I Blame Society

I was in a movie theatre recently and saw this PSA about girls dropping out of sports:



They make it pretty clear who's to blame. "Society bombards them" with messages about their looks, which makes them drop out.  So there you have it.

Maybe it's true.  But wasn't it common for a long time (i.e., forever) in many places (i.e., everywhere) for girls to be tomboys until they matured and started changing their interests? Perhaps it was always society forcing them into their gender roles, but this is not a new phenomenon.  In fact, I'd guess today's girls stay in sports in larger numbers than ever.

It would be cool if we could do some experiments to tease out the nature versus nurture aspect.  In one state we won't let anyone see any ads or movies or TV shows and see what happens.  In another, we'll have ads that say girls should be sports heroes and boys should worry about their looks.  In another maybe we'll have commercials telling boys to try out for ballet while girls should try out for football.  In another only girls can buy Sports Illustrated while only boys can buy Vogue.  In another only girls get sports funding while boys can only be cheerleaders.  I'd be interested to see the results.