This passage is from the book Cinderella Ate My Daughter, by Peggy Orenstein. The overall purpose of this book is to inform the readers of the stereotypes girls must face as adolescents. The author is able to express her opinion as a parent and give advice to other parents with daughters of how to overcome the stereotypes so girls do not succumb to the girly culture that bombards the media. The book touches on Orenstein’s role as a mother to her daughter Daisy and the challenges she faces due to all the stereotypes for young girls. This passage focuses on girls conforming to the stereotype regarding pink is the color for females.
The passage focuses on how girlhood has become monochromatic. The preference of the color pink to girls has become very influential as it affects many businesses. Orenstein uses dialogue between a sales representative and herself to captures how important the color pink is to his business. He claims that girls are born loving pink and pink is the way they make money. The author uses a simile to describe the attraction stating that “the color draws them like heat-seeking missiles” (Orenstein 35). The simile compares the young girls’ attraction to pink to heat seeking missiles which is an exaggeration that helps show how strong the attraction is. This however, was not always the case as other adults revealed they “do not remember being so obsessed with pink” (Orenstein 35). The author corroborates this statement with evidence from Jo Paoletti who is a professor of American studies at the University of Maryland. He argues
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She employs many literary devices that support her specific claim in this passage as well as she provides many clear examples of how stereotypes have shaped young girls’ lives throughout the book. Through these examples she succeeds to use them as evidence so the audience does not conform to
Florence Kelley, a member of the women’s reform movement of the early 1900’s, actively fought against child labor. During this time period, women had not yet achieved suffrage, and children of poor families were sent off to work long hours in factories. Many children were barely educated and spent a majority of their lives in quiet obedience at looming machines. On July 22, 1905, Kelley gave a speech on the topic at the convention of the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) in Philadelphia. On account of this, Kelley’s audience was a group of like-minded individuals who believed in women's suffrage.
In the lines 36-39 the pink hue of the flamingo was, “forward-looking rather than old-fashioned, just right for a generation, raised in the Depression, that was ready to celebrate its new affluence.” The allusion to the Great Depression, a time when America was struggling financially, crime was on the rise, adds another reason why the pink flamingo made an impact in the 50’s. The callout of the bright pink hue being “forward-looking” alludes to when everything in America was dark (the Great Depression). She continues by stating how “in the 1956… Elvis prelude bought a pink Cadillac” (43-45).
She also starts to explain to the reader some of her own struggles with gender roles. This is a quote from the article, “After pushing over obstacles in my own life and devoting many hours to thinking about gender and football, the issue walks in and grabs and after school snack in my house.” This excerpt shows the writer referencing personal experience in her life. Furthermore, the article displayed a tone of irritation and sarcasm. This is seen in the following quote, “You know the whole thing where we tell our girls they can be anything they want to be, and then we watch the way woman in the public sphere are treated?”
Children’s books are known for having colorful pictures and sending a positive message to young readers, but what if they are actually sending subliminal messages that children are not aware of? Kids always have a positive outlook on life, so they cannot see the hidden messages in the text. My Forever Dress written by Harriet Ziefert and illustrated by Liz Murphy, tells the story of a young girl whose grandmother makes her a new dress every year. One year she decides that she wants to recycle her own dress and make what is called a forever dress. Although the author of My Forever Dress seems to be a feminist, she uses several gender stereotypes throughout the short story.
It was difficult enough to rise above the silent reminders of Colored signs on the bathroom doors and cafeteria tables. But to be confronted with the prejudice so blatantly, there in that temple to intellectual excellence and rational thought, by something so mundane, so ridiculous, so universal as having to go to the bathroom... In the moment when the white women laughed at her, Mary had been demoted from professional mathematician to a second-class human being, reminded that she was a black girl whose piss wasn't good enough for the white pot”(pg.108.Shetterly). Mary Jackson had showed the young girls at the Girl Scouts that they be/do anything and shouldn’t believe the negative stereotypes about themselves and other African Americans. She had told them that
Stevie then being more mature asks, “Do you think that it makes somebody better ‘cause her arm lighter?(pg. 66).” With that, no one knows how to reply. The event symbolizes internalised oppression that has been imprinted into the young girls’
I think I do.’ He smiles. ‘For the first time in your life’” (Friesen 32). On the contrary, in “Boys and Girls”, characterization is shown through the disputed sexism throughout the story. The female narrator, feels that her female role models such as her mother and grandmother help create who she becomes.
Kingston’s use of declarative sentences highlights the stereotypes women face while simultaneously contextualizing information for the reader. Macauley and Lanning claim that “a string of declarative sentences”, especially when “built of cliches”, quickly become boring (Macauley and Lanning 58). These sentences have the effect of creating an impersonal situation devoiding the reader from a personal response. Kingston’s use of declarative sentences, however, aim to do exactly that. Kingston describes how her aunt was driven to commit suicide because the baby she was having was a girl, while for boys “there is some hope of
This quote shows that the color pink was a big way people claimed their wealth. The people raised in the depression did not want to be recognized as being poor, so making everything pink was a big way to show their wealth. All throughout this article, Price crafts her text to reveal that the United States culture mainly consisted of Americans proving their wealth. The main way Price crafts her text is by separating it into two different subjects, the flamingo and the color pink, and using big, descriptive words to further elaborate on the two topics. This gives two different points on how claiming the wealth was formed in the United States and makes these points
Though the girl 's’ mother can act less than motherly towards her children in some of her punishments, their parents mean well. It is obvious that their father and mother care for them and it is very prevalent in the way in which Claudia presents herself. Claudia also has a very high self esteem; she will not let the stigma of white beauty bother her dark complexion. For example, when Claudia is given a baby doll with porcelain white skin, she acts in a way that is much different than the normal way a little girl would act when gifted with a baby
However, she claims that because class was invisible in the girls ‘social life, the school blame their sexualized style, their rejection of prep’s values and their lack of school success for their class differences. Most important, Bettie claims that the lack of cultural capital also affected the working class girls because it intersected with their race and gender to influence their class futures. For example, Bettie argues how upwardly mobile girls had to performed whiteness and the school sanctioned femininity just to possessed the prep’s dominant cultural capital. At the same time, girls who didn’t possessed cultural capital were victims of generalizations and stereotypes that affected their class outcomes. As a result, many of the working class girls were destined to follow rough paths or the same low paying jobs as their
On page 535 Early inserts an anecdote of his sister favoring her white doll over her colored dolls. This shows that from an early age black girls were easily attracted to a white doll because that was the “prettier” one. The white dolls were based on the beauty in the
As kids, society teaches them at a very young age that pink is a representation for girls, and blue is for boys. It implies the stereotype that girls have to like pink or wear pink because of their gender. Also there is a part in the movie where Regina George shops for her spring fling dress. She shops at a store named 1,3,5. The name of the store refers to the sizes of their dress.
For example, Celie becomes socially, economically and spiritually free, she sins love, dignity, and respect. This paper has analyzed how the characters in The Color Purple arouse their self-consciousness, through sisterhood and encouragement, love and help from their partners. The author demonstrates how the characters escape degradation caused by mistreatment by men and finally win dignity. The paper recognizes that Celie utilizes sisterhood to gain liberation, sexual identity independence, and freedom. Works Cited Thyreen, Jeannine. "
The Color Purple is about a young child who was forced to become a women right after her mother died. The main character,Celie, did not have a voice in being independent and if she tried to speak be beaten until she was silent. The theme is emphasising that everyone has a voice and that you shouldn’t be afraid to fight for it. “All my life I had to Fight” (Page 40).