I like girls.  Do you like girls?

I'm glad to know that you like girls! I hope that you also like boys.
I like all children. Children of both sexes are our future, and we
must strive to provide them with a happy and supportive environment.
Part of that supportive environment is a community of peers that
includes both boys and girls in approximately equal numbers.

It is starting to become medically possible to select the sex of your
baby. For example, you can read about "preimplantation genetic
diagnosis" at the website of Dr. Malpani of Bombay, India:

http://www.drmalpani.com/pcss/index.htm

This technique is now being used to help parents who have genetic
risks that are known to be sex-linked. If it is known, for example,
that a particular disease has a high probability of occurring in any
male children, then the parents could choose to have only female
children. The process involves superovulation, harvesting of eggs,
in-vitro fertilization, embryo biopsy (extracting one cell for DNA
analysis), and finally implantation of a sex-selected embryo in the
uterus. The process has been refined enough to be reasonably safe. The
biggest risk is now cost, especially since it may take more than one
try to have a successful implantation.

There are, of course, other ways of achieving sex selection in family
planning. These range from the purely superstitious:

"Sex Determination, the superstitions and folklore you need to make
life magnificent... or miserable"
http://www.sandiego-books.com/sex.htm

to abortion and infanticide. See for example:

"The Backwardness of Abortion
Abortion can serve the most retrograde of impulses," by Rich Lowry
http://www.nationalreview.com/lowry/lowry082301.shtml

"Female Infanticide in Tamil Nadu, India : From Recognition Back to
Denial?" by
Sabu M George 
http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/Organizations/healthnet/SAsia/suchana/0225/george.html

There are, of course, serious ethical and legal issues that come up
whenever deliberate sex selection of children occurs. A discussion of
any depth is far beyond the scope of the present discourse, but you
can find an extensive list of articles on these issues at the website
of The Thalidomide Victims Association of Canada:

http://www.thalidomide.ca/gwolbring/sex_selection.htm

The issue has become particularly hot in India where there are strong
cultural preferences among some groups for male children and in China
where the recent one-child policy provides further pressures to
parents who feel they must have at least one son. The practice of some
sort of sex selection in India has actually started to skew the
overall population statistics according to the National Center for
Policy Analysis:

http://www.ncpa.org/pi/internat/pd081399f.html

which reports that "the sex ratio dropped from 935 females for every
1,000 males in 1981 to 927 females for every 1,000 males in 1991," and
"in certain communities in the northern states of Bihar and Rajasthan
the ratio has plummeted to 600:1,000, one of the lowest in the world."

Even in the United States, the sex ratio has shifted significantly
over time in ways that affect such things as the institution of
marriage:

"The State of Marriage in 20th Century America, Implications for the
Next Millennium," Edited by Janice Shaw Crouse, Ph.D., Senior Fellow
http://beverlylahayeinstitute.org/events/1999-10_marriage/20-america.shtml

In the United States, however, the shifts in male/female ratio have
been driven more by other factors than sex selection at or before
birth. Important factors have included immigration patterns
(immigrants were disproportionately male at some times), war (soldiers
are disproportionately male), and longevity (women live longer, on
average).

Of course, a key factor in reducing the pressures which cause parents
to prefer one sex for their children is to change societal attitudes
more toward equal opportunities for both men and women in their roles
in their communities. The United Nations through the Gender Promotion
Program (GENPROM) of the International Labor Organization is one
institution that is trying to push these concepts worldwide:

"e.quality@work:  An Information Base on Equal Employment
Opportunities for Women and Men"
http://www.un.org/womenwatch/news/articles/Jul17_01_ilobriefing.html

The attitudes of adults toward appropriate roles for men and women is
built in childhood and learned both from parents and other cultural
influences. Differential treatment of boys and girls applies to
everything from toys offered to games played, clothing, attitudes
toward injury, pressures to learn certain subjects, and on and on. You
can turn up an extensive list of websites that discuss these issues by
doing a Google search:

://www.google.com/search?q="parental+attitudes"+toward+boys+girls

Other Google searches used or possibly of interest:

://www.google.com/search?q="sex selection"+before+birth
://www.google.com/search?q="sex identification"+before+birth
://www.google.com/search?q="sex selection"+abortion+OR+infanticide
://www.google.com/search?q="sex ratio"
://www.google.com/search?q=site:http://www.un.org+"equal
opportunity"
://www.google.com/search?q="do you like girls"
(warning: you may want to turn on "safe search" for this last one, as
it can turn up some links with mature content)

---

Request for Answer Clarification by cm476-ga on 06 May 2002 17:36 PDT

That answer was very informative, but my language was perhaps
ambiguous.  I used the word "girl" not in the formal sense of "female
child", but in the sense of "an informal and/or affectionate term used
to refer to a female adult human, usually a young unmarried person." 
I know that this definition is considered offensive by some, but I use
it for want of a better term.
Girls/grrls/females/femyles/women/wymyyn/whatever.  I like them.  Do
you like them?  I don't like males, because they're not pretty.  I
know some people do like males, but I am not one of those people.  Not
that there's anything wrong with that.  Have a nice day.

---

Clarification of Answer by drdavid-ga on 07 May 2002 10:55 PDT

Well, I'm a native American English speaker, so I'll admit that any
"misunderstanding" was entirely deliberate! Google Answers is a paid
research service, so Researchers have to assume you are looking for
some actual research related to your question and not just a personal
opinion or glib reply. The Researcher population appears to be diverse
including both men and women, likely both married and single, with
varied likes and dislikes, but they are anonymous, so I can't canvas
them directly on as to their approval ratings for
"Girls/grrls/females/femyles/women/wymyyn/whatever."

Well, he answered the question, but in a somewhat indirect manner.  It
was a yes/no question and the answer was "yes", although the large
amounts of text after that weren't really topical.  He also says he
likes boys; not that there's anything wrong with that.  In all, money
well spent, but by just saying "yes" would have saved time and gotten
the fifth star.

Uhm, how did you get a credit card to post this question?

Dr. David definitly earned his $10.00

This question is a prime example of using the internet as a means to
serve as an outlet to anoymously release some inner confict. The
question reeks of latent homophobia.

Poor drdavid.  Great answer, though.

I was going to go with song lyrics and poetry on this one, but David's
answer is much better than I could have come up with on such an
ambiguous inquiry. Good work David and enjoy the $10.00 spot.


webadept-ga

I like girls; do you like girls?

No, I don't lick grills.

dr david, your prowess is truly excellent.

Opened ended question  =  a generalised answer.
Lots of questions are very unspecific, which may not get the desired
answer.

Researchers may perform miracles, but not the impossible. They can't
read everyone's mind. Anyone posting a question please provide as much
detailed information as possible as it helps both parties, and helps
the researcher to get you a more relevant answer.