The Girl And Guy Code

Society is often seen to have different biases or perspectives on topics such as the role and perception of women. The short story, “Girl” by Jamaica Kincaid, consists primarily of a catalog of commands and instructions, the purpose of which is to make sure that the mother’s daughter is constantly in check and not getting into any trouble. Jamaica Kincaid utilizes a wide range of techniques such as symbolism and diction in order to showcase the theme of how the depiction of women rely mainly on how they present themselves in the public and how they are so easily described as impure or filthy.

In “Girl” by Jamaica Kincaid, we have a mother conveying important life advice to her daughter in order for her to adapt to cultural customs and most important to learn the rules of social behavior. Her mother's advice is not only intentionally told in order for her to become the proper antiguan woman she believes in raising, but is also told to criticize her actions and everyday doings. Her mother makes it very clear, in order to live a proper antiguan life, there are many rules that one must follow. With deeper interpretation of Kincaid’s work we come to the realization that her overall message suggests the idea that women as a whole should be domestic and should behave a certain way in our society in order to avoid being viewed as a promiscuous woman.

It is a continuous cycle of bias beliefs and stereotypical social roles. No one person is simply to blame. Every gender should be equal, a woman should be able to be masculine and feminine without being deemed unattractive; and a man should still be able to express his emotion, but still keep his masculinity without being looked at as weak.

Society has developed the gender role of women to be caretakers of their children and the household. In her poem “Girl”, Jamaica Kincaid writes a short narrative of a mother giving her daughter advice about how to behave and her responsibilities as a woman. The mother tells her daughter how to do several of the traditional housewife’s duties, such as washing clothes, preparing meals, and cleaning the house. She also instructs her on how to behave when men are present. According to her, the daughter must smile to men she likes, dislikes, despises, and is unfamiliar with. The mother informs her daughter about abusive and

In Jamaica Kincaid’s story, Girl, a mother is talking to her daughter about all the proper things she must do to be considered a good girl to her family and to the public, and when she grows up, a proper lady. She must follow the rules that are given to her by her own mother and by society. The mother also teaches the daughter how to act when things don’t go her way. She is told that along with being a proper lady, she must also be able to get what she wants and be independent. This story was written in the late 1970’s and gender roles, for women, back then were not being “followed” because women wanted equal opportunities (Women In the Workforce). “Gender stereotypes are beliefs regarding the traits and behavioral characteristics given to individuals on the basis of their gender” (Deuhr). This essay will discuss the gender roles that were given to women in the story, during the late 70’s, and in today’s society.

Society gets to pick and chose what is acceptable or not for each gender. Society has built up the idea that men should be handsome, strong, athletic, and forbidden to show any emotion. For women, they should be pretty, girly, wear makeup and dresses, and can talk about their feelings. All these typical gender roles are seen as acceptable in

The behavior towards people’s judgement is based on what gender they are can be summarized in one movie Grease. Grease made 159 million dollars in the year 1978 alone, but the movie itself shows the double standards on gender with two main a groups of teenage high school students. The testosterone filled group of males known as T- Birds and the Barbie pink female group known as The Pink ladies, make up the popular crew in their school. If you aren’t part of these two groups than you are considered a lack of interest and a waste of existence. The movie also contains viewpoints of conformity taken place in high school that many teenagers experience in real life, by this I mean the movie is a reflection of what is taught in society since birth.

In Jamaica Kincaid’s fiction short story “Girl” a mother is teaching her young daughter on how to society wants her to act as a female. She is teaching the young girl not to form her own identity and beliefs but to live by how others want her to live. The mother gives the daughter several rules to live by and suggests that if she doesn’t live by these rules she will become a slut. The setting of this story seems to take place in a Caribbean island. This shows that no matter what a female culture is, she is taught the same things like the rest of the world. The mother tells the daughter “This is how you iron your fathers khaki shirt so that they don’t have a crease; this is how you iron your fathers pants so that they don’t have a crease.” (Jamaica Kincaid 566) The mother is not teaching the daughter how to survive as an individual but how to survive and be accepted by a community that is more than likely ruled by men.

Such expectations or stereotypes leads to the belief that men are better suited for certain things and women are better suited for others, being that society has appropriated and defined what is appropriate “behavior”. Because of this idea that society

On any given day people do not think about how men try so hard to be tough and not show emotion; while the women are trying to be beautiful and have a perfect image. This creates a tremendous discrepancy between how people believe a man should act and how a woman should look. People stereotype men and women and if you do not fit the mold, then there is something wrong with you. This is why almost everyone follows their particular gender lines and how people think they should be; everyone just wants to fit into our society and culture. Finally, this means that everyone continues and most likely will consistently continue, to follow society's norms just so they fit into our society and

As I grew up, my childhood was heavily surrounded in a boy's world where all of my cousins and my two younger siblings were all males. A household full of males taught me to embrace the "masculine" way of life because at a young age I was exposed to sports and play fighting as a way of displaying strength and superiority. On the other hand, part of embracing the masculinity of being a male also meant respecting females -- a lesson that was taught to me by my mom. In addition, Gender Role Behaviors and Attitudes by Aaron Devor stated, "The clusters of social definitions used to identify persons by gender are collectively known as femininity and masculinity."(505) It is said that gender roles is characterized with great differences and both genders

Did you know that kids every year are sent home from school because they were wearing “the wrong type of clothing,” for example a boy wearing pink boots or a girl wearing a football jersey? You could be curious why, or just concerned about how stupid this sounds. This is an example of gender roles and how they need to be loosened to protect our freedom of expression and our choice of how we lead our lives. The gender roles that are considered normal today could be represented as two parallel pink and blue lines, not ever coming together to form a different color. The purpose of this paper is about how gender roles have been enforced throughout time, but this enforcement has begun to become unhealthy for men and women of all ages. I

Imagine a little girl playing with her Barbies, while her twin brother is playing with Legos. Both are brought up in the same house with the same rules and have the same education. As they get older the differences become bolder. Why is this? The little girl has to wear make-up and dresses while they boy stays mostly the same. Girls are taught to be homemakers and boys to be leaders. We look at woman as having a moderate height, a small waist, big boobs, nice hair, a great smile, and a personality that doesn’t even have to be there. Boys are okay as they are as long as they are smart, intriguing, and looks don’t hurt either. Why do we view boys and girls differently when it comes to their dreams? Women are more likely to get hired if they are attractive, while men are hired based on their intelligence and leadership skills. Men are also paid more for their career choices. How is it that this is still happening even in the 21st century? Now think of advertisements. Why is it that commercials often show women with little clothing but we show men fully clothed? Why are we sexualizing women and not men, too? Why are women looked at more for appearance than men are? Why are the differences so diverse between the genders? Even in families the stay-at-home-dad is still criticized today. Yes, it’s true that women have a natural maternal instinct which is different than a man’s, but that is no reason to criticize men in such situations. Why is it that the

Have you ever heard the expression “act like a lady” or “real men don’t cry” and why do you suppose that is? The answer to the question is gender roles; society has created an ideal set of rules and behaviors that both men and women need to follow. These roles have been passed down from generation to generation to the point where both men and women are finally questioning why they have to live by a certain standard. No one knows for certain how gender roles came about or when they were created. These roles have been oppressing and crippling men and women because most of them have been told to act a certain way their whole life; gender roles are another form of judgment and need to stop. Men and women today have been blending and blurring the lines of gender roles which is an important breakthrough in order to move forward as a society.

Over the years, many people have believed that the issue of sexual harassment should not be discussed in public. Sexual harassment was to be discussed behind closed doors. In spite of this, the social and political systems have changed instantaneously. This social problem has affected men and women throughout time; however, it seems that the women of our society more closely look at this issue. This social topic has encouraged women to establish organizations in order to help them discuss the issues more openly and to demand equality including fairness and justice throughout the workplace and in their social lives as well. In recent years, sexual harassment has been one of the most serious and widespread problems