If only Hilary McMurray’s column (“Girls gone vile,” Feb. 16) came with a disclaimer that said, “If you have seen ‘Mean Girls’ you already know everything in this column. Please do not read, and save yourself the frustration.”

It’s not breaking news that girls can be inexplicably mean to other girls, but to generalize the entire female race as a catty, vindictive, bitchy group who love nothing more than to make their fellow woman cry is something better left to the experts. Unless you’re Tina Fey, blatant stereotyping will be just that: a shocking display of ignorance that only leaves the reader confused and annoyed.

I am in no way disagreeing that girls can be cruel. We most certainly can, and at times with such creativity and malice that it leaves no doubt relational aggression not only exists, but is forever evolving with the times. If you delve beyond the first page of The Ophelia Project’s Web site, however, you will see that relational aggression does not only apply to girls. For example, the FAQ section of The Ophelia Project’s Web site clearly states boys are at just as much risk as girls are for torment from their peers, not just from the girls who whisper about their ex-boyfriend’s small penis.

Boys are more prone to make hit lists and bombs because of this torment, a phenomenon that may be less fun to write about than catty girls, but is nonetheless a fact of relational aggression that should not be ignored. The problem with this theory is not, as McMurray says, that it is too new to be fully understood. Society and psychologists understand this perfectly, considering they have all gone to high school and therefore saw it first-hand. No, the problem with relational aggression is not in the theory at all, but in the stereotype that females are the only gender with the ability to spread rumors and strife amongst their peers. Relational aggression is not gender-specific, and until society realizes that, it’s not going to go away.

As if McMurray’s ability to stereotype the entire female race had not left me speechless, nothing could’ve prepared me for what astute generalizations she could make when she employed the literary minefields known as clich