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What does "girls mature faster than boys" mean?

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RadiationTherapy Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed May-20-09 01:57 PM
Original message
What does "girls mature faster than boys" mean?
Edited on Wed May-20-09 01:58 PM by RadiationTherapy
Is it possibly true? Is it relevant? Is it merely an unprovable statement that exists as a backlash towards a patriarchical society?

Is it some tool of the patriarchy used to get girls and young women to take on more responsibility than their similarly aged male counterparts?

Is it an excuse propagated by men and boys to relieve them of the responsibility of the consequences of their actions?

It seems as ridiculous a notion as "IQ" since there are so many ways a person can express maturity/immaturity.

Anecdotal stories and/or peer-reviewed articles are welcome.
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Pierre.Suave Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed May-20-09 01:59 PM
Response to Original message
1. ...
I will get the popcorn ready...

:popcorn:
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HarukaTheTrophyWife Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed May-20-09 02:00 PM
Response to Original message
2. I < 3 call outs
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RadiationTherapy Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed May-20-09 02:01 PM
Response to Reply #2
4. It is barely a call out, but was inspired by your comments in the 18/29 thread.
Should I have waited to ask this?
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Name removed Donating Member (0 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed May-20-09 02:05 PM
Response to Reply #2
6. Deleted message
Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.
 
Inchworm Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed May-20-09 02:00 PM
Response to Original message
3. It just is kinda like a fact
As facts go...

When the males used to go all crazy in the woods hunting or causing wars, females often stayed back and acted grown up :D

:hi:
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datasuspect Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed May-20-09 02:04 PM
Response to Original message
5. it's sexist
it's like saying women are better off staying at home barefoot and pregnant.'

really asinine.
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Deep13 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed May-20-09 02:41 PM
Response to Reply #5
8. Well, maturity is a physical condition...
...whereas your example is a value judgment. If it is true that girls mature at an earier age than boys, then sexist or not, it is still true.
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datasuspect Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed May-20-09 02:45 PM
Response to Reply #8
11. there is physical and emotional maturity
and you cannot even make generalized statements about physical maturity. some boys look like men by the time they are 14.

making broad-brush, generalized statements that stereotype about the emotional maturity of either gender is sexist.
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RadiationTherapy Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed May-20-09 02:47 PM
Response to Reply #11
12. I think it is sexist, but I am also curious about the potential truth of the OP cliche
as well as the motivation behind spreading this rumor.
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Deep13 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed May-20-09 03:07 PM
Response to Reply #12
17. It's more conventional wisdom than rumor.
A lot of people, perhaps even most, assume it is true.
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RadiationTherapy Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed May-20-09 03:16 PM
Response to Reply #17
25. Redqueen posted an interesting article below.
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Deep13 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed May-20-09 03:05 PM
Response to Reply #11
16. Well, we're talking in generalities here.
I don't think the OP was suggesting that this is necessarily so without exception. And if females reach a level of emotional maturity before males--and frankly, it seems to be the case--then it is true regardless of its implications.
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RetroLounge Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed May-20-09 02:06 PM
Response to Original message
7. tool of the patriarchy?
like you care...

:rofl:

RL
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RadiationTherapy Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed May-20-09 02:41 PM
Response to Reply #7
9. I do care. Would you like to discuss this further?
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HiFructosePronSyrup Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed May-20-09 02:44 PM
Response to Original message
10. It means girls get their periods before boys do.
Say what you want about anecdotal evidence, I didn't get my first period until I was 35.
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Critters2 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed May-20-09 06:57 PM
Response to Reply #10
40. !
:spray:
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nomorenomore08 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed May-20-09 11:29 PM
Response to Reply #10
42. Um... when a guy gets his "period," that's called a hemorrhage...
:evilgrin:
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redqueen Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed May-20-09 02:49 PM
Response to Original message
13. It's scientifically demonstrated fact.that the sexes mature at different rates....
at different points.

Females have more connections between the judgment and impluse centers of the brain at adolescence... but males have a more advanced amygdala at that age.
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RadiationTherapy Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed May-20-09 02:52 PM
Response to Reply #13
14. I should've just PM'd you! Thank you for this very cool piece of info.
I am taking your word on it, but it is more specific than any other answer I have found. Thanks.
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redqueen Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed May-20-09 03:01 PM
Response to Reply #14
15. I went digging around for proof
got sidetracked but I did find this interesting article from 2006.

Probably lots of updates / revisions since then, but still interesting.

http://abcnews.go.com/2020/Story?id=2504460&page=1
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RadiationTherapy Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed May-20-09 03:13 PM
Response to Reply #15
22. That is an awesome, awesome article. Oh, the flamewars that could be brought forth!
I may do a series of threads with the subject being a sentence from this article. So much interesting potential.

Subjects like:

women use 20,000 words a day, while men use only 7,000.

Girls, she explained, mature faster than boys, and girls' brains are as much as two years ahead during puberty.

It may not be until late adolescence or their early 20s that boys' brains catch up to their girl peers.

Teen girls, she explained, physically receive pleasure through the simple act of gossiping.




I find there is a lot of resistance to people being "hardwired" in certain ways.
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rug Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed May-20-09 03:10 PM
Response to Reply #13
18. I started playing with my amygdala at 13.
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redqueen Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed May-20-09 03:11 PM
Response to Reply #18
19. Late bloomer?
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datasuspect Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed May-20-09 03:12 PM
Response to Reply #18
21. i explored broca's region when i was 11
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scheming daemons Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed May-20-09 03:37 PM
Response to Reply #18
29. Did you go blind?
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Inchworm Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed May-20-09 03:40 PM
Response to Reply #13
30. Hehe
That's what I tried to say above ;)

:D
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Iggo Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed May-20-09 03:12 PM
Response to Original message
20. I think it means:
Girls get fuzzy first.

The more I think about it, though, the more I suspect it's a ploy to get young girls to hang out with older men instead of boys their age.
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RadiationTherapy Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed May-20-09 03:15 PM
Response to Reply #20
23. Not so sure, about that. Redqueen posted a great article above.
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Iggo Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed May-20-09 03:24 PM
Response to Reply #23
27. Interesting.
:thumbsup:
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Lydia Leftcoast Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed May-20-09 03:16 PM
Response to Original message
24. Have you ever looked at a bunch of 13 to 14-year-olds?
It's the young women and the overgrown boys. Girls start puberty about two years earlier than boys do and tend to look older than boys of the same age until the early twenties.
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RadiationTherapy Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed May-20-09 03:19 PM
Response to Reply #24
26. Hm. I have avoided this age group since I left it.
And having some body hair at 11 caused me to overlook this at the time. Interesting observation.
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Lydia Leftcoast Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed May-20-09 03:45 PM
Response to Reply #26
32. Yes, there are exceptions, but, for example
most girls have started menstruating by age 13, while boys are so often pre-pubescent at that age that European cathedral choirs still have a lot of 13-year-old boy trebles (without resorting to hormones or surgery :evilgrin: )
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RadiationTherapy Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed May-20-09 05:46 PM
Response to Reply #32
36. Hilarious. I love your examples.
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scheming daemons Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed May-20-09 03:36 PM
Response to Original message
28. It means that most girls get boobies earlier than most boys' voices change


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Bucky Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed May-20-09 04:11 PM
Response to Reply #28
33. Those aren't exactly comparable factors
Hell, as I recall, my voice changed because of all the boobies I started seeing in 7th grade.
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La Lioness Priyanka Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed May-20-09 03:44 PM
Response to Original message
31. boys are allowed to behave badly for a longer period of time
and women are tamed earlier
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RadiationTherapy Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed May-20-09 05:49 PM
Response to Reply #31
37. I think this is the case with social conditioning, but there are some interesting hormonal
and physical development components to it in the article posted by Redqueen.

Essentially though, I believe that this scenario is manipulated to generate the effect you describe.
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La Lioness Priyanka Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu May-21-09 08:44 AM
Response to Reply #37
44. are the physical developments a-priori? also, adolescents itself is a creation
of developed societies. pre-literate societies had no adolescence. This is why i dont believe in this maturing faster horseshit.

boys are allowed to misbehave for longer periods because they can be unladylike
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tigereye Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu May-21-09 09:49 AM
Response to Reply #44
47.  Real Boys- offers some interesting info and perspectives on questions of
culture and male adolescent development. I have a teen-age son, so that makes it even more interesting to me.

A lot of it is cultural perspective, but I believe there is plenty of research evidence to support at least some aspects of the language, emotional, neurological and other developmental differences between male and female adolescents.
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mitchum Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed May-20-09 04:16 PM
Response to Original message
34. It's amazing enough little boys survive to eventually reach the age of sexual maturity...
in order to keep the species going.
Watch them; they just run around and do goofy stupid shit.
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mikeytherat Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed May-20-09 04:33 PM
Response to Original message
35. Men don't fully develop their breasts until their late 30s to early 40s.


Thanks. I'm here all week. Make sure to tip your waitstaff - they're working hard for you!
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RadiationTherapy Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed May-20-09 05:50 PM
Response to Reply #35
38. Nice. hahaha
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bluedigger Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed May-20-09 06:47 PM
Response to Original message
39. It just refers to the physical process.
If you don't think so, go to any seventh grade class and see if the girls aren't taller than the boys, on average. Simple as that.
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applegrove Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed May-20-09 10:31 PM
Response to Original message
41. Apparently as teenagers girls keep the naughtiness of boys in check. Well sort of. I guess not
really..... I should ask my sister where she read that.
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LeftyMom Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed May-20-09 11:56 PM
Response to Original message
43. I work with kids.
At 14ish most of the girls are acting like young adults most of the time. Moody, whiny young adults, but young adults. At 14ish most boys act like grade school boys, only with an interest in girls and a fondness for profanity.
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SoxFan Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu May-21-09 08:47 AM
Response to Original message
45. Men still laugh at fart jokes in their 70s
Edited on Thu May-21-09 08:49 AM by SoxFan
My father, 67 years old, has a piggy bank shaped like a pair of butt cheeks which makes a farting sound when you drop in a coin. My mother has endured this sort of thing since 1966, God bless her.

Worse, the aforementioned piggy bank was a Christmas present from me. If you have ever met my family, you realize that this all makes perfect sense.
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tigereye Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu May-21-09 09:42 AM
Response to Original message
46. I think it has to do with physical and emotional development
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