‘From He to She in First Grade’ Summary & Response In Laurie Frankel's story, she observes the journey her first grader takes as a transitioning male to female, at home and in school; and she accepts her child throughout. Her daughter communicates that she wants to wear feminine clothing and instead of ignoring her feelings and moving on, her parents accept her decision and tell her that as long as she is comfortable, it doesn’t matter what she wears. Her transition starts with showing her parents she enjoys wearing a sparkly green dress that was part of a puppet theater present gifted to her. She doesn’t take the dress off and starts to wear other stereotypical female things such as: hair clips, heels, skirts and dresses.
It is well-known in modern culture that children begin developing gender identities from a very young age. As soon as children are able to comprehend media and the actions of those around them, they are bombarded with examples of gender roles. In fact, they are presented with these examples even before they can comprehend them. Parents may begin reading children books right from birth. The gender roles that are often present in these picture books aimed at young children become ingrained in the minds of the children, kickstarting the development of gender identity.
When we read some fairy tales, the girls usually wear dresses and the boys wear pants and shirts. Although there has the same family traditions in Stone Butch Blues, the narrator Jess Goldberg like to wear pants and shirts instead of dresses. However, in her family, the female always wear a dress and people also believes in that. As she argues with her father that she does not want to wear a dress, her father said “Because you’re a girl” ( Feinberg, 19), which indicates what her parents think a girl should do and they want to let she correct her “fault”. Not only her parents think that way, other strangers also ask Jess about her gender.
Gender roles influence every aspect of our lives from what we wear to the hobbies we keep to the way we behave every day. When a person steps out of the guidelines set forth by society for their gender there is often backlash of some sort, making it difficult for a person to escape the restraints of conformity. In today’s society we often mention the expectations and ideals for women to be and have but rarely do we touch on what is expected of men. They, like women, are required to act and appear a certain way. Men are thrown into roles that necessitate strength of character, body, and mind.
This illustrates how gender stereotypes shape societal expectations, leading to Minnie living in the confines of submissive roles for women, ultimately constraining their autonomy. Similarly, in Girl by Jamaica Kincaid, Girl is subjected to many societal norms, set up by her gender. For example, “This is how you smile to someone you don’t like very much; this is how you smile to someone you don’t like at all” (Kincaid 43). This further proves the gender stereotype that women are almost always pleasant and nice, leading to the social expectation that girls should behave accordingly and put politeness first, even if it is not implied. Suppressing her feelings and true self-expression,
English Essay Q3 Texts used : The Altar of the Family and At Seventeen Traditionally, society views males as strong, aggressive, dominant and unemotional individuals while females play unimportant and demure roles within society. Sheila Morehead’s “At Seventeen” and Michael Wilding’s “The Altar of the Family” challenge this idea of masculinity and gender roles, “The Altar of the Family” especially does this as the protagonist of the short story is a young boy, David. David is constructed to challenge the stereotypes of masculinity and through this the author is able to push the message that being a man doesn’t mean you need to conform to these gender stereotypes and not conforming to the stereotypes doesn’t result in being a failure as a person.
As a result of a combination of generational values and societal conceptions, characters such as Walter created a skewed version of what it means to be a man. Today, being a man has a different connotation than it did in the 1950s. Gender equality is greatly emphasized as people try not to put the different sexes in categories. Compared to the 1950s, there are many more women supporting families while men stay at home (Bohn). This completely contradicts the Younger family’s view on what it means to be masculine.
I use the example of the story The Paper Bag Princess by Munsch as a children’s story that promotes untraditional gender roles. I had a hard time thinking of stories my parents read to me that broke out of the gendered social script, yet I can’t think of any children’s stories of people who identify as transgender. Gender is molded by society and because society focuses on differences between men and women, we forget to look at the similarities between the
Gender and Sexuality in Futuristic Worlds Science fiction is a genre which gives one's fantasy free rein. The writer doesn't have limitations of the present world. She or he doesn't need to take modern laws, social norms, and ethics into consideration if they do not choose to do so. A writer is free to choose a whole new world to explore, which can be similar to present day, or completely different. By writing about the future, a person can explore issues of present day through imaginative technology, non-human species, and other new tropes.
Perhaps one of the most fascinating yet depressing studies on gender, its fluidity, and how oppressive it can be is the case of David Reimer. In Chapter 3 of "Undoing Gender" by Judith Butler, this situation was studied in detail and psychoanalyzed. When Reimer was extremely young (under a year old), his penis was damaged and had to be removed, so psychiatrist John Money stepped in and told Reimer's parents that they could have sex reassignment surgery, raise David as a girl, and he'd live a normal and happy life. David was thus renamed Brenda and was brought up as female. Around age eight, however, Brenda started exhibiting traditionally masculine behaviors such as wanting to play with trucks and toy guns.
We all feel the need to be loved, or included without our gender interfering. The novel Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck reveals that people have false expectations based on gender, through the point of view of Curley’s wife. Therefore, people look down on
Malcom X once said, “Education is our passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to the people who prepare for it today.” Most students in the United States have spent twelve years preparing to go to college. I’m included in that majority and I want to utilize my education to pursue a career. College is a stepping stone that transitions students from high school to the adult world. I believe that college is a transition that will offer the criteria I need to become a screenwriter and a professional writer.
Judith Ortiz Cofer’s work “The Changeling” depicts the exploits of a young girl “vying for her father’s attention” while her mother does not condone such behavior (2). The poem is told as a flashback, with the narrator recalling a memory from her childhood. It begins with the young girl describing a game she made so that her father would pay attention to her. Then she dresses up like a soldier and pretends to be a man as part of the game. Her mother disapproves of her dressing in that fashion and makes her change back into her regular clothes.
In Judith Ortiz Cofer’s “The Changeling”, the hardships of gender stereotypes are exposed. The contrast between a young girl’s imagination and the reality of her gender role is clear by her attempt to appease her parents. She is neither manly enough to gain the attention of her father nor womanly enough to attain the respect of her mother. Her dilemma of not being able to fit in is emphasized by Cofer’s use of imagery and repetition.
When the boys change to stereotypes they are more likely to be more prone to substance abuse and suicide, having shorter life expectancy, and also engaging in more physical violence than girls. Zoe Greenberg, a journalist at The New York Times talks about gender in her article ¨When a student says, I'm Not a Boy or a Girl¨. In her article, Greenberg talks about the story of Sofia Martin and uses Pathos by using the story of Sofia Martin to play on the emotions of the audience to explain the situation that has occurred with the her, how ¨at the age of 15, after rehearsing in the shower, Martin made an announcement to the students at Puget Sound Community School where she explained to her school how Martin believes that she in not a male or
