The idea that young women are more susceptible to their environment than young men is not only unsupported it’s probably wrong. Reeves writes about this concept of the dandelion and the orchid. Folks here in the comments can look it up. But boys are the orchid and girls are the dandelion—it’s boys who are more sensitive to their environments than girls.
Excellent analysis, Meredith. (Unbelievable that the only other comment so far is from a mansplainer who purports to believe that women are susceptible to brainwashing and supporting 'mainstream ideology'.)
This is a phenomenal piece Meredith! It is really relevant to this election -- especially thinking about PA and the collar counties. I just passed this Substack on to a reporter -- to encourage them to use your approach to gender gap graphing. Thank you so much for writing this -- it is was exactly the piece I needed today.
It looks like the underlying theme here is susceptibility to brainwashing. Since women are more susceptible to brainwashing, they support mainstream ideology at a higher rate than men. Since the biggest points of mainstream ideology currently are race and gender, that's where we see big gaps. This also explains why single women are so much more supportive of mainstream ideology than married women. Married women conform to their husbands. Single women conform to the cultural mainstream.
The idea that young women are more susceptible to their environment than young men is not only unsupported it’s probably wrong. Reeves writes about this concept of the dandelion and the orchid. Folks here in the comments can look it up. But boys are the orchid and girls are the dandelion—it’s boys who are more sensitive to their environments than girls.
Excellent analysis, Meredith. (Unbelievable that the only other comment so far is from a mansplainer who purports to believe that women are susceptible to brainwashing and supporting 'mainstream ideology'.)
This is a phenomenal piece Meredith! It is really relevant to this election -- especially thinking about PA and the collar counties. I just passed this Substack on to a reporter -- to encourage them to use your approach to gender gap graphing. Thank you so much for writing this -- it is was exactly the piece I needed today.
Thank you, Susan 🙏! I got a couple emails from reporters this afternoon, maybe it was yours 😂
It looks like the underlying theme here is susceptibility to brainwashing. Since women are more susceptible to brainwashing, they support mainstream ideology at a higher rate than men. Since the biggest points of mainstream ideology currently are race and gender, that's where we see big gaps. This also explains why single women are so much more supportive of mainstream ideology than married women. Married women conform to their husbands. Single women conform to the cultural mainstream.