Figure 1.--This 1971 press photo shows the different attitude toward fisjing and worms amony boys and girls. The caption read, "Little girls make poor fishermen: Like little boys who like to tease little girls, Billy Middleton, 6. of Pottstown, Pa. was planning on going fishing when he had the chance to dangle a long fat fishwormin front of Sabndra Dobbs, 5, a neighbor girl. Bill says worms make good fish bait, super pets and make mothers utter wierdnoises when found in the pockets of little boys' pants. Sandra sums it up with one word: 'Yeech!'."

Fishing was much less popular with girls. We have found countless images of men and boys fishing. Rarely do we see girls with them or girls fishing on their own. We are not entirely sure why. There are probably several reasons. For one thing, girls were expected to stay around the home more than boys. And they were probably more inclined than boys to do so. Probably a penchant for cleanliness among girls was another factor as well as less interest in the outdoors. As was a general aversion to worms. I'm not sure if aversion to killing was a factor. Probably less so than huntging animals. We suspect that boys were more likely to take pleasure in huntging and killing animals, but fish are generally perceived differently for some reason.

Created: 10:06 PM 10/28/2010
Last updated: 10:07 PM 10/28/2010