Thursday, February 19, 2015

Are bonding activities a male thing?

In thinking about all the activities children are invited to participate in, I've been pondering the place of bonding exercises. The camps and tours and parties that the groups they belong to organise in order for the members to bond.

This seems to me to be a particularly male thing. When I think of bonding activities I think of men playing soccer, or paintball, or men going drinking together and then to lapdancing clubs and brothels. This is supposed to create group cohesion for people who are already in a group working together for the same goal. Women don't seem to need bonding sessions, mostly because they don't have the time for them. If women are working together by meeting monthly to run a committee, or they work together or are on a team together, they just get on with the job. The bonding happens by doing the job together. They don't go off to the pub afterwards.

I understand why kids who enter high school from various primary schools go on camp together. They need to get to know each other. Other than that, I don't see the point of bonding exercises for teams or bands or choirs. Surely meeting weekly to do the activity together is a bonding experience in itself.

1 comment:

sister outlaws said...

I think you are right about the activity alone being a bonding activity. And I think more emphasis is put on boys bonding. I have two shy twin girls and it seems that school finds that just fine but my friend who has a shy boy is always being called into school to talk about how he doesn't put himself forward to join teams!!!