Gender Roles In The House On Mango Street

According to The World Bank, “More than 1 in 4 women (26%) aged 15 years and older have suffered violence at the hands of their partners at least once since the age of 15. Applying this percentage to the 2018 population data from World Population Prospects, the WHO estimated that 641 million women have been affected. In The House On Mango Street, many girls are affected negatively by gender roles. Sally is a girl that cares solely about her looks and gets married young to a man that is violent towards her. Similarly, Marin is a teenager who gets married young to a man that also is violent towards her. Gender roles severely impact individuals as seen through Minerva and Sally because they are hyper-feminine which shows how pushing gender roles

In the Viginet Linoleum Roses, the author writes, “Sally got married like we knew she would, young and not ready but married just the same… she married him in another state where it’s legal to get married before the eighth grade…She is happy, except sometimes her husband gets angry and once he broke the door where his foot went through, though most days he is ok… She sits at home because she is too afraid to go outside without his permission.” This shows how that the people (around her) suspected that she would get married young because of the gender stereotypes in the street where they live in. Her getting married in another state because of how young she is showing the gender stereotype of women being treated as objects. In addition, when it says, “She is happy, except sometimes her husband gets angry and once he broke the door where his foot went through…” shows how Sally’s husband is abusing her. To add on, when it says, “She sits at home because she is too afraid to go outside without his permission.” it shows how her husband is showing the gender stereotype of being dominant and aggressive. In This is what happened when gender roles are forced on kids, by Emanuella Grinbirg and Victoria Larned, CNN the authors write, “For girls, those risks can include child marriage, pregnancy, leaving school early, sexually transmitted

This is because he is “hypermasculine”, “aggressive”, “dominant”, and “insensitive.” This is shown in the vignette when Esperanza says, “Next week she comes over black and blue and asks what she can do?” This quote touches upon how Minerva and her husband are going through cycles of abuse. In these cycles, they have fights where Minerva kicks her husband out but he comes back and insincerely apologizes. She wants him to leave but he becomes violent. Minerva coming back in “black and blue” shows that she is abused by her husband. According to What are gender roles and stereotypes?, “Hypermasculine folks exaggerate the qualities they believe to be masculine. They believe they're supposed to compete with other men and dominate feminine folks by being aggressive, worldly, sexually experienced, insensitive, physically imposing, ambitious, and demanding.” This is shown in the vignette Minerva writes poems because her husband “dominates” her by being aggressive, insensitive and demanding. This shows that he abuses her. These actions make him insensitive because when he does apologize, it is not sincere. It is clear that hypermasculinity negatively affects women like Minerva who are forced to take care of their kids, do all of the work at home, and are subject to violence by their