When it comes to girls being mean to other girls, almost every woman and girl has a story to tell — which is why Rachel Simmons now travels across the United States speaking to girls, parents, and teachers about female aggression. On Thursday, February 16, at 7 p.m. she stops at the College of New Jersey.##M:[more]##
As a child, Rachel Simmons admits that she bullied others and was bullied herself. “I stood in half-lit empty hallways, a stairwell, the parking lot. In all of these places I remember standing alone. I cried to my mother while she cooked. The sorrow was overwhelming, and I was sure I was the only girl ever to know it.”
But she wasn’t alone, as she discovered, during a midnight snack and chat session in college (Vassar, Class of 1996) when she discovered other girls who had been bullied by the very same girl who had bullied her. Later, as a Rhodes Scholar in England, she went to the library in search of information about girl bullying and found very little had been written on the subject. She sent out an E-mail to everyone she knew in the United States asking them if they had ever had any such experiences and to share them. She asked each of her recipients to forward the message to their women friends.
Simmons had no idea of what she had triggered. Within 24 hours, she was inundated with an outpouring of stories from women of every age and background about experiences that had happened years ago where the pain was as fresh today as it was then. The floodgates were open.
Simmons, who is unmarried and lives in Brooklyn, embarked upon a journey in pursuit of understanding why and how girls could be so devastatingly mean to each other. Her mission was to interview girls between the ages of 10 and 14, the years when bullying peaks. She visited girls in public schools and privates schools all across the country, covering the spectrum of socioeconomics, mining stories about the heartaches and hurts inflicted upon them not by the opposite sex but by their own.
The result is the New York Times bestseller, “Odd Girl Out,” considered the seminal volume on girl-on-girl cruelty, the kind most often carried by campaigns of psychological aggression. In her book, Simmons presents an expose and instruction manual for treating girls’ aggression. Unlike the physical aggression typically carried out by boys with their fists, the aggression carried out by girls is usually quieter, more subtle, often conducted underneath the radar of parents and school authorities. Ultimately it can be more destructive and have longer-term consequences.
Simmons contends that girl-on-girl bullying could be avoided if girls were encouraged to acknowledge their aggression. “There’s more social permission for boys to be physically aggressive and punished less often for that kind of behavior than for girls. The difference is subtle. It’s not that aggression is encouraged or rewarded in boys; they are just not punished for it in the same way girls are. Consequently, the sum of those messages allows boys to channel aggression in ways to which girls have no access. There is no evidence that boys feel more aggressive. But they show it more.”
Simmons believes that girls need to be shown the proper channels for expressing their feelings more openly, to empower them to negotiate conflicts and to define relationships in different, healthier ways.
“I remember never understanding why when girls were mad they didn’t talk. I always felt perplexed and hurt by their silence. Girls grow up in a world that tells them to be nice all the time. They’re not taught how to express themselves and so they don’t have the skills to navigate conflict. They will shut down because they’re afraid of having the conversation and showing the anger. They think I don’t want to say the wrong thing, what if it comes out wrong, I’m mad at her. Some of them grow up in homes where they see that when their mothers are angry they clam up. So they model behavior where they’re shutting people out.” Simmons believes that conflict-free relationships don’t exist. “Instead of thinking that conflict ends relationships, girls can learn that they can’t survive without it and should not let fear control them,” she says.
Simmons grew up in Rockville, Maryland, where her father is a member of the Maryland General Assembly and an attorney and her mother is a retired teacher who taught Jewish history in high school. She has one younger brother. Growing up, Simmons says, she was always surrounded by a strong circle of girlfriends and still had her own experiences with bullying. “Bullying is a result of not how many girls there are but what kind of girls there are. “If the school is not focused on ethical behavior and is a classic prep school, the bullying there is more likely to go unregulated.”
Simmons, who is now working on another book on how to increase emotional intelligence in girls, says she wants girls “to know that not everyone is going to like you and that’s okay because you will find someone who does like you. It’s pretty exhausting to try to please everybody.”
Here are some of her tips for parents hoping to raise a girl who will be less likely to carry out acts of psychological aggression:
Let them make mistakes. “You need to create a space for your daughter to make mistakes and to learn from them. Let your daughter feel comfortable with screwing up.”
Let her know she doesn’t have to be perfect. “Help your daughter be able to say she’s sorry and admit her limitations as opposed to trying to be a perfect girl all the time. If she makes a mistake and apologizes in a sincere way, reward that.”
Be a good model. “A parent should model personal responsibility. Act in a way she can observe and see as a good pattern to follow.”
Foster empathy. “Consistently promote empathy in your child by asking questions such as, ‘How do you think it makes so-and-so feel to have this happen to her?’ Being able to feel empathy is the precursor to not committing these aggressive acts. Teach her how to feel as much as possible how other children feel and learn to sympathize with the underdog.”
Curb computer time. “Limit the amount of time you allow your kids to spend online. The IM shouldn’t be on constantly like a radio. Limit their access just as you would do with television. Too much time online leads to trouble.”
Take these issues seriously. “Make sure you have consequences for acts of aggression that you witness. Your children should know that you take psychological aggression seriously.”
Odd Girl Out, author Rachel Simmons, College of New Jersey music building, Thursday, February 16, 7 p.m. To be put on a waiting list for seats call 609-737-6379. Co-sponsored by the Mercer County Technical Schools and the College of New Jersey.
