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Re:Singapore introduces caning for boys who bully others at ... by coldtea on Friday May 08, 2026 @03:43AM (#48059946)
Maybe it's based on millions of years of biological differences in their capacities and functions (starting from body strength and role in reproduction), plus differences in social roles, of which some of the latter might be arbitrary, but some are necessary adjustments every historical society understood.
Re:Singapore introduces caning for boys who bully others at ... by dude250711 on Friday May 08, 2026 @04:10AM (#48060151)
The big idea lately is to ignore all of that and just give everyone equal rights but unequal responsibilities.
Re:Singapore introduces caning for boys who bully others at ... by cpursley on Friday May 08, 2026 @05:00AM (#48060526)
I always find it really amusing that the most pro trust the science people who are in total agreement with all the evolution theories are often also the ones who are the first to be in complete denial that us humans might actually share some characteristics with our closest genetic relatives (chimpanzees).
Re:Singapore introduces caning for boys who bully others at ... by TurdF3rguson on Friday May 08, 2026 @06:26AM (#48061143)
Bonobos are just as close and they're matriarchal. They're a very different species.
Re:Singapore introduces caning for boys who bully others at ... by cpursley on Friday May 08, 2026 @06:45AM (#48061285)
Yes, and that’s a good point too. Pretty big difference between the sexes with them as well.
Re:Singapore introduces caning for boys who bully others at ... by Quarrel on Friday May 08, 2026 @08:39AM (#48062212)
They're chimps that are on the other side of the Congo river (and both types of genus Pan can't swim).

They're super close to chimps (and definitely much closer than us), rather than "a very different species".

Re:Singapore introduces caning for boys who bully others at ... by akimbostrawman on Friday May 08, 2026 @05:48AM (#48060864)
>the most pro trust the science people who are in total agreement with all the evolution theories

Like with most religions which "the science" very much qualities for at this point, there believers will just pick and choose what to believe and use to get there way.

Re:Singapore introduces caning for boys who bully others at ... by almostjazz on Friday May 08, 2026 @08:12AM (#48061966)
If strength is relevant, should particularly weak boys be "treated like girls"?

Should particularly strong girls be "treated like boys"?

Should girls and women without functioning reproductive systems be treated like boys?

What differences in social roles have been proven "necessary"?

Is the fact that chimpanzees do things a certain way remotely good evidence that we should do something that way too?

Answer key:

- no

- no

- no

- which gamete you supply?

- no

Re:Singapore introduces caning for boys who bully others at ... by coldtea on Friday May 08, 2026 @09:20AM (#48062725)
>What differences in social roles have been proven "necessary"?

Given that we're in a huge democraphic crisis which will bring untold disaster and misery, a huge depression crisis, marriage crises, and a loneliness epidemic, perhaps we're not the best arbiters of whether they've been proven "necessary" or not.

As for the questions, to some degree they indeed do, so partly yes, but also those differences in treatment are not on a case by case basis, but on average.

Re:Singapore introduces caning for boys who bully others at ... by giraffe_lady on Friday May 08, 2026 @10:45AM (#48064002)
None of that is given.
Re:Singapore introduces caning for boys who bully others at ... by teiferer on Friday May 08, 2026 @12:32PM (#48065395)
> huge democraphic crisis

If the west would stop vilifying people of different skin color and continent of origin, we'd realize that humanity as a whole does not have that much of a demographic problem. "We are too many" as an argument to keep borders closed and "we are too few, get more kids" are incompatible arguments, unless people are honest about racism.

Re:Singapore introduces caning for boys who bully others at ... by coldtea on Friday May 08, 2026 @04:15PM (#48068195)
>we'd realize that humanity as a whole does not have that much of a demographic problem.

Humanity as a whole has a demographic problem. A few countries are just outliers (being still quite above > 2.1), but nowhere enough to offset anything at a global scale, and besides, they're on the decline too, just earlier in the curve.

Second, caring about your ethnic culture is not the same as "vilifying people of different skin color and continent of origin". It's just not treating nations as comprised of interchangable consumer/worker units whose shared culture and history (or lack thereof) doesn't matter.

Most countries have a long history tied to a culture created from one or a handful of ethnicites, they're not just pieces of land for settling associated with a civic contract, like the us has been (and of course even that came at the erasure of the native cultures and populations).

Re:Singapore introduces caning for boys who bully others at ... by teiferer on Saturday May 09, 2026 @03:20AM (#48072690)
Ethnicity and culture are not static concepts. They change over time. The culture in central Europe, North America, the Middle East etc. 500 years ago looked very different from today. The ethnicity too. People have always migrated and that's part of where ethnicity and culture are coming from in the first place. And that's a good thing.

Nobody talks about individuals or people as arbitrarily interchangeable units. That's a populist exaggeration.

The "natural state" of a culture and an ethnic group is the continuous exchange and intermingling with other cultures and ethnic groups. It's a success of the nationalist right to make people believe that it's the opposite.

Re:Singapore introduces caning for boys who bully others at ... by mock-possum on Friday May 08, 2026 @09:32AM (#48062888)
Or maybe it’s based on bigotry
Re:Singapore introduces caning for boys who bully others at ... by AussieWog93 on Friday May 08, 2026 @10:10AM (#48063457)
Nah, I have girls and there's definitely a biological difference there even at a young age. They're much more sensitive to more subtle negative feedback in a way that boys just aren't.
Re:Singapore introduces caning for boys who bully others at ... by simgt on Friday May 08, 2026 @10:24AM (#48063702)
You have some data point at home so you extrapolate on the entire population?
Re:Singapore introduces caning for boys who bully others at ... by antics9 on Friday May 08, 2026 @12:04PM (#48065045)
Well, having both girls and boys, I can concur.
Re:Singapore introduces caning for boys who bully others at ... by zamadatix on Friday May 08, 2026 @12:30PM (#48065374)
While I hold the same conclusion as you, individuals chiming in to concur based on their own experience is nothing more than a way to validate what certain people of the time & place commonly believe to be true.

E.g. if people were apt to believe girls preferred green peppers more often than boys, there will always be plenty who say "Well, having both girls and boys, I can concur". It could be true, it could be false, or the cause could be something else. E.g., because people think there are certain differences it shapes differences in development which lead to some of them actually being more common for nothing more than the sum of environmental factors - even if those biases only started as misconceptions.

Whichever it actually is, there will usually be large segments of the populations who would observe it to be conflicting things from an individual at-home view and it takes a lot of work & really good data to be able to make a meaningful claim about what and why differences exist.

Re:Singapore introduces caning for boys who bully others at ... by kelipso on Friday May 08, 2026 @08:29PM (#48070476)
There a line after which too much science fanboyism can get a person to tie themself in knots.
Re:Singapore introduces caning for boys who bully others at ... by zamadatix on Friday May 08, 2026 @10:30PM (#48071169)
Science fanboyism is just in understanding what you do and don't know, not eschewing the possession of beliefs or actions made from them.
Re:Singapore introduces caning for boys who bully others at ... by kelipso on Saturday May 09, 2026 @12:06AM (#48071734)
Theory vs practice.
Re:Singapore introduces caning for boys who bully others at ... by zamadatix on Monday May 11, 2026 @11:10AM (#48096057)
One can practice the theory of practicality without needing to be ignorant of how uncertain they are as they do so.
Re:Singapore introduces caning for boys who bully others at ... by coldtea on Saturday May 09, 2026 @04:08AM (#48072995)
We just have millenia of history, experience in every country and culture, and countless scientific papers on the matter, but please go on with your question...
Re:Singapore introduces caning for boys who bully others at ... by teiferer on Friday May 08, 2026 @12:28PM (#48065344)
And that's why boys should be beaten when they misbehave?
Re:Singapore introduces caning for boys who bully others at ... by AussieWog93 on Saturday May 09, 2026 @12:20AM (#48071799)
I'm not saying boys should be beaten whenever they misbehave, but girls are definitely more tuned into the way they're being perceived by others.

With girls, you'll get the same corrective effect from an uncomfortable grimace as you would a wooden spoon.

I'll also add since this is about bullying, the type of bullying behaviours girls engage in is much less physical and a lot more underhanded. It's much harder to correctly identify who's the victim and who's the perpetrator.

Re:Singapore introduces caning for boys who bully others at ... by xyzelement on Saturday May 09, 2026 @12:41PM (#48076259)
I think that's the wrong question.

Kids need "an approach" that helps them learn necessary boundaries. That approach differs by gender (I have both boys and girls and that's obvious)

Re:Singapore introduces caning for boys who bully others at ... by teiferer on Friday May 08, 2026 @12:27PM (#48065331)
How on earth is that an acceptable argument for physical abuse that is directed purely at boys?

I'm not saying girls should be beaten too. But the ethical blindness here is striking.

Besides, girls are just as much capable of bullying as boys are. Society might have taught them to use different methods, but that doesn't make it any more acceptable or any less vicious.

Re:Singapore introduces caning for boys who bully others at ... by Barrin92 on Friday May 08, 2026 @06:04PM (#48069344)
It's not even remotely clear to me what this has to do with the topic at hand because insofar as gender plays into bullying girls tend to be more impacted than boys, and secondly corporal punishment and 'disciplining' women by men was historically normalized.

The Singaporean habit of caning is a very modern practice of industrial and military society that has no biological analog, an offshoot of mass discipline society of the 20th century and gender roles of Victorian Britain where groups of men needed to be 'whipped into shape' and women were feminine and pure, but it sure is convenient to randomly invoke biology when one runs out of arguments

Re:Singapore introduces caning for boys who bully others at ... by tzs on Friday May 08, 2026 @06:37PM (#48069610)
Which of these biological differences in capacities and functions make it so that girls should not be punished by physical pain but it is OK to punish boys with a physical pain using a method that often leaves permanent scars and lasting psychological damage?
Re:Singapore introduces caning for boys who bully others at ... by CGMthrowaway on Monday May 11, 2026 @02:06PM (#48098449)
Men bear greater physical risk (war, dangerous labor etc) and boys/young men have always been subject to violent "rites of passage" that prepare them for this.

Girls and women receive greater physical protection, as required to manage reproductive capacity and long‑term demographic stability.

Re:Singapore introduces caning for boys who bully others at ... by array_key_first on Monday May 11, 2026 @11:17PM (#48103797)
Historical societies are... historical. We shouldn't be looking to them. They didn't have the technology we have today.

Yes boys are strong. You know what's stronger than a boy? Gun. Girl with gun is stronger. It's not fucking 400 AD and this isn't Rome and we don't have slaves. Things are different today.

Yes, there are biological differences, but they definitely matter the least now as opposed to ever. Think about jobs. Women can do basically every modern job a man can do, and definitely the high paying ones. Now think about ancient societies and why that wasn't the case.