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To Kill A Mockingbird Gender Standards Essay

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In the novel To Kill a Mockingbird Scout is criticized for not wearing dresses and conforming to society’s standards for a young girl. Many of those standards still apply today. They are unrealistic and are based off of a men’s domain. Society has standards for all to follow. Many of these standards are meant for women. They range from what women wear all the way to their main purpose in society. Not only can they be dangerous, it can be a downfall in society’s advancement. Because women are criticized daily by society’s unrealistic standards and gender bias, women cannot freely express themselves. Women are constantly pressured by the unrealistic beauty standards society has set for them. They are told to dress both revealing and modest. …show more content…

In education, women are taught to act feminine. During women’s educational path they become more sexualized by both boys and teachers. Therefore, a dress code is contributed to the school policy. Subjects such as art, reading, and writing are “girly subjects.” Subjects like math and science are seen as masculine. Because of this many females are not given enough educational attention in those subjects. Only twenty-six percent of women work in the engineering and tech field (Wojciki 1). Many were not exposed to this field of work during school, and are told ‘it is a man’s job’. In the workplace, women receive unequal pay. Secret© Stress Test for Women made a commercial for deodorant featuring a women preparing to speak to her superior about the wage gap. To point out, the nation is publicly aware of the wage gap, yet they refuse to take action. Furthermore, women are also sexually harassed at work. “Of those who said they had experienced sexual harassment at work, a full seventy percent said they never reported it” (Berman 1). Gender Bias also effects media advertising, news casting, films, books, music videos, and television. Women are more likely to be shown preforming domestic household chores or sexually exploiting their bodies in these media controlled

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By using logos in her essay’s, Mairs is able to further describe the effects of standards have on women, including herself by stating in her quote, she’s spent most of her life suffering from not meeting the standards set for her. The use of short and long sentences in her essays help the rhythmic flow describe what it’s really feel like to fall short of standards people have set for

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Lastly, take risk as another factor. Majority of the workers in nearly all the most dangerous occupations, such as iron workers and loggers, are male, and 92 percent of work-related deaths in 2012 were to men. Males are also more likely to pursue occupations where compensation is risky from year to year, such as finance and law. Research shows that average pay in such jobs is higher to compensate for the risk. Therefore, due to the fact that women and men do different type of jobs and work different hours, the gap in wage is not related to gender discrimination and feminism is again proven to be irrelevant

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In Harper Lee's To Kill A Mockingbird, the character Atticus Finch is different from the other men of Macomb in many ways. One major difference is him displaying positive qualities not seen in Macomb's other men. It can be argued that Atticus represents a new concept of masculinity because of his personal qualities. There two are qualities that strongly support this argument; Atticus is respectful to all people and he does not do the daily tasks that the other men do, although some people argue that his behavior is only because he is under pressure to set an example for his kids. Atticus one of the few respectful characters in To Kill A Mockingbird which sets him apart from the other Maycomb men.

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Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, is set in the 1960’s, a time when men and women had specific and restrictive roles in society. Men were the ones to work and earn money for their families and women were expected to a caring and obedient homemakers. In many ways, those gender stereotypes are still very present today. The contrasting opinions of Atticus Finch and Aunt Alexandra provide the reader with the different views on how men and women should be raised, which in turn, affects the readers thoughts and opinions on the gender expectations and roles that are present in today’s society.

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The title “To Kill a Mockingbird” written by Harper Lee, regard to how it is a sin to kill a mockingbird, because all they do is sing. Atticus told the kids they can shoot as much blue jays as they desire, but not to shoot any mockingbirds for that reasons, because mockingbird do not harm nor do they bother anyone. In this novel, there are three main mockingbird, Tom Robinson, Jem, and Boo “Arthur” Radley. Tom Robinson was just an innocent black male accused of raping a white woman named Mayella Violet Ewell, Mr.Ewell oldest kid. Although all evidences point to Tom being not guilty, he was still convicted guilty because back in the days of 1930s in Maycomb, Alabama, everyone would pick a white person words over a black person word any day

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“The one thing that doesn’t abide by majority rule is a person’s conscience.” This is a quote from Atticus Finch, a courageous and wise character from Harper Lee 's novel, To Kill A Mockingbird. The story is told through the perspective of a young girl, Jean Louise ¨Scout¨ Finch. She lives with her older brother, Jeremy, and widowed father and prominent lawyer, Atticus, in Maycomb, Alabama during the time of the Great Depression. Throughout the novel, the children experience the injustice and prejudice of society through a tough case that their father was appointed to and are taught to respect and tolerate all people, despite their differences.

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Harper Lee’s novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, illustrates how women are restricted by societal expectations. Women and girls are expected to act a certain way, to be feminine and docile. After an argument between Jem and Scout, Jem goes as far to shout, “‘It’s time you started bein’ a girl and acting right!’” (Lee, 153). Jem believes that Scout should be cooperative and malleable to be a typical girl.

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