Like a Girl

For my persuasive essay lesson, I used, "Michael Jackson is the best pop star, ever" as an example. I created an entire case proving that he was. I then gave them a couple more relevant topics. Finally, I gave them the choice of what they wanted to write a persuasive essay about. Some of them wrote about MJ.

Two different students said he was not the best pop star ever, using this as their lead example: he sings like a girl.

I'm sorry, what's wrong with singing like a girl?

Do they realize that about half the world is girls and they all, well, sing like girls? Do they further realize that the person evaluating their skill at creating an argument is, um, a girl? It reminds me of Madonna's "What it Feels Like for a Girl".



The mysogynism in this town is so deep-seated I don't think they even have a clue that there was anything offensive about their argument.