There's a lot of negative rhetoric about girls that I remember hearing when I was growing up. Don't you remember it? From "You hit like a girl" to being restricted to different things for the sake of being "ladylike" — we heard it all. There were a lot of misogynist undertones to the things that I heard when I was growing up, but the thing is, this negative rhetoric about girls still exists years later.
We can't deny that there are hundreds of synonyms for the word (excuse my french) "slut" in our language alone. But the thing is that all the promiscuous name calling began with the word "Boy Crazy." It was our first idea of the "s-word", but classily put and said by, more than often, our mothers or teachers. The "Boy Crazy" girl in your class might have been the girl who kissed a boy on the playground once or fake-married too many dudes in one month. The "Boy Crazy" girl perhaps could have been the girl that actually had the nerve to talk to guys and like them, perhaps date them. The "Boy Crazy" girl might have been obsessed with too many celebrities or found too many passerby's attractive.
"Boy Crazy" was by no means a compliment. No — in fact, the opposite. Generally, you'd want to change your act if you were called it, or stay away from the girl who'd been named so. But the million dollar question is: Why do we still do this? Boys are seldom called "Girl Crazy" and receive the same feedback. So why do we hold the same standard and brand for young girls?
One thing that I know for sure is that this phrase quite a negative thing and I'm not sure of how good it's doing girls anyhow. The definition for crazy by the dictionary is "mentally deranged, especially as manifested in a wild or aggressive way." Why would we relate this to young girls who are attracted to the opposite sex? Do completely natural feelings adhere to being "wild" or "aggressive"? Why did we start shaming girls in order to raise them correctly or establish their morals? I firmly believe that putting young girls down will not easily mold them into standards. I believe that it simply hurts. Just as much as the "s-word" does.
Plain and simple, it's time to stop calling young girls "Boy Crazy." It's time to stop calling young girls "Boy Crazy" simply because there are so many better things to do. Lend your strength to the young girls of your life. Be a friend and a mentor to them. Lead girls into the right direction with advice and open discussion. Clean and simple, growing up with support instead of shame has ought the be the right way to be. So why not make it so?
