Sibling rivalry is as old as that box of crackers in every college dorm room. If you have brothers and sisters, you will agree that when a sibling excels in a certain area, you will do anything to outshine his or her 15 minutes of fame in the family, (or maybe just pour a little bit salt in their morning cereal).
This might have been the exception with the brother and sister team of Jeremy and Ciera Carson. The Cal State Long Beach tandem let go of any potential sibling rivalry to work together and win the national championship in duo interpretation at the American Forensics Association national tournament at Minnesota State University.
The Carsons, both on Long Beach State’s forensics team, made history by becoming the first sister-brother team to win the national championship in their category.
But for years, brothers and sisters from around the world have struggled to understand each other, leading to a life of constant fighting and accusations of who’s “daddy’s little girl” or “mama’s boy.”
Who can forget Bart and Lisa Simpson’s fights on the longest-running animated sitcom, reminding us that every household with a pair of siblings can be simultaneously miserable and happy?
But what is it about boys and girls that causes traditional gender tensions? Perhaps it’s the early-age cultural attempts at gender assignment.
At a young age, many Western girls are told that they must keep a demure conduct throughout life.
They are bombarded with billboards of pretty girls who are happy to pose semi-nude next to a bottle of Bacardi and earn millions of dollars doing so. Young girls are inundated with Paris Hilton-like images and rib-skinny Pop Tarts who have made a fortune out of acting dumb and crashing cars.
Boys, on the other hand, are given Hot Wheels and other masculine icons that beg to be played with in the dirt. They are happy to hold a wrestling match in their little sister’s room and make a mess out of delicately organized pink desks.
Of course, those are harsh stereotypes that in one way or another hold some kind of truth. They can create characters out of those children who either grow up to be neurotic women who clean too much or drunken frat boys who won’t respect an “I-don’t-want-to-sleep-with-you” response.
But in the end, kids are kids. Maybe they don’t necessarily see their specific gender differences, but just another annoying sibling they have to deal with. They can make great play dates and, in the future, introduce the sister’s best friend to the lonely brother who spends too much time with his video games.
Consider the lives of Amy and David Sedaris. The quirky brother and sister duet made a name for themselves by writing and acting out stories from their childhood. Amy plays the user and abuser “Jerri Blank” character from the Comedy Central show and movie “Strangers with Candy.” Long before her brother David wrote his critically acclaimed books “Naked” and “Me Talk Pretty One Day,” the Sedaris children were putting on shows at convalescent homes entertaining their grandmother.
The Carsons seem to have overcome the sibling dysfunction the Sedaris and Simpson clans portray. As Jeremy Carson told the CSULB Public Affairs Office following their victory, their relationship has enabled them to know exactly how to work with each other.
No complaints of salt being poured over anyone’s cereal were reported during the competition.
