Ellen Goodman, "Girls will be Girls

Ellen Goodman, “Girls will be girls”

In Girls will be girls, written May 25th 2002, Ellen Goodman uses the term “really mean girls” to describe  girls who like to go about spreading hurtful lies, nasty gossips and conversation which in turn could ruin or hurt someone’s reputation.
Goodman a Pulitzer Prize winner, an author, an essayist and television commentator is known for her past work experiences in countless newspapers through-out the USA included Newsweek, Detroit Free Press and Boston Globe. Goodman tries to persuade and show her readers that bullying isn’t only the forte of boys, but that there are also RMG’s -really mean girls who are bullies.

Goodman begins her piece with a dry, humorous, sarcastic remark from the popular TV series Ally McBeal. “In with Zeitgeist, and out with Zeitgeist, without even gaining an ounce.” She quotes and refers to the last episode from the series because there was an example of female bullying.
She praises Ally McBeal’s character in this episode depicted as a selfless mother to her onscreen daughter who gave up her job, her friends and her apartment to save her daughter Maddie from classmates who tormented her. They were called the RMG‘s, really mean girls (Goodman). Goodman says the episode is centred around “really mean girls” which she says had become one of the latest media mania - popular and much talked about.
The tone of Goodman’s work was one of concern for the general public as she feared a possible backlash from the episode. According to Goodman people had shown anxiety over followers who could imitate the RMG’s, becoming Alpha females, queen bees, girl bullies on “relational aggression”.(Goodman)

During Goodman’s collaboration with  author Patricia O’Brien on I know just what you mean, she pointed out that all females know about girls bullying and what grade it begins. She shows some analogies between boys and girls and says that cliques are to girls as bullies are to boys.
She argues that females are not coy innocent victims who lose their voices at adolescence instead their voices turn to whispers campaigns. In other words, while boys use their fists girls’ weapons are their mouths. (Goodman) It shows the way of bullying for boys is different for girls but the end result is same- bullying.
Goodman had an angry tone when writing about Rachel Simmons, author of Odd Girl Out and the statement she made to Oprah that being shunned was “meaner” than getting hit. She referred to the Columbine killings and asked, “wasn‘t Columbine worse than a cruel instant message?”(Simmons).
Goodman also quotes Marie Wilson- president of the Ms. Foundation who theorized that the way boys are masculinized and the way girls are feminized turns some of them into bullies(Goodman).

Goodman’s piece ended with Carol Gilligan, a psychologist who worked with girls and observed boys. In her new book, The Birth Of Pleasure, she wrote that while boys begin their initiation from age five, girls also experience a similar initiation into womanhood during adolescence. Gilligan disagreed that the mean girls media mania was inevitable. She believed that the ‘inevitable’ lies with the parents upbringing in their children and allowing the boys to be boys and girls to be girls.

I have to agree with Carol Gilligan that the inevitable lies with the parents whose duties are to raise their children with values and integrity, thus making it clear that there is no integrity in being a bully. Whether Ally McBeal’s episode of, “really mean girl” caused more harm than good by triggering imitation acts of female bullying, is debatable. However, the episode brings awareness to the important issue of female bullying and the lesson that one should not condone it but instead, stand up speak out. After all, it could be any one of our families being bullied.