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Gender Roles In Boys And Girls By Alice Munro

475 Words2 Pages

Many decades ago stereotypical gender roles were very common. Unlike in today’s society, boys and girls were very limited to the things they did or said. Which means that it was more likely to see boys working outside, meanwhile girls were told and soon they believed themselves that they were only supposed to work inside. In the short story “Boys and Girls” written by Alice Munro the narrator of the story has to deal with gender roles which causes her to go through self discovery. While she was growing up she realised that helping her father with his farm was far more exciting than working indoors with her mom. She liked to imagine “a world that presented opportunities for courage, boldness and self sacrifice.”[47] which connects with what happens when she is helping out her dad on his farm. Even if not all days are as great …show more content…

Not only is her mother against her, but whenever her grandma is over she is trying to change her by saying things like “girls don 't slam doors like that” and “girls keep their knees together when they sit down.” which implies that stuff like that is only for boys which is stereotypical. This has made her despise the word girl, since the word was only categorizing her. She doesn’t believe that things that she does should represent who she is as a person. “The word girl had formerly seemed to me innocent and unburdened like the word child.”[51] Everything that happens in this short story proves to be about stereotypical gender roles. As you can tell she had a hard time being who she wanted to be just because she was a girl. Even though most gender roles have diminished some people still go through getting bullied daily because of their gender. This is because our society seems to think that boys are more superior than girls. When in reality everybody should be known as equals. Boys and girls should be able to live in a world where they are treated fairly and where gender roles are non

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