gIrLs & cOnFliCtS

Girls and Conflicts

Girls and conflicts are unseparatable force. In high school and college, the ringleaders are often the girls with the highest value of socialising or the most popular girl among her peers. These girls can use the power they achieve with their status as a toll of mass destruction. The effect can be the same as US launching a nuclear attack on Iraq. These girls are able to control and manipulate other girls in the group and outside. As a form of relational aggression they bad-mouth other girls behind their back. Calling them names such as” whore, bitch, slut, fat”. Their main objective is tarnishing the other girl’s reputation or bringing them down in the eye of the boys.

A study conducted by Lawrence Owens, Phillip Slee, and Rosalyn Shute in School Psychology International, (2000, Volume 21, Issue 4) showed that girls participated in aggressive encounters for the following reasons:
· Boredom
· Lack of excitement
· Inclusion in the right group
· Self-protection
· Jealousy over appearance and close friendships
· Competition for boys
· Revenge
· Friendship
When Girls Become Targets of Relational Aggression
The "initial effect of an aggressive attack is confusion". As a result, girls feel:
· Embarrassed
· Angry
· Worried
· Lonely
· Self-conscious
· Betrayed
· Sad
· Depressed
Feeling overwhelmed, girls cover up their feelings, blame their selves, and deny the experience ever happened. All of these responses indicate the seriousness of this problem in girls’ perceptions of their selves and their relationships.

- Chirag Mehta-