Boys and Girls (Short Story - Reader's Response)

The short story “Boys and Girls” was about the different problems that most of us face today: stereotypes and to go deeper into the main theme of the short story: sexism. The short story was about a girl who tried not to be like the rest. She didn’t want to be stuck at home working all day like the way her mother spent her entire life. She wanted to be free, to go on adventures and maybe even one day, become a hero. Because of what people were influencing her to do, she started to lose her true self and eventually faced the path leading to the realities that the other women faced; being stuck at home, trapped by household responsibilities. This leads us right back to the theme: sexism. It is shown throughout the short story like how the narrator’s father did not want her to work with him outside, she was told to work with her mother inside the house. The whole idea of sexism was something that I was fascinated by. I guess it’s because it really is sad to see how people will always want to tweak your lifestyle/personality even if it’s against your will. This short story features sexism and stereotypical situations, which is good to read about especially when you live in a generation where many people get affected by these things.

The theme of sexism is predominant in the short story and I will be listing down connections from the theme of the story to the text, to myself and to global associations. The text connects to the theme because the main point of the short story was to demonstrate how people underestimate the opposite gender based on stereotypical things like how the narrator’s grandmother thought it was only right that girls slammed doors softly and that girls kept their knees together while they sat. I feel like the theme can also connect to myself because there are times when my guy friends would say things like, “Alex is just a girl, she doesn’t understand video games!” It’s nothing big but it still kind of bothers me. My gender shouldn’t define