Reflection Paper

The role of gender roles/stereotypes in our society has greatly diminished. Only those who cling to the past and who benefit from the oppression of one group believe it is still an important factor in our society. These stereotypes are harmful and create a rift between two groups of people from an early age. Children should grow up without the label a gender chosen for them and away from the toxicity of gender stereotypes and conformities in toys and activities. When kids are treated differently from a young age they grow up under the impression that they are drastically unalike and that one group shouldn’t be like the other.

Well, society encouraged me to act in “gender-appropriate” ways from the moment my parents found out they were having a little girl so my room when I grew up was all decked out in pink and purple, while my brother got a room with blues and greens. From the moment parents find out what the sex of their child is they automatically assign their child to the color that fits their gender like pinks and purples for girls and blue and green for boys. I always grew up surrounded by flowers and things that are deemed as girly and I found nothing wrong with it because it felt normal to me. Well an example of a socialization I experienced as a child was that I always thought everyone had a stay-at-home mom like I did and a father who worked all day to

The different expectations for each gender are blatantly obvious in many situations. These expectations create double standards for different aspects of adolescent life. “Girls can be athletic. Guys can have feelings. Girls can be smart. Guys can be creative. And vice versa. Gender is specific only to your reproductive organs (and sometimes not even to those), not your interest, likes, dislikes, goals, and ambitions.” This quote is from Connor Franta’s A Work in Progress about the revelations in the field of gender roles and suppositions (Kerr). Many parents worry about their female teenagers being out late at night, yet male teenagers are allowed more freedom. This is due to the fact that females are seen as weaker and easy targets for gender based crime

There is a difference between being treated equally and being treated fairly, a fact that parents with more than one child will stress. A fact that is untrue because equality with fairness is not true equality. Fairness is being treated based on ones own abilities instead of any previous prejudices, and is an important part of the equality the world strives towards. This is still something very far out of reach though, especially in the area of gender. Despite the progress that has been reached in the last few year things are still not good enough to reach to full equality. 'Gender may mean less today than ever in history . . . but it still means plenty. Boys and girls . . . may be heading today toward the same bright future, but they continue to travel on a divided highway" (MacQueen, 2003, pg. 2) Women are still treated differently, and in many cases worse, than men in many areas based on the old preconception that women and men are fundamentally different and made of different things. Only the other side of the coin Men have very rigid limits to their potential as they are expected to embrace and be the epitome of masculinity, limiting their abilities as parents, friends, teachers and anything they wish to do that isn 't specifically masculine. (Hirsch, 2011, pg. 3) The saying that girls are made of sugar spice and everything nice while boys are made of snips, snails and puppy dog tails is something simple

I was the first born girl in my family. Growing up in a big family with many girl cousins, my life was filled with Bratz and Barbie’s. We spent a lot of time playing house, school, and playing with the easy bake oven. Even when we was outside we were fake cooking with leaves as greens, sand as salt, and using sticks as spoons, and also talking our babies dolls for walks in his/her stroller. Everything we did was centered on feminine activities. I think this was because the household I grew up in with two boys in two girls. My mother was always an advocate for gender roles. She believes males should take out the trash and females should wash the dishes. This was never challenged by any of my teachers. It wasn’t challenged until I went to the College of Education summer program where I learned about gender role. The chapter “Unlearning the myths that bind us: Critiquing fairy tales and films” in Christensen L (2001) book talks about how Disney displays the gender roles. She was talking about kids when she said, “They learn that

Over the course of the semester, there has been numerous amount of areas where I believe I have improved in comparison to high school. What has helped me in my writing is the writing class and the in-class writing workshop. The writing class that is located in the Kremen education building has helped me with my writing greatly because in the writing center the person in charge teach us lenses and we apply those lenses to the writing, draft, or reading that someone brings in. The in-class writing workshop has helped me because other students get to read my writing. This is helpful because I get feedback from many students and they let me know what needs to be fixed. A new tool I have been using is They Say I Say. The book is very helpful because of the information and examples it provides such as the templates. I have been applying the templates into my essays and I have seen a significant difference.

At this moment there is currently 7,430,931,842 people in the world. Nearly 3 billion of those people are currently living in poverty. Today, 350,000 babies will be born. The world, continues to grow, to prosper, as I sit in my bedroom staring out the window waiting for creativity to strike and give me the words that so effortlessly describe me. There is currently only one person in the world with the name Gabrielle Vozzi, and right now she is attempting to describe something that is indescribable: herself.

Throughout our discussion there were several intriguing and engaging questions that were asked and sparked a good conversation among our group. One moment where I believe I was most successful in the discussion, was throughout minutes six through sixteen. Throughout this time, we discussed how the Party’s control in 1984 can be seen in the world around us today such as in North Korea. This question was first prompted by Leo but what I feel made this our groups most engaging point was how everyone added to the question by rephrasing it, or adding additional information and perspectives, or incorporating it into aspects they are most passionate about in their lives. From this point, I related it to history and how history can be rewritten to correct ways a nation or person has morally failed. I used the example of slavery to show this point. Starting from about minute eight I discuss with my group how according to an article my English class read last year, Texas history textbooks teach slavery based on how it economically impacted the South rather than by teaching the dehumanizing and awful treatment of other people. This question and the points brought up by this question were what I found to be most engaging. Our group spent nearly ten minutes on this point, because this point took a personal side and everyone had something to discuss from it. I believe the passion developed from this point is what made this not only my most successful moment but one of our groups best

In 1994, my parents immigrated to Canada from Vietnam to seek better living conditions and a promising future for their soon-to-be children. However, to live in a free nation filled with opportunities, the two left everything behind. While living in rent, my father worked full-time at a factory while my mother had found a job as a cashier. Although they had a sustainable income, my father understood that raising a child would cost them more than they were currently making. In 1997, my father decided to study computer science at Langara in search for a better-paying job while working part-time as a security guard. Meanwhile, my mother took up housekeeping, working at two different hotels to earn more money for their coming child. Understandably, my parents had made their lives much harder immigrating to Canada, but their sacrifices - I can say - has paid off.

Writing is like a fine wine, it only improves with age. Through this semester I have meticulously learned the art and appreciations of writing. Over the long semester, I have improved through long sleepless nights. Which in fact were worth it in the very end, upon receiving my grade through the last 3 essays. My last essays that have enhanced my knowledge of writing of summarizing an article, defending a claim, and an op-ed piece. I’ve ultimately used my writing to not only learn, but also to critique and analyze my works, and use them to successfully thrive in this class.

Life represents a culmination of unforeseen events that eventually lead to success, and in the minds of the majority college symbolically defines the first major obstacle one must overcome to continue that journey. Every year, high school students across the nation eagerly anticipate the coming of their senior year and the rapidly approaching adventure to follow, but for many it simply reminds them of the heartache that is soon to come. My own personal experience began with the blinding influence hope cast over my judgement as inner levels of excitement exponentially increased and my emotions became steadily influenced by the people surrounding me. However, little was I aware that my future had already been decided and no external force would have the necessary impact to reconfigure my current course. In a sense, my ship had already sailed and was leading me in ironclad chains to foreign lands of which my presence was to be forced. College, to me, would soon become an indescribable burden where reality would suddenly become brutally clear and all hopes for a productive future existed upon the fate of an unstable pendulum.

Males and females have always been very different, but they should always be looked at as equal. Although when parents and guardians set different standards for their sons than for their daughters it creates a divide between males and females. As Samantha Ashton said, “Based off of Google searches, parents hope for their sons to be intelligent and their daughters to be pretty and skinny. They were also more likely to search if their daughter is overweight when it is 9% more likely for males to be overweight. Females are also more likely to be “gifted” by 11% while parents search more about boys being gifted. Parents shouldn’t be worrying if their daughter is too overweight and if their son isn’t intelligent unless they are equally concerned for both children.”(Page 1, Para 4). In Samantha Ashton’s research it defiantly shows that when parents and guardians set different hopes and standards for their sons than for their daughters it creates a major divide

We use gender as a basis for everything in life, despite the possibility of gender stereotyping; gender still sets important guidelines for us to follow. As seen in “The genderless baby” when children who do not know what is truly best for them and their future get the power to do whatever they want, their lives begin to spin out of control. Also, as _______ stated in __________ males and females are fundamentally different, so it only makes sense that we treat males and females differently, equally but differently. Personally, I find that despite being brought up in a very gender strict household, I was taught to be “a man” with good intentions, and not in a way that made me believe that males and females are not equals. Although classifying and limiting people by gender has created segregation, I believe that it also brings order and simplicity to a very complicated idea. By sheltering children from reality and not allowing them to grow up in the society that they will spend the rest of their lives in, only hurts the children.

Looking back on the last 15 weeks, so much has changed. For me working and going to school, adding homework in the mix has been a personal challenge. Learning to make time for homework, life and work at first proved to be difficult. These weeks have shown that while my current skill set has given me areas to develop as both a future educator and learner. The opportunities afforded to me through classes to improve areas to develop as both learner and future educator.

From the early moments of my childhood, I remember seeing my parents go to Russian Orthodox Church a lot. They would explain to my younger brother and me what was right and what was wrong from the religious perspective. On my 4th birthday, my grandma gave me the Bible for kids as a present, and I remember my mom reading it to me before going to bed. Back then it was just another interesting story that happened somewhere very far away. And yet mom would always find a way to tell these stories in such a manner so they translated really well into the reality we were living in. The more I grew up the more I realized that there was something missing in the big picture of my understanding of the world. I saw a lot of suffering that was happening everywhere, death, natural disasters, and I thought there must be a reason for all of it. Otherwise, the God does not care about any of us. I started to look for the answers everywhere: in the philosophical and religious books, movies, wise counsel from the people who lived a long life. I could not find the truth in church because the whole purpose of its existence with all its rules and restrictions, its idea of God who is something or someone out there, separate from us, and the only being that knows all the answers, was totally alien to me; mainly so due to my unwillingness to accept the fact of transferring all the responsibility for everything one does to someone else. I believed it to be a weakness to acknowledge one’s bad thoughts and deeds as something natural, as an external influence of the evil spirits. For me, it sounded like people who agreed with this concept simply wanted to escape the punishment for what they had done, choose an easy way out.