Self-Esteem Through The Lens Of Gender Expectations

Wardy's book offers an expanded insight into girlhood, complete with appearances of stereotypes and sexualization during childhood. Taking a friendly approach to the realities of growing up for girls while having stereotypes and sexualization present, the chapters in Wardy's book are honest and bold and offers advice to parents from the change of child play to shopping strategies for girls that take away from sexualized markets, from how to teach young girls the importance of loving their bodies, Wardy includes useful tips in each chapter that is designed to help parents redefine what it means to be a girl in today's society.

The author cites many studies, including a 2006 survey of more than 2,000 school-aged children that observed young girls feeling an increasing need to be “perfect” -- not only to excel academically, but also in extracurricular activities, sports, and friendships. She also reports that the number of young girls worrying about their weight increased between 2000 and 2006 as well, along with rates of stress, suicide, and depression. Orenstein quotes Susan J. Douglas from her book Enlightened Sexism to reconcile these studies: “We can excel in school, play

Growing up in today’s society can be traumatizing for any child. When it comes to growing up as a young girl, however, it can be downright devastating, but not only for the child but the parent as well. There are so many decisions to be made when choosing how to raise your child, assuring that you have instilled proper values to develop a healthy sense of self-worth and confidence.

Raina Kelley covers society's issues and cultural controversies for Newsweek and The Daily Beast.’s. In her article “Beauty Is Defined, and Not By You” aims to convince her readers that women success or not is not depends on beauty. “When I’m on m deathbed, I hope to be smiling in satisfaction about all I accomplished, not that I made it to 102 without any cellulite.” One of her goals is to remain all girls do not get influence by this society, just be brave and continue to reject that beauty is the only way to get ahead. Kelley used personal experiences, facts and examples, also counter argument to create a convincing argument.

Society has created in their minds the way a woman is supposed to act and the things they are allowed to do. In Jamaica Kincaid’s “Girl”, we see a young woman being forced to live by the likeness of the society in which she dwells. Although this is not the life she wants to live, she has no other choice than to become the woman she was made to be.

In today’s society, Hinshaw pointed out that girls are expected to be good at the typical male things. Because of this, girls are more focused on their career and education rather than starting a family. “In today’s competitive environment, girl skills are not enough” (Hinshaw 826). On top of female skills, girls must also be more assertive like guys, excel in school to get into a good college, and be a good athlete. The narrator in “The Story of My Body” displayed the struggle to meet these expectations even though that involved doing things she didn’t want to do. She was a smart girl who was not interested in sports, yet wanted to be picked for teams in her gym class: “I wanted to be wanted. I wanted to be chosen for the teams” (Cofer 80). It wasn’t until later in her life that she finally focused on the things she truly wanted and was good at.

Bringing Up Girls by Dr. James Dobson (Dobson, 2010) is a book written for parents to aid them in traversing the formidable task of successfully guiding a young girl in today’s precarious culture. By strongly identifying many of the perils that threaten today’s girls which are seen as cultural norms, Dobson puts a spotlight on issues like the rampant permeation of media, confusion and ignorance of gender-roles, and a wildly loose view of sex. There is a deep focus throughout the book that addresses the physical, mental, and emotional differences between boys and girls, acknowledging that these specific designs are an intentional variance made by a personal and loving Creator. With a respected background in child development, Dobson thoroughly describes the physiological reasoning behind particular behaviors and tendencies of girls throughout different stages of life. There are also a number of personal stories from the author, as well as others that offer examples of practical application for constructive molding of a healthy child.

The mother ignored her rebuttal and proceeded as if she did not believe her. From a young age as shown in "girl" many parental figures are taught to be feminine or masculine. In various countries, they lived by these stereotypes where the female spends her time

In a stream of authoritative orders of domestic chores, appearance, and behavior, a female in the short story, “Girl”, depicts her overwhelmingly self-conscious actions during her repetitive inner dialogue. All the necessary knowledge and skills the girl must know is a reflection of society’s requirements for women to avoid shame. However, her effort in maintaining a perfect appearance may not guarantee a respectful standing in society. The author, Kincaid, sheds light on society’s judgmental and demanding expectations towards girls through repetition, symbolism, and imagery.

“Girl” is quite a strange short story compare to all the other ones that were read in class. It is strange to hear the high expectations that parents communicate to their children because of the way they are presented and because of the language that is used. All that sounds pretty unusual and outdated. But in those days it was probably something normal. Also, Kincaid is trying to point out how the world is changing and how women have much more freedom to do what

puberty bring with it a complex tradition of restrictions and behavioral guidelines. Kincaid’s poem reveals the rigidity and complexity of the social confines the girl is expected to operate underl. A girl is an induction into the women community as well as an orientation into the act of womanhood (Walkerdine et. al.). The lectured instructions given to the silent girl child vary from the housekeeping, “this is how you sweep a whole house”, to dealing with intimate relationships, “this is how a man bullies you; …how to bully a man” to medicine, “this is how to make good medicine (to abort)” (Kincaid).The inane patriarchal society expects gender stereotypes to prevail. The mother is tasked to give her daughter instructions on how to be a good woman in the stereotyped society. The advice the mother gives to the daughter cements the gender stereotype and portrays limitations on a woman (Bailey and Carol 107).

In Jamaica Kincaid’s short story “Girl,” the narration of a mother lecturing her daughter with sharp, commanding diction and unusual syntax, both affect the evolution of a scornful tone, that her daughter’s behavior will eventually lead her to a life of promiscuity that will affect the way people perceive her and respect her within her social circle. As well as the fact that it emphasizes expectations for young women to conform to a certain feminine ideal of domesticity as a social norm during this time and the danger of female sexuality.

“ideals are developmentally ingrained in children and adolescents”( Englis 1). The idea of beauty and ideal looks are engraved into people at a young age. The little girl being given a Barbie doll shows this in the poem. The idea of beauty and how a woman should act are represented in the Barbie doll. The primary take away is beauty is not everything.

“It’s a girl!” Most parents fantasize about hearing those precious and promising words because soon a little girl will make its way into their life and she will be sweet, innocent, and pure. These parents hope to live vicariously through her and give her the best future plausible. Nothing will hurt that “sweet angel”, but unfortunately those parents, engulfed by the happiness of the moment, do not realize that the little girl will grow up and be worth less than her husband and she will be worth less in society. In Merriam-Webster's Unabridged Dictionary the word girl means a female child from birth to adulthood, but in addition to this simple word there holds an immense amount of meaning. Four letters and that's all it takes for someone to

Six studies present varying results on the effect of gender on self-esteem. Watkins & Yu (1993) found gender to have little effect on self-esteem but much on self-concept and self-satisfaction, especially among Chinese women. Zhang & Leung (2002) suggested the moderating factors of gender and age in the connection between individual and collective self-esteem and life satisfaction. Their research concluded that the connection is stronger on the male, thus the genders require different tasks in order to be effective. Huang et al (2012) found that the androgynous personality type as the ideal one and that gender and grade influenced the distribution of personality types. Yang & Xia (2006) listed the cognitive and social factors in condom use among Shanghai commercial sex entertainment workers. Zhao et al (2011) established the importance of attachment relationship with caregivers to vulnerable Chinese children. Most caregivers are female. Li et al (2010) enumerated the parental, behavioral and psychological factors to smoking among Chinese teenagers, including female. Other studies (Somislo & Ortho, 2013; Mak et al, 2012) say that gender does not significantly affect low-self-esteem or depression and that Chinese teenage boys tend to have a higher body esteem than girls.