As girls complain about the social implications of living in a gender-segregated school, they seem to ignore their role in this process.
With indictments of “bro culture,” which is simply a more loaded term for male camaraderie, the senior girls who feel as if this is an issue ignore what I believe to be the most significant cause of social distancing on campus. As underclassmen girls date upperclassmen guys, it makes sense that the boys in those girls’ grades are fed up with those girls by the time they regain interest in their fellow classmates after all the former upperclassmen graduate.
This tension is why a group of senior girls began their investigation into “gender issues.” Yet, as girls and guys lead different lives leading up to their respective senior years, it is unreasonable to believe that they will quickly become friends again in October. Boys who have been passed over by their girl classmates who strive for upperclassmen’s attention will not necessarily warm up to these same classmates upon their return for senior year.
Adding to these problems, girls and guys rarely interact outside of the classroom and meals. The vast majority of sports are played on single-sex teams and girls and guys live on single sex halls. The net effect of this is that boys increasingly become attached to the boys they interact with throughout out their school careers, and girls do the same.
This is unavoidable at a school in which students spend the vast majority of their time only with members of their sex. Only after we as a community accept these two facts will any movement on Gender Issues have traction.