I worked as a neurology technician for four years, doing tests on a patient load that was half paediatric, plenty of whom had an induced drowsy state to bring out epileptic activity. Drowsy kid, strange environment, strange person touching their head, and sometimes autistic. For four years, I spent half the day in the presence of children's screams. I promise you that they don't sound different, and certainly not to the qualitative level you're trying to shoehorn in here.

And seriously, it's not like the statement was a neutral explanation. It's a trope - no-one says "run away screaming like a little boy". Trying to defend it as a serious qualitative explanation of the actual sound made is nonsense.

> A desire for equality will not be achieved by erasing all differences, but by celebrating all differences, and recognizing each is valuable in its own way.

I wholeheartedly agree - we need to recognise people as individuals and individual differences. Hence why we need to drop generalising tropes like "run away screaming like a little girl", because they are about stereotypes, not individuality. There are plenty of girls out there who don't do that - my mother's earliest memory is of patting a hairy spider, for example. No 'running away screaming' for that individual.

How on earth you defend "like a [demographic]" as some sort of comment in support of recognising individuality is beyond me.