When the story broke about teenage girls in Glenview, Ill., hazing fellow classmates, it drew national attention.

The treatment the senior girls gave to their junior counterparts -- hitting them, dousing them with garbage and feces -- was shocking. Five of the hazed girls ended up needing medical treatment after the incident.

But what the media also pointed out was that these were teenage girls who were responsible for these actions.

This kind of behavior might seem shocking to some, but any woman who went through junior high and high school knows that girls can be mean. It's rarely as physical as the Illinois hazing incident, but it's still damaging to a girl's psyche.

After the hazing incident, CNN interviewed Rosalind Wiseman, the author of "Queenbees and Wannabes," a book about girls' friendships and interactions.

For many, girlhood is hardly an idyllic sisterhood of sleepovers and Hallmark moments. Cliques start in elementary school and do not really ever disappear.

Wiseman said on CNN that girls display catty behavior toward their peers and their targets take it.

And after reading passages of another book this weekend, I'm also wondering why girls tend to relate to one another this way.

I picked "Politically Correct Bedtime Stories" off a friend's bookshelf this weekend to read while sitting outside.

The book, by James Finn Garner, takes another look at well-known fairy tales and applies politically-correct jargon to "modernize" them.

I think Garner's real point was to make fun of our country's obsession with political correctness, but I came away from the stories questioning the classic bedtime stories I grew up with.

Questioning the portrayals of women in, say, "Cinderella" and "Snow White," is hardly new. Much emphasis has been put on how these heroines depend on men to rescue them.

But little is said about the so-called "bad guys" in these stories.

They're women.

Cinderella's stepmother and sisters hate her. Snow White's stepmother wants to kill her. Witches cast spells on Sleeping Beauty and Rapunzel.

But in Garner's version, the women end up becoming friends by finding a common bond. Snow White teaches the Queen to stop obsessing about her own beauty. Cinderella, her step family and other women at the royal ball break free from the conventions of female beauty and end up running the kingdom.

Silly, yes -- it is a book found in the humor section -- but I find it interesting that Garner makes friends out of enemies.

These are stories most girls know by heart by the time they enter preschool. In them, men befriend women while women despise other women.

Also noteworthy, is that the heroines in these classic stories don't stand up for themselves when other women put them down. Cinderella never resolves her issues with her stepmother and stepsisters; she runs away from them when she marries the prince.

Wiseman pointed this out in her interview on CNN as well. Girls tend to want to please everyone, no matter the cost. That may mean laughing off a mean comment or downplaying a certain strength, Wiseman said.

Where this becomes a problem is when girls become women. Women, more often than men, don't give themselves enough credit. They say "I guess I'm good at that" instead of "I'm good at that," Wiseman said.

The blame for these unhealthy relationships probably does not rest solely on fairy tales. But it's interesting who were taught to fear and despise at a young age.

So often I've prejudged a person because of characteristics I've thought she's had. After I get to know her, I secretly kick myself for assuming the worst instead of the best.

And I've been way too nice to other women who've treated me poorly too many times.

It's a fine line, between being nice and being a pushover.

But it's also something women have to figure out in order to succeed. In some ways, women's unhealthy relationships with one another may be preventing them from being successful -- professionally and personally.

Once women get past that obstacle, maybe they can live happily ever after, girlfriends and all.

Cari Quam can be reached at 434-2235 or by e-mail at :mailto:cari.quam@austindailyherald.com