Analysis Of Always: Like A Girl

Girls behaviour is policed in that they cannot do anything that is strictly for boys, for example “Girls can’t surf!” and “Girl’s cant’ eat in front of boys” are two quotes from the movie that dictate how a girl must behave. Gender roles even transcend the social heirarchy, in that even the popular surfie girls are subject to being used by boys and told what to do. It even affects typical coming of age rites of passage, like when Debbie and Sue are drinking tequila and a boy goes “Tequila? Pretty strong stuff for a little girl.” It seems that to become a popular girl, you must assimilate into the feminine gender

“Girl” is a short story in which the author, Jamaica Kincaid, unofficially presents the stereotypes of girls in the mid 1900s. Kincaid includes two major characters in the story “Girl”, they are the mother and the girl. Although the daughter only asks two questions in this story, she is the major character. The mother feels like her daughter is going in the wrong direction and not making the best decisions in her life. The whole story is basically the mother telling her daughter what affects her decisions will have in the future. The mother believes that because her daughter isn’t sitting, talking, cleaning, walking or singing correctly it will lead her to a path of destruction. “Girl” is a reflection of female sexuality, the power of family, and how family can help overcome future dangers.

Girls, young women, and mature mothers. Society has consistently given women strict guidelines, rules and principles on how to be an appropriate member of a man’s society. These rules are set at a young age and enforced thoroughly into adulthood. When not followed accordingly, women often times too many face reprimanding through means of verbal abuse, physical abuse, or social exile. In the midst of all these strict guidelines and social etiquette for girls, a social rebellion started among girls and women and gender roles were broken, however the social rebellion did not and does not affect all girls and women. For instance, in less socially developed places, young girls on the brink of womanhood are still strongly persuaded to be a man’s idea of a “woman”.

The video showed us that there are still people who want that perfect image that does not even exist, being perpetrated on young vulnerable girls and women that are dying to become that idea of perfection.

“Girl In A Country Song” provides an alternative equipment for living through the rules of how women and men should behave. Throughout the introduction of the video, the women are portrayed as weak and dressing in a way to only attract the male eye. This is seen through the way that the women desire the men’s attention and acceptance, which goes along with the societal norm of women being less than men. However, towards the end of the video, women are portrayed in a more dominant role. Teaching women viewers that they aren’t less worthy than the men, and that they should speak up against sexism is crucial. To summarize, the text teaches us that it is inappropriate to view girls as anything less than exceptional, which challenges American hegemony and ideology.

Carol Bailey says in her analysis, “By instructing the young female to follow the script, the speaker emphasizes the view that females’ survival depends on performing their gender “appropriately” in societies in which their adherence to these standards is constantly scrutinized and evaluated” (Bailey, Performance and the Gendered Body). The mother believes that people will judge her based on the way her daughter turns out. If her daughter can not carry herself like a lady is supposed to than she supposes her daughter will not survive in the world. During that time period, the seventies, that assumption was fair since women were not given credit for many things and did not have the independence they do have today in America. In support to that, Logan says, “This veiled advice makes the reader question if the female narrator is a conformist or if she is challenging societal stereotypes” (Logan, Rhetorical Analysis of Kincaid’s “Girl”). Stereotypes connect to the idea of femininity because people paint a picture of what girls and ladies are supposed to be and act. Therefore the mother says many things that only apply to females. Readers make assumptions that the mother was denied by society growing up and now she stresses her daughter for the very same reason. The assumption can be made because mothers typically are encouraging when giving advice

There has always been that stereotype of boys being more athletic than girls. The gender segregation of sports reflects more than just physical differences between men and women. It reflects the way men think about women and sports. When someone throws a baseball in a nonathletic way, a friend would yell, “Stop throwing like a girl!” Being reminded of this

The video material that I chose to view for this assignment were music videos, which was an unsurprisingly easy decision to make for writing about gender stereotypes. Music videos are watched by millions every day, and many of these provide misogynistic visual media that has been regulated and accepted by society. These negative connotations for women showing them in highly gendered roles mainly doing medial things such as dancing around in lingerie or fawning over a rich, famous, and/or successful man are dangerous towards equality for genders. Young girls and boys seeing this kind of harmful content could lead them to grow up believing they have to conform to these stereotypes and gender roles instead of living how they would prefer.

Candance West and Don Zimmerman are the authors of “Doing Gneder” that was published in ‘Gender Society; on 1987. The point that the authors were trying to get accros in “Doing Gender” was that people fullfille their ‘gender’ just like any other rutine that people do in their life. It is hard for people to avoind ‘doing gneder’ becae it is almost a never ending activity. We do gender each and everyday to where we are onlivion to it. We step into our gender unknowingly while we are interacting and socializing. Children learn frm a ver yound age how to do gender. From a young age girls care about things like lip glass. The little girls associate wearing lip gloss with looking prettier. We make sure that they know how to be a ‘boy’ and ‘girl’. Gender is not at all who we are and it is not our identity. Gender is a mask that we put on when we face others. We don’t act in public like we act when we are alone. Just as stated in “Doing Gender” by Creative Sociololy, “It Is a product of social interaction… production…..A social construction. “ We do gender to avoind being judged by others. A man takin on the characteristics of a femal and vise versa is risky. As stated in the article “Doing Gender”, “…behave outside the boundres…risk…judge harshly…” Society treats the individuals who break the statues quote unfairly becase they are challenginf the system. There is a raise of unequal distribution of power by every person who participates in doing gender. Whne you compare men and

Always “Like a Girl” commercial was not only a hit in the media world, but a hit to the hearts of many women across the nation. In this commercial Always attempts to reach out and inform Americans of the damage caused to a female’s confidence when they do finally hit that age in their lives where insecurities begin to exist. Positively using their credibility and reputation to target a worldwide issue among woman so that it gains enough awareness to hopefully get fixed. Women working their whole lives to break society’s doubt so that they aren’t classified under another demeaning stereotype when asked, “What does it mean to do something ‘Like a Girl?’’’.

When my roommate was in elementary school, the boys in her grade would not let her play sports with her. The reason they gave her was that she was a girl, and sports were not for girls. She was told that she was not strong enough to play, and that sports were a boy thing. They then told her to go play house or kiss tag. When they said that, she proceeded to beat the boys up, making them look like the ones who weren’t strong. While violence is not the way to prove someone wrong, this story has a point. Taylor wanted to play basketball, but she was told she couldn’t because she was a girl. This might seem like innocent children making assumptions, but this is where it begins. These children will grow into adults that watch movies like Pixel, where the woman who is objectified is literally turned into an object, watch television shows like Two and a Half Men, which glorifies the manipulation and sexual conquest of women, and read books like Lolita and take it seriously. This idea, while developed in other places as well, is created through the media.

How we learn gender is part of gender socialization. It begins the moment we are born and continues till the end of our life. We are exposed to many factors that may influence our gender identity. Some of the factors are, media, our experience in school and our parents. In Martin & Kazyak’s essay titled “Hetero-Romantic Love and Hetereosexiness”, he explains how the media plays a part in shaping a child’s gender identity. In Thorne’s essay titled “Girls and Boys together…” he explores how sex segregation occurs predominantly in elementary school. In the film “Tough Guise”, Katz explains that men aren’t naturally violent but are taught to be so. And lastly, in Cornell’s essay titled “Masculinities and Globalization” he says that there are

On the other hand, boys might be more physical and aggressive because it is expected for boys to prove their manliness. They face intense pressure to demonstrate their masculinity front birth. Boys are treated differently while the girls are supposed to be meek and not demonstrate unladylike qualities in public. Unfortunate for boys, the society expectation of aggressive male as seen in sports such as football manifest in violence on and off the field at an early age and other anti-social behaviors

The men in these posters on the other hand are depicted as muscular, tan, strong, wealthy, and powerful, they too try to fit their “role” of manhood; hence the reasons there are so many violent teenage boys. They all think that being tough and strong is how they are supposed to be, and girls are depicted to be weak, dainty, and depended on males.

From a young age, we are exposed to gender stereotypes. Television, the Internet, and books define what is “feminine” and “masculine” for a child. Feminine is defined as “having qualities or appearance traditionally associated with women, especially delicacy and prettiness”. Masculine is defined as “having qualities or appearance traditionally associated with men, especially strength and aggressiveness”. Media takes this a step further and dictates exactly what girls and boys can and cannot do. In television and movies, women are mainly portrayed as homemakers and damsels who need a man to reach their full potential. They are often uneducated or seen as less intelligent than their male counterparts. Oppositely, men are portrayed as breadwinners and authoritative figures. They control most aspects of their lives and have more opportunities. According to Common Sense Media, these depictions cause “false assumptions and harmful conclusions”. Little girls learn that are worth less without a man and little boys boys learn that they are above women. The media also feeds into rape culture. Rape culture is the normalization of rape in societies. Rape culture is taught to young girls and boys. Girls are taught tactics to avoid rape and boys are taught that