What Does It Mean To Be A Girl

Carol Bailey says in her analysis, “By instructing the young female to follow the script, the speaker emphasizes the view that females’ survival depends on performing their gender “appropriately” in societies in which their adherence to these standards is constantly scrutinized and evaluated” (Bailey, Performance and the Gendered Body). The mother believes that people will judge her based on the way her daughter turns out. If her daughter can not carry herself like a lady is supposed to than she supposes her daughter will not survive in the world. During that time period, the seventies, that assumption was fair since women were not given credit for many things and did not have the independence they do have today in America. In support to that, Logan says, “This veiled advice makes the reader question if the female narrator is a conformist or if she is challenging societal stereotypes” (Logan, Rhetorical Analysis of Kincaid’s “Girl”). Stereotypes connect to the idea of femininity because people paint a picture of what girls and ladies are supposed to be and act. Therefore the mother says many things that only apply to females. Readers make assumptions that the mother was denied by society growing up and now she stresses her daughter for the very same reason. The assumption can be made because mothers typically are encouraging when giving advice

This poem is a story of a girl who grows up struggling to conform to society's standards, which eventually leads to her death in the end. The author starts off by referring to her as a “girlchild.” The term is very general, meaning that not only did

As a second generation Indian American woman, much of my experience as a gendered person has been shaped by familial values, especially those regarding the respective roles of men and women in the Indian household. The combination of a highly patriarchal society and an emphasis on family as the most dominant institution in Indian life translates to a family in which women are subordinate to men in every way. My gendered experience in an Indian family unit was not as extreme as traditional families in India due to the privilege I had of growing up in an upper-middle class socioeconomic household in a progressive American society. However, gender expectations in my family were rooted in the South Asian immigrant experience, exemplified through

The gender based expectations are taught and the sometimes subtle, often overt lessons begin at a very young age. It starts with the color of the blanket a baby is wrapped up in, the toys bought for them to play with, and extends to the pretend play they engage in. So from the earliest ages of social awareness, society reinforces the ideals of masculine and feminine throughout life. Consequently, it is perfectly acceptable for a girl to put on a purple tutu and twirl about granting wishes to her stuffed animals, while it would be discouraged for a boy. He should be outside in the sandbox setting up his toy soldiers in a mock battle. In spite of the entrenched idea of gender, some mothers and fathers aspire to a more gender-neutral parenting style, that doesn’t restrict their child to specific societal ideals. However, the pressure to conform to the gender binary is ever-present and difficult to deconstruct. The boy that cries when he gets hit by a baseball is called a “sissy” and told to “man up” by his coach. The girl who tells her high school counselor, she wants to take auto

Across the globe, women of all walks of life are constantly oppressed by their male counterparts, shamed for actions frowned upon simply because of the double standards they are assigned since birth. In many cultures, women are viewed below men, and as a result they are forced to cater to all of the unfair expectations that men demand from them. One of the most popular and universal expectations is the belief that a woman must retain her virginity until marriage. In Half The Sky, women who disobeyed these unwritten laws of society faced the most extreme and harsh consequences. In one instance, a girl named Du’a Aswad went out late with a boy, and didn’t return until the morning. It was immediately assumed that she had slept with him, despite

In Lynda Willer’s “Warning: Welcome to Your World Baby, Gender Message Enclosed” she investigates the verbal and non verbal characteristics of baby congratulation cards. Beginning with 300 cards (ten each of girl, boy, and non gender specific cards from ten different stores) Willer asks the question “What are the differences language usage in boy-specified birth congratulation greeting cards, girl-specified birth congratulation greeting cards, and no gender-specified birth congratulation cards?” (17) She answers this question by dividing the cards into different categories such as style of message, message quality and word used to describe the baby. When looking at the word descriptors in girl cards Willer discovers the words “sweet”,

Society has created an image that women should be delicate and dainty, that all women should aspire to be mothers and homemakers. As a result, society has held women to different standards than men. Women are held to different expectations than men in terms of beauty, loyalty, and traditional obligations especially as subservient housewives. There is an urgent need to change the mindset of society. The central issue facing young women in today’s society is the standards that hold them to higher expectations than men in the areas of beauty, romantic relationships, and household duties.

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

And I hope she'll be a fool—that's the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool. “(17) Daisy being told that her newborn child was a girl wept because the best thing she could hope her daughter be when she grows up is a “fool” dumb enough to not realize how awful the life of a women is. That's what makes

Your perspective of “Girl” is interesting, I had not thought that the speaker may be an adult woman speaking to herself as a child. In fact, I had assumed that it was a woman speaking with her daughter based on her own experiences. It is said that we are our own worst critics, which means if the woman is, in fact, talking to her formal self it would make the entire article even more upsetting. The speaker reflection of herself is harsh and entirely anti-feminist. However, what stops me from believing the speaker is talking to herself, is the urgency she expresses at the end of the story. The speaker gives the young girl rules to follow but also gives her tricks and tasks she can do when she feels frustrated by her gender such as spitting, or

The author referred to the new baby as the “girlchild” in order to show the readers how hard it is to be a girl and a child in a society that appreciates appearance and physical attractiveness more than intelligence and the beauty of the heart.

Parent understand that their girls are a burden and their sons are a gift, and this is what their sons and daughters grow up believing. The dowry placed on girls plays greatly into the sex-selected abortion rate in India. Boys are plainly and simply a better financial investment. Boys will not cost the parents money for marriage, in fact, with a marriage, they are guaranteed to make the parents money. Parents forced with the decision to have a girl and deal with the financial consequences, or abort and hope and pray for better luck in the gender of their child next time around. Quite often they chose the

The low status of women and girls is due to cultural beliefs and the material cost they represent to their families. Vanaja Dhruvarajan says that there is a belief regarding the nature of men and women: "Men are ritually pure, physically strong, and emotionally mature; women, on the other hand, are ritually pollutable, physically weak, and lack strong willpower" (30). Because of these

Is there a point when familial obligations go too far? In every culture there is some standard of duty that must be followed, a duty to a husband or wife, parent to child, and in each culture one thing is constant, the one that sacrifices the most is the female. As a woman one must give anything and everything, for her family. Whether it be her honor to preserve the family name or her body to produce the next generation, a women has no say in anything concerning her. She is an entity used for the benefits of others; if a she does not comply with the expectations put upon her then she is scorned by society.

One can also observe that men in the Indian culture are more dominant than women. In an article by Katrina Beedy, Indian men dictate the rules for relationships, especially when it comes to women, (Beedy). In addition according to an article by Asia society, the indian culture is very hierarchial, (Asia Society). With having such a culture, women have the role of maintaining the family. For example, in the movie, Jess’s entire family was at her house to celebrate her sister getting married, all of the women were asking Jess about when she’s going to settle down and marry a strong man, (Chadha, "Bend it like Beckham"). This shows the characteristics of a collectivistic culture because members of not just the immediate family but also the entire family are assumed to roles to keep the family functioning. The opposite can be assumed about the westerners (they are an individualistic culture) because the British girl called