My Life in Pink

When women are growing up, they either hope or are supposed to be ladylike. From the pink blanket for a newborn baby girl to the laced kerchief for an old woman, there exist the standards that restrain female behavior and influence women’s lives as time goes on. Similarly, Lynn Peril argues that “Pink think is a set of ideas and attitudes about what constitutes proper female behavior” (281). In the selection “Pink Think,” which is selected from the introduction to Pink Think, Peril briefly introduces several instructions about female behavior for daily life and illustrates a few factoids of femininity when she was born. By using some theories of Pink Think and several specific examples from history, the author establishes the case that a woman has been expected to fit into a specific mold in order to be a successful woman in life. Nevertheless, some people think that the stereotypes of Pink Think have indeed changed and do not exist in today’s life because of the replacement of new stereotypes. However, through examining the role play games for women, the female’s behavior between past and present, the pink toys for girls, and the first blanket for a newborn baby girl, the pink think still exists in today’s society.

Gender can be defined as “sex roles” which are conditions that one considers to be for men or women. People tends to mistake it with sex or thinks that they are both the same. We discussed about the patterns of gender which how the authors of The Kaleidoscope of Gender describes it as “regularized, prepackaged ways of thinking, feeling, and acting” (Spade and Valentino,2017). It becomes an identity for us. We believe that there is and can only be two genders, being masculine for men and feminine for women. These roles has been forced onto us since birth: blue for boys, and pink for girls. You can see the roles being push onto a person throughout one’s life, but we don’t notice it since it’s “normal” to us.

Both texts, Bad Boy and “I Was a Skinny Tomboy Kid”, present similar themes of boys and girls having expected gender roles as children. The texts take place in the 1950’s, more than 60 years ago. In that time, gender barriers were strict, girls and boy were expected certain roles. Therefore, children felt as though they had to conceal their real identities, like a mask covering their appearance. In Bad Boy, the

In “Why Boys Don’t Play With Dolls,” Pollitt writes about the differences between growing up as a boy growing up as a girl. She brings up the stereotypes that society naturally creates between genders in early ages, which leads to the lifestyle and path that boys and girls are raised in. Parents and feminist alike play a big part in establishing these sex roles. They raise their kids wanting them to be successful at what they are expected to be good at based on their gender and the trend that has been set before them.

In Peggy Orenstein’s article, “What’s wrong with Cinderella?”, she analyzes the obsessions young girls have for stereotypical feminine products and toys, such as princesses and the color pink. Orenstein claims that such obsessions have negative effects on girls as they grow into women, restricting them into playing a specific role in adulthood. Although the author expresses much bias, she effectively supports her claims through her positions as a feminists and parent.

The issue of gender roles is one of the central themes of this novel. All the main characters of the novel spend their whole lives trying to conform to the standards of masculinity and femininity expected of them by the society. The inability of the main character of the book to meet the expected stereotypical roles not only causes them personal turmoil but also makes their social life miserable. They try to fit in the ascribed gender roles of their Dominican culture, but are simply incapable of doing that. However, the society does not understand their incapability and makes them pay for their nonconformity.

It talks about how there isn’t a set way in society how girls and boys are acting. Some girls act like tomboys and there are boys that act feminist and as they grow in age the differences are more evident especially in today’s society where more and more people are leaving behind gender normal. This idea is also present in “We Are All Works in Progress” where the author brings up the discussion how society sees boy and girl but in her mind and the minds of others there is so much

In “Lieutenant Nun: Memoir of a Transvestite in the New World” by Catalina de Erauso, a female-born transvestite conquers the Spanish World on her journey to disguise herself as a man and inflicts violence both on and off the battlefield. Catalina discovers her hidden role in society as she compares herself to her brothers advantage in life, as they are granted money and freedom in living their own lives. Erauso decides to take action of this act of inequality by forming a rebellion, as she pledges to threaten the social order.The gender roles allotted to both men and women in the Spanish world represent the significance of societal expectations in order to identify the importance of gender in determining one’s position in the social order in the Spanish World.

In the past, there have been countless princess movies or so-called “Cinderella” films. However, the general message that each one of these movies have given has changed as time has progressed. With this change, expectations placed on the princesses have been modified as well. This change in expectations has been thoroughly discussed by two authors, James Poniewozik and Peggy Orenstein. Poniewozik, a media and television critic for Time magazine, wrote an article entitled “The Princess Paradox” where he discusses this evolution of expectations. As well as him, Orenstein, a contributing writer for the New York Times Magazine, wrote an article with the title of “Cinderella and Princess Culture” where she also discusses the development of the expectations on girls. Even though Poniewozik and Orenstein discuss the evolution of expectations portrayed on girls, Orenstein is able to illuminate the more complex ideas that Poniewozik is attempting to express based on the expectations of girls.

Children learn as early as age two what it means to be a “boy” or a “girl” (Aina & Cameron). This is described as gender identity, a person’s sense of self as male or female. Gender stereotyping emerges hand in hand with the development of gender identity in Early Childhood (Halim). Gender roles are society’s expectations of the proper behavior, attitudes and activities of males and females. When babies are born they are either put in pink or blue, as they grow up they still maintain the same “gender” colors. As young children start to socialize, they are playing with either “girl” toys or “boy” toys. When they get older they

The French-Belgian film (the director was Belgian) Ma Vie En Rose (My Life in Pink) is a story set in France about a family of six (Mom - Hanna, Dad - Pierre, three sons (Ludovic being the youngest, and Daughter) in which the 7 year old son, Ludovic (Ludo for short), has a gender identity disorder. Ludo thinks he's a girl and God mistakenly made him a boy when his second X chromosome didn't go down the chimney. He attempts to correct this mistake by dressing like and acting like a girl. At first, Ludo's parents find his behavior humorous. However, after repeated incidents of girlish behavior - including dressing up like a girl and pretending to marry his best friend, Jerome - his parents start to think there's a

My life in Pink is a film about the challenges of accepting gender identity. Ludovic Favre and his family just moved into a new neighborhood. Ludovic is the youngest child and he wishes to live as a female. At their family housewarming party, Ludovic shows up wearing heels, makeup and a dress. Right away other families were worried for their children.

In this essay I discuss that "doing gender means creating differences between girls and boys and women and men...." (West & Zimmerman 2002:13) I am concentrating on the female perspective, how societyputs forth expectations of what is 'natural' or biological even though, in some cases, it can be quite demeaning and degrading. I am using some examples from the local media and also a few childhoodexperiences that have helped me to now strongly suspect that the quote from Simone Beauvoir (1972) "One is not born a woman, but rather becomes one" most likely has quite a bit of truth to it.

Society today places many ideals when it comes to proper behaviours regarding gender roles. These are considered societal norms that are widely debated and controversial. Society has created a norm, which encompasses specific expectations and rules that change the daily lives of men and women, giving them specific tasks and behaviours to abide by. These standards are known as gender roles, which are defined as distinguishing actions, thoughts, and feelings of males and females. Gender roles are said to be a result of nature, which is a natural process, every male or female is to follow. On the other hand it can be a result of nurture, which changes ones way of thinking and adapting their lifestyle to fit their environment. Either way gender roles are a part of someone’s life from the moment of their birth, as they develop, and long after that, this proves that gender roles are influential to a person’s life and development. This essay examines how media such as music, family life, and different parenting styles encompass gender roles and teaches behaviours regarding them. Therefore, gender roles define males and females are a result of nurture and not nature.

Perhaps it would have been a different situation, if they were actually women who are acting and thinking like men. According to travesties, being of the primary gender (biologically male), thinking and behaving like women is unacceptable because it downgrades one’s gender status. On the contrary, being biologically female, behaving and thinking like men is upgrading and heroic. In this sense, being like a girl has been a challenge since childhood for travestis. They always feared that people would find out and shame them in the society. While peculiarly following their unimpressive path in the society, of desiring women and experiencing sex, travesti subjectivity is generated out of their apprehensive relationships with their untrustworthy boyfriends. Within this subjectivity, travestis’ efforts to show themselves within the normal boundaries of the Brazilian society strengthen the gender binary. In their relations with their boyfriends, they act like nothing else other than females. Similarly, in their profession, they play the role of a female or male depending on the demands of the situation by swapping between the binary gender roles. Travesti subjectivity comes into the limelight with normative gender binary