Angry, young women

While girls are often taught not to be aggressive, their hostility and anger are often expressed through meanness, says a researcher.

"Girls are not brought up to be assertive. They're raised to be nice and pretty and have lots of friends," said Nicole Landry, a research coordinator with the Department of Community Health and Epidemiology in the Faculty of Medicine.

"But they themselves recognize meanness as an integral part, even a normal part, of their growing up," she added.

In a society where being rough and tumble is regarded as an important part of being a boy, it is different for girls who are not taught to express aggression.

They tend to bully by gossiping, backstabbing, and excluding others from activities.

"Kids are like little adults, but they don't have the things that we have to give them status and power: a good job, a nice house, wealth. They use meanness as a way of negotiating their place in the hierarchy," she said.

"It's what girls do to get by. They need to dress the part and look the part and gather their army of friends around them. Their capital is their friends, their hair, their name-brand clothing-that's power for them," she added.

During the study, Landry looked at 24 tween girls, ages eight to 11.

She initiated discussion by showing movie clips and pictures and asking questions.

Each of the girls was also asked to record her thoughts and feelings in a "reflection journal".

According to the girls, popularity is affected by class and race; popularity, which is equated with power, is awarded to rich, white girls who can afford the coveted labels but also to white girls from less-well-off families as long as they are pretty.

But one thing the participants stressed about popular girls was that they were always mean; that's how they maintained their place at the top.

At the same time, these popular girls were inundated with rules, about how they must look, behave and who they could associate with.

According to the girls, some of rules for popular girls include: Always sass everyone;" "Get boys to like you;" and "Whenever you have a chance to make fun of someone else, do it."

The findings have been published in the book, The Mean Girl Motive: Negotiating Power and Femininity

TZAZIKI

Ingredients:

Ingredients:

1. 250g plain yogurt, beaten
2. 2 cups thinly sliced cucumber
3. 1 tsp. lemon juice
4. 1 tbsp. parsley
5. salt to taste
6. 1 tbsp. olive oil
7. 1 garlic clove, minced

Method:

Method:

1. Mix together all the ingredients and chill for about ½ an hour before serving.

TORTILLA CASSEROLE

Ingredients:

This is a great dish to make with left over tortillas and if you do not have any vegetables in your fridge you can still make it with just onions and garlic by skipping the vegetable part. It will taste as delicious.

Ingredients:

1. 2 tbsp. oil
2. 2 medium onions, chopped
3. 1 garlic clove, minced
4. 2 cups button mushrooms, chopped or 2 cups of chopped mixed vegetables like red pepper, green pepper, yellow pepper, baby corn and carrots (any mix or any vegetable can be used by itself alone)
5. 1 jalepeno chopped or dried chili flakes to taste
6. 1 tsp. dried oregano
7. 2 cups tomato puree
8. ½ cup skimmed milk
9. ½ cup cream
10. 1/3 cup grated parmesan
11. salt to taste
12. 8 corn tortillas cut into 2 cm wide and 4 inch long strips
13. ½ cup grated monteray jack or cheddar

To Serve:
1 cup sour cream
1 cup salsa.

Method:

Method:

28. Heat oil in a pan and add onions and garlic. Stir till transparent.
29. Add the vegetables, jalepenos and oregano and stir for about 2-3 minutes.
30. Add tomato puree and stir well and bring to boil.
31. Add milk and cream stirring continuously.
32. Stir in the parmesan.
33. Season with salt.
34. Add the tortilla strips and stir well.
35. Pour in to a baking dish and sprinkle monteray jack or cheddar all over.
36. Bake in a preheated oven at 200 degrees centigrade for about 20 minutes till the cheese is little browned.
37. Serve hot with salsa and cream on the side.

TOMATOES IN RED WINE

Ingredients:

The wine gives a new dimension to the traditional tomato sauce.

Ingredients:

1. 2 tbsp. olive oil
2. 1 garlic clove, crushed
3. 2 red bell peppers, seeded and chopped
4. 1 cup red wine
5. 500g plum tomatoes, blanched, skinned and chopped into small pieces
6. ¼ cup tomato paste
7. 1/3 cup cream
8. salt to taste.
9. 350g penne pasta, cooked al dente and drained well

To Serve:
¼ cup parmesan cheese flakes

Method:

Method:

1. Heat oil. Add garlic and red bell peppers and stir for 2-3 minutes.
2. Add wine, chopped tomatoes and the tomato paste. Cook for 10 minutes till thick.
3. Add cream and salt. Stir well.
4. Stir in the cooked pasta.
5. Serve hot topped with parmesan cheese.

TOMATO ONION GRAVY

Ingredients:

-Onion: 400 gms.
-Tomato: 300 gms.
-Cooking oil: 50 ml.
-Bay leaf: 3-4 nos.
-Cloves: 10 nos.
-Green cardamom: 10 nos.
-Cinnamon sticks: 2-3 nos.
-Ginger garlic paste: 30 Gms.
-Turmeric powder: ½ tsp.
-Degi mirch powder: 2 tsp.
-Coriander powder: 1 tsp.
-Salt to taste.
-Fresh coriander leaves: 1/2 cup (chopped and washed).
-Desi ghee: 3 tbsp.

Method:

1.Peel, wash and roughly chop onion and tomatoes.
2.Heat oil in a pan or kadhai, and crackle bay leaf, cloves, cardamom and cinnamon sticks.
3.Add onion and bhunao till it turns golden brown (add a tsp of salt to make cooking of onion faster). 4.Add ginger garlic paste and bhunao for a minute till raw smell goes off.
5.Add turmeric, degi mirch and coriander powder and bhunao for 2 minutes adding a tbsp of water occasionally to prevent the spices from burning and sticking.
6.Add chopped tomatoes and cook till tomatoes are mashed and cooked.
7.Add salt and cook till oil surfaces on top.
8.Finish with desi ghee and chopped coriander leaves.

TOMATO CHUTNEY

Ingredients:

This is a very hot dip made in Nepalese style and is served with momo, the Nepalese dumplings. But it is quite versatile and goes very well with chips and nachos. Do not put chili powder if you want to make it mild.

Ingredients:

1. 2 tsp. vegetable oil
2. ¼ tsp. mustard seeds
3. ¼ tsp. cumin seeds
4. ¼ tsp. fenugreek seeds (optional)
5. 1 clove garlic, chopped finely
6. 1 green chili, chopped
7. 4 tomatoes, chopped
8. ½ tsp. grated ginger
9. pinch of turmeric powder
10. 1/3 tsp. chili powder
11. ¼ tsp. sugar
12. salt to taste

For Garnishing:
some fresh coriander, chopped

Method:

Method:

1. Heat oil. Pop mustard seeds, cumin seeds and fenugreek seeds in it.
2. Add garlic, green chili and the chopped tomatoes.
3. Stir and add ginger juice and turmeric powder.
4. Cook for 10 minutes stirring in between.
5. Add chili powder, sugar and salt and stir well.
6. Shift to a blender and blend the mixture to a smooth paste.
7. Shift to a serving bowl and garnish with the chopped coriander.
8. Serve at room temperature.

TOM YAM KUNG

Ingredients:

Galangal, lime leaves, and basil leave a refreshing taste in your mouth.

Ingredients:
1. 4 cups water
2. 2 stems lemon grass, cut into small pieces
3. 5 thin slices galangal (baby ginger)
4. 3 shallots, finely chopped
5. 4 fresh lime leaves, torn
6. 3-4 Thai hot chilies, crushed
7. 4 Tbsp. lime juice
8. 1 1/2 cup halved button mushrooms
2 cups chopped tofu
9. Salt, to taste
10. 2 Tbsp. chopped coriander leaves

Method:

Method:
1. Bring the water to a boil.
2. Add the lemon grass, galangal, shallots, lime leaves, chilies, lime juice, mushrooms, and tofu. Season with the salt to taste.
3. Top with the coriander leaves. Serve hot.