Personal Narrative: 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

Even though they talk about different genders, the short stories talk about how young girls and boys act. In “Girl,” the stories are a conversation between a mother and her daughter. Most of talking is done by the mother, because she is telling her daughter how young ladies are supposed to act. She talks about ironing her father’s khaki pants and doing chores around the house. The mother says, “be sure to wash every day”(114). A huge stereotype of women is they always have to look good. They always have to smells and look good regardless of what they’re doing. The most common stereotype for women is that women always cook. The mother says “this is how you make bread pudding; this is how you make doukona…” (115) the mother seems to be telling her daughter how to be a stay at home woman. Cooking is a major part of a stay at home woman. Due to women entering the work force and getting better jobs the stereotype of woman always cooking is slowly going

Girls have to stand up against the rules decided for them by the male in our society.

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 the song Like a Boy, by Ciara, exhibits how extraordinarily different the relations of men and a women are in regards to romantic behaviors. It portrays a message of comparing gender roles by a woman kvetching how men can easily get away with treating women as inferiors without as much as a scold. She puts her male companion in the shoes of a female to see if it would too trouble him in the same manner. For example, Ciara states, “sometimes I wish I could act like a boy”, this lyric alone can speak the stories of many women in today’s society. In addition, Like a Boy proves how active inequality between sexes still exists today. This also can lead to questioning of how successful all of the women’s movements and revelations truly were if

As years pass and the dynamic of what it means to be a girl evolves, girls are “told they can do anything, be anyone” and have taken the bull by the horns and are surpassing boys in schools, in all respects (Black). Furthermore, Black states that the “decades of conversation” allow girls to learn from others’ thoughts on what it means to be a woman and understand the “complexity of womanhood” (Black).

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.

Always is a very popular company among young girls, adults and teenagers. This company specifies in selling feminine products such as pads, tampons, and basically anything that helps a woman during menstruation. About two years ago on June 26, 2014 Always filmed a commercial known as #Likeagirl, they needed a way to appeal to the next generation. This commercial was aimed towards younger girls who are starting to go through puberty and how a certain comment can bring them down. In the beginning of the commercial the director had a few people demonstrate how a girl runs, throws, and fights. The first people who were asked these questions were two teenage girls, male adult and a boy. When they were told to do such tasks they over exaggerated and mocked how girls are portrayed to be now a days, to them a girl can not run, throw or fight, they fling around their arms, play with their hair and giggle. Another group was asked the same exact questions, only this time they were young girls around 10 to 12 years old. When the girls did the same tasks as the other group, they did it with emotion there was no exaggeration involved they did it like any girl would like anyone would, they ran around the whole studio, punched the air with passion and threw an imaginary

“Don’t cry like a girl” “Stop flail your hands while running, are you a girl?” “Stop begging, that’s not what boys do!”

What does the words “like a girl” mean to you? Does it mean how you act? How you face problems? Or is it just your way of life? Like a girl isn't always a bad thing like people make it out to be sometimes it can be a good thing to be “like a girl” everyone needs to take some things into consideration. Some things such as how you throw, how you fight, and how you act are all ways to show you. Some guys may have the same outlook on life as a girl but they don't show it so they don't get made fun of.

In Ciara's video like a boy young women are directly targeted and her personal view of women in the culture in which we live in is expressed. In the video Ciara challenges the view of a stereotypical male not only through her lyrics such as ‘wish we could switch up the roles’ calling for a sense of equality for women in today’s world, she also pushes the boundaries with her

We like to believe that we live in a world of equality, but how equal is a world where a woman gets paid 80 cents for every dollar made by a man? This twenty percent gender wage gap in current society refutes the idea of an equality. Women have significantly progressed since the 1960’s and 70’s feminist movement, yet there is still that twenty percent left to go. Even in today’s society, women feel compelled to “act like a man” to take on this male dominated society. Women have to sacrifice their womanhood in order to be offered equal opportunities. This means that they have to be an exception to the stereotypes applied to women. The stereotype of a women being dainty,fragile and in need of a man’s protection. They have to let go of these “womanly” characteristics that support the stereotype and instead, to be more “like a man”. Ariel Levy’s article “Female Chauvinist Pigs” and Amanda Filipacchi’s article “How to Pose like a Man”, discuss why women want to be seen as a man and their motivations to act like a man. Levy and Filipacchi admit that we live in a male dominated society. Both Filipacchi and women mentioned in Levy’s article want to break out of the stereotypes applied to women. Filipacchi wants to break out of this stereotype by using her author photo to make a statement about women empowerment, While Levy talks about women in her article who believe that associating with masculine qualities will help them break out these stereotypes.

Have you ever been told you perform a certain action “like a girl”? Statistically, acting like a girl would be a compliment due to women’s outstanding performance in general. Stereotypically, it is the opposite of any sort of positivity. Filmmaker Lauren Greenfield and well known female use company, Always, paired together for the video to empower and enlighten the phrase “like a girl”; confidence and empower is what both want women to feel like. The PSA from Always is effective at convincing the audience to seek further than the phrase “like a girl” in a negative perspective.

What does it mean to be a girl according to society? How does society see it? In many countries, a girl is seen as powerless, uneducated, and too emotional to handle a man’s job. For example, women in Saudi Arabia are not allowed to drive. In the past, writers used to describe a woman’s role as the victim of many forms of discrimination in the United States of America. In other words, women were only involved in things that men thought were not important. For instance, women did not have any other role than being a housewife. They had to stay at home, watch the children, be responsible, and do all the chores. Nonetheless, American women got their freedom earlier comparing to other countries in the world. Now they are more independent, more

First, they are asked to “Run like a girl” (Always), and each girl begins running the stereotypical way a girl runs, which media constantly conveys. Girls hitting puberty are continuously exposed to media, and this being the most vulnerable time in their lives makes them more susceptible to believing what they see and basing their actions off of it. Media is not only full of stereotypes and unreal expectations, but there is also a clear separation of the physical and emotional characteristics between males and females. Using the same group of girls, they are then asked to “Fight like a girl” (Always), which, again, falls under the stereotype. This makes the representation of females clearly different than the representation of males, and part of the contributors to this separation are females themselves. Next, they asked younger girls the same questions. When the younger girls are asked to “Run like a girl” (Always), the girls run as fast as they can; when asked to “Fight like a girl” (Always), they fight their hardest. The separation between the two age groups is clear, which is unfortunately caused by many aspects. Girls, starting at an early stage of life, are vulnerable and begin believing the separation between the genders is real and that they need to conform to it. They let their value of their strong and