The Second Sex

This morning we were speaking about gender roles in my conversation class. One of the advanced students was making a point about the unequal treatment of men and women in Vietnam. As he began describing how boys are often put on a pedestal by their fathers, I heard the string of words "are more intelligent than girls" come out of his mouth. Say wha? Yes, it was true... He actually said the words and then continued to defend the point that men are, in fact, more intelligent than women. Absolutely stunned and appalled, I began to tear apart his argument only to find that it was not only he but ALL the boys in this class who not only believed what they were saying but really didn't understand how women could be more intelligent than them. I asked for examples. "Girls cry when they're faced with a challenge," they said. I asked them why women are the chosen sex to rear children. "They aren't as intelligent as men so men need to earn the money," they said. When I asked why, at the advanced level of ELS, there were more girls than boys in the class they looked stumped but maintained their stubborn argument by saying "I don't know, it just happens that their are more girls."

Of course, the girls' argument that men are women are of equal importance was the more intelligent of the two ;) ;)