves to other women. Men usually don’t have any idea of the extent to which this happens, nor the consequences that follow. This behavior goes unchecked these days because of political correctness and has increasingly eroded the family, the workplace, and the nation. When we don’t firmly teach these values to children we rob them of the self control they need to live a good and responsible life. Because of feminism, not only are boys not trained not to bully nor punished for doing so, but young women have been by default taught to act like boys because their potential for physical force is envied by women, many of whom have lost their ability to understand and use true feminine power.