So I understand male rivalry, as a guy. However, what do you all see as different about a male/female rivalry (say a sports rivalry) between a boy and a girl? Suppose the charactors are late high school age, and euqlly adept at something. What would be different about a guy/girl rivalry if there was no real sexual or romantic interest between them? ANY ideas would be helpful! Chris
A sexual/romantic presense always changes the dynamic, so yes, it could be different, but it could also be the same as a guy-guy rivalry. The only thing I could say, that while risking sounding sextist to both genders, is that men tend to be immediate and direct with wanting to resolve their dispute while women tend to indirect and prolong it. Neither of which is an insult to either gender as both have their pitfalls and benefits, but that happens to be what I've noticed.
What you described sounds like a sibling rivalry, so it might be worth thinking of your relationship as a sibling relationship.
Think of the actions of a certian goth teenager we both know (Nick) and having him be in rivarly with a teenage girl. What would they do? Probbably tease each other merceslessly and compete in absolutley everything. That's just my opinon; more later when I'm thinking clearly... Also, you say you understand male/male rivarily; I think I understand that more than female/female rivarley, and I'm a girl... Yes, I know. I cannot spell tonight.
I was always in the athletics team, and up to the age of 12 we trained in a mixed group. I wanted to be as 'good as' the boys, so I nearly killed myself competing--it became a real obsession to show the boys I was great 'even though' I was a girl. I also felt some grudging admiration coming back from them, and had a few champions for my efforts. This sounds screwed up, but I'm trying to remember, truthfully, how I felt...Especially in those days, girls had more to deal with as far as opportunities and RESPECT in sports goes, compared to the boys. You had to be good to get some attention and it seems to me we girls had to be extra good. Maybe a man doesn't get this. And although it's not 'sexual' rivalry as such, I can't remember a time I wasn't aware of a kind of...tension. Yes, I know--I was always a flirt, in a tomboy kind of way.
Some girls feel that they constantly need to prove that they are just as good at x, y, and z as the guys. They feel they need to work harder, play better, be stronger, etc. It isn't a man's world anymore.
