Creative Writing: You Throw Like A Girl

While reading “Gender,” an essay by Jack Halberstam, the topic of sexism was brought to the forefront of my mind. It has been brought up more often in conversation in the modern era, issues such as how a few cruel insults pertain to female reproductive anatomy and, in a sense, degrade females and ultimately identify them, as well as femininity, as inherently “bad”. Such a thought stemmed from how Halberstam touches on the “problematic stabilization of the meaning of ‘women’ and ‘female’”: meaning there is no room for argument when it comes to your gender—you’re either a girl or not. You either fit into a strict mold, or you do not.

When women are put up on the high pedestal society puts them on, then they are unable to do anything and cannot succeed or accomplish anything in life from so high up. For example, when you think hear the phrase “run like a girl” or “throw like a girl”, how would you act it out? Almost anyone who hears that phrase takes it as a negative connotation. Why can’t “run like a girl” mean win the race? Humanity’s vision on the phrase “like a girl” means you are weak and not as good.

It believe that ´´Like a girl´´ is an insult because you're describing the phrase as saying you are not good enough to play this or do this. We watched a video and adults and kids hade to describe what a girl would look like running or fighting. I took this very offensive because when the boys ´´threw like a girl´´ they dropped the ball. I do not throw like this, I can throw pretty far. The producers asked a boy if he just insulted his sister, he said no not his sister but, other girls. He had a thought that kind of lead him thinking he did just insult his sister but not as a mean type of way to him. I think the author's purpose to put this out there is letting girls know that they can do things just as good as boys can. Like a Girl isn't an insult because sometimes we do it better.

In particular interviews girls described their gender as sneaky, manipulative, backstabbing and capable of destroying others (Simmons,16). Girls also feel a lot of pressure on them from parents, teachers, and peers to be perfect. They also feel pressured to strive for that image of being the good girl or perfect. (Simmons,17-19). There are so many labels out there for everyone such as "slut", "gay", "insecure" that can be very hurtful to other girls (Simmons, 167).

For example in To Kill A Mockingbird girls were often seen as weak and not as good as men. A quote from the novel that shows this is “Jem told me I was being a girl, that girls always imagined things, that's why other people hated them so, and if I started behaving like one I could just go off and find some to play with.” (41). Even though Jem is her brother he still makes fun of Scout by calling her a girl as an insult. Nowadays men and women are mostly considered equal and have the same opportunities.

Every day we hear subtle micro-aggressions about women and I never really understood why. Don’t be such a girl! Don’t fight like a girl! Comments like these are meant as an insult, and never to be taken as a compliment. But, why? Today, women are CEO’s, doctors, lawyers and presidential candidates. Women are stronger and more powerful today than ever before. However, society still paints a clear picture of women being weak, and not able to compete with their male counterparts. For example, prior to the repeal of the ground combat exclusion policy in 2013, (which opened more than 250,000 previously closed positions for women) women were seen as distractions and not fit for combat. The repeal of the combat exclusion policy in 2013, was an important

Phrases such as “man up” or “like a girl” are often used to discriminate against or discourage women. Women are also mostly portrayed to be weaker than men. An example of this in the classical text To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee is when Scout’s brother, Jem, says to her “Scout, you act more like a girl every day”. This quote is really hurting Scout because since she was a child, she believed that girl things were bad and boy things were good. So to avoid the badness of girl things, she would act more like a boy.

You have probably heard the term “like a girl.” The common insult that is thrown around as a way to call someone weak and inferior. But we never stop to think about how offensive this is to women. We have become so used to the idea that women are incapable, weak and delicate. But why can’t throwing like a girl mean throwing a 90 mile per hour fastball? Why can’t fight like a girl mean you’re tough? Why can’t run like a girl mean you win the race? And it is not because women can’t, because we will. It is because no one has given us the opportunity to do

The next morning (Y/N) slowly woke up, sitting up and rubbing at her eyes. She blinked a couple of times before looking around the room. She went to go get up before doing a double take, her eyes widening. Sitting in random places in her room were all of the characters from The Outsiders, at least all of the characters from Darry's gang. She tried not to start freakout, looking at everyone. They were just like she had imagined them.

As a society, I am very sad to say, we still have a long way to go for women and men to be treated equally. Although there has been some great progress made so far women are still not treated as equals. Women are just as much part of the work force and are “bread-winners” just like the men. There are women all over the world with very successful careers and some are even powerful boss ladies. So for society to still look at women like they are not equal to men is disgusting.

Tamora Peirce once said in her novel “The Woman Who Rides like a Man”, “You ride as a man, fight as a man, and you think as a man-" "I think as a human being,". Since the being of time women and men have had set gender roles. A man is to be masculine and without weakness. A woman is to be feminine and delicate. We pass these traits to our children and tell them not to deviate. Even though Boys should be boys and girls should be girls, People should not subject children to gender stereotypes because these stereotypes leads to social and educational anxieties, boys believing they should not show weakness and girls believing that they should only worry about being feminine and obedient Young men should be able to cry and wear pink without being called a pansy and young ladies should be able to cut their hair short and speak out without consequence.

when in fact, in today's society, females are doing the same things men are doing. We have female doctors, engineers and so on. furthermore, women of today are also owning business, buying their own houses and even today, society is filled with single mothers taking care of their kids

“You throw like a girl.” “You run like a girl.” “You look like a girl.” It’s common sense that these phrases are not at all compliments but rather gender-based insults. Since when did the physical capacities of a young girl stacked up against a boy turn into an insult and a limitation? Is being a female individual something derogatory, something to be shameful about? Young girls are taught to be weak, fragile and soft-spoken while it’s openly accepted and even encouraged for boys to have hard opinions, to be strong and tough and exert power. They’re constantly put into a place of doubt by the media, parents and their social community.

Many people might have heard the phrase “like a girl” at least once, whether it be an insult or even light teasing. “Like a girl” is a very stereotypical phrase characterizing girls and women as physically weak. To do something “like a girl,” suggested that the person was weak or even useless. The phrase “like a girl” became more popular with its usage after the movie The Sandlot in 1993. In the movie, both baseball teams are arguing over which team is better when one of the kids taunt the other by saying they “play ball like a girl”. It is shown that it is used negatively because everyone goes silent in shock and the boy that is mocked immediately gets angry, demanding for both of their teams to face off in a match.

Even today the word “feminism” still has a bitter taste to it. Though it basically just means equality between men and women (feminine) still many people refuse to label themselves with it. Some even fail to recognize the problem in the first place since they are not directly affected by it. But for every dollar a man earns a woman still only get between fifty- five and eighty cents (Tyson 85), the phrase “you throw like a girl” is still an insult and while it is fine for a women to dress in men clothes a man in women clothes is often shunned and ridiculed. My personal explanation for this is that our society thinks that it is degrading for a man to be female. It often still seems that our society thinks that women’s sole purpose is to please