Intelligenti i maschi, carine le femmine

Chi pensa che ormai i genitori non abbiano più atteggiamenti che favoriscano i figli maschi a scapito della femmine potrebbe ricredersi leggendo l’articolo di Michael Gonchar sul New York Times del 22 gennaio scorso (“Do Parents Have Different Hopes and Standards for Their Sons Than for Their Daughters?”). Da una ricerca effettuata analizzando le ricerche effettuate su Google risulta, infatti, che gli aggettivi che più di frequente si accompagnano a “figlio” e a “figlia” siano, rispettivamente, “brillante” (smart) e “magra” (skinny). In altre parole, le aspettative più positive sono quelle che i genitori americani continuano a nutrire nei confronti dei maschi, malgrado dai dati risulti che nelle prestazioni scolastiche le femmine abbiano acquisito un buon vantaggio. Credo che nessuno si illuda che un simile atteggiamento sia proprio solo dei genitori americani.


http://minimaeducationis.wordpress.com/2014/01/26/intelligenti-i-maschi-carine-le-femmine/?relatedposts_exclude=363

 
Riportiamo il contenuto dell'articolo citato:

Do Parents Have Different Hopes and Standards for Their Sons Than for Their Daughters? By MICHAEL GONCHAR                  

Parents want all their children, whether they are boys or girls, to be happy and successful. Yet a recent study of Internet search data suggests that American parents do in fact hold different expectations for their children based on sex. For one, they want their boys to be smarter and their girls skinnier. What is your experience? Do mothers and fathers have different hopes and standards for their sons than for their daughters? In the Opinion article “Google, Tell Me. Is My Son a Genius?,” Seth Stephens-Davidowitz writes: More than a decade into the 21st century, we would like to think that American parents have similar standards and similar dreams for their sons and daughters. But my study of anonymous, aggregate data from Google searches suggests that contemporary American parents are far more likely to want their boys smart and their girls skinny. It’s not that parents don’t want their daughters to be bright or their sons to be in shape, but they are much more focused on the braininess of their sons and the waistlines of their daughters. Start with intelligence. It’s hardly surprising that parents of young children are often excited at the thought that their child may be gifted. In fact, of all Google searches starting “Is my 2-year-old,” the most common next word is “gifted.” But this question is not asked equally about young boys and young girls. Parents are two and a half times more likely to ask “Is my son gifted?” than “Is my daughter gifted?” Parents show a similar bias when using other phrases related to intelligence that they may shy away from saying aloud, like, “Is my son a genius?” Are parents picking up on legitimate differences between young girls and boys? Perhaps young boys are more likely than young girls to use big words or otherwise show objective signs of giftedness? Nope. If anything, it’s the opposite. At young ages, when parents most often search about possible giftedness, girls have consistently been shown to have larger vocabularies and use more complex sentences. In American schools, girls are 11 percent more likely than boys to be in gifted programs. Despite all this, parents looking around the dinner table appear to see more gifted boys than girls. What are your thoughts on this? - See more at: http://www.blog.thebrainandlearning.com/?p=594#sthash.M7elGa1e.dpuf