The following paragraph is a response to the question 1 on page 278: What does Gay admire about the presentation of the character Hannah Horvath on Girls?…
The common fairytale portrays the stereotypical “damsel in distress,” who is helpless until her male savior typically rescues her. Many fairytales address the theme of gender roles as well as many others. The female character takes on the feeble, desolate role, while the male character takes on the strong, hero role similar to the stories of Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty. However, Elizabeth, the protagonist of The Paper Bag Princess defies typical gender roles as a female character and becomes the hero of the story. Cinderella and The Paper Bag Princess share many qualities, but have major differences as well. Cinderella is an example of a woman who occupies traditional, domestic roles, but she does not portray the modern, liberated woman Elizabeth exhibits.…
amaica Kincaid in Girl is trying to show readers how hard it is to be a girl in the culture that the narrator is a part of. The narrator lists all the things that a girl is required to know how to do and when and how to do them. There seems to be many little things that a girl is required to know how to do and by listing all, or maybe just a few, of these things readers get a sense of how hard it may be to become a good and respected woman in the culture that the narrator is a part of.…
The House on Mango street is a feminist piece of literature because it brings attentions to the sexist way the men in Esperanza’s society regard women. Esperanza tells her story by focusing on the women around her who are owned by the dominant men in their lives due to restricting gender roles that encompasses not only women but men. “My great-grandfather threw a sack over her head and carried her off...She (Esperanza’s grandmother) looked out the window her whole life, the way so many women sit their sadness on an elbow.” (11) Cisneros brings attention to the cruel way that men in Esperanza’s society treat women. The normality of these discriminatory actions describes a gender role that society has set for men, to be the dominant figure in…
Gender is a social status, a legal designation, and a personal identity and unlike sex, it is not determined biologically but rather it is determined by social constructs. In the novel Jane Eyre, written by Charlotte Brontë, binary gender is explored. This novel questions the processes and practices that construct gender identities and gender social statuses. The characters in Jane Eyre clash with rigid feminine and masculine roles that are typically stereotyped but does not ultimately question the status quo. During the Victorian era, your gender determined what you were and were not able to do as well as how you went about achieving what you wanted to do. Jane, being the rebellious character that she is, criticizes the social roles of women…
Esperanza, from The House On Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros, has a twofold revelation as she conquers her fears of ending up in her community’s cycle of poverty and conforming to gender roles, then decides to help the women who cannot leave their unfortunate situations. Once Esperanza moves into her house on Mango Street with her family, she begins observing the various women who reside there. Though they are all different in their own ways, they share the same aspect: they live in poverty with a male figure, either a father or husband, who treats them poorly and suppresses their potential. Even the young girls are subject to playing the part of the woman’s role. One girl, Alicia, has “inherited her mama’s rolling pin and sleepiness…waking…
The Color Purple is a novel written by Alice Walker. Walker is an essayist and poet who played a part in the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s. She had written two novels before The Color Purple, but most of her success came from the publishing of this book. Walker had suffered a terrible eye injury in her youth and her self-confidence decreased, which led her to find comfort in writing poetry. Her first experience with writing a story took place in 1965 when she graduated from college. From then on, Walker began to develop her writing career.…
The media plays a major role in portraying what society deems appropriate when it comes to body image and gender roles. Children, specifically, are more vulnerable to these messages due to their high consumption of media and their cognitive development (Agarwal). This has led to a large debate amongst a lot of parents as to whether or not their children should be allowed to watch certain shows and movies. The problem is that while certain media genres are obvious choices to keep away from young children, others are not as black and white.…
Society has created a set of norms and standards which imply that you are supposed to behave, dress, and do things based on your gender. However, Queer theorist, Judith Butler, does not agree with society. Instead, Butler believes that gender roles are not biologically constructed. Butler’s 1990 novel Gender Trouble, examines the extent to which gender and sexuality are performative. Butler’s concept of performative gender is depicted in Michael Chabon’s novel Summerland. The fantasy novel revolves around the protagonist, Ethan, and his friends, who all play baseball and must stop the Coyote from ending the world. In order to stop the trickster god Coyote, Ethan travels through Summerland with a small troupe of friends, playing baseball in…
“The way to a man’s heart, so we’ve always been told, is a good working knowledge of a pot, pan and mold.” –The Brides Cookbook, 1956. This quote is from a cookbook, which was made especially for newlywed women (Brides Cookbook, 1956). This is one example of the gender roles that was expected during this time era. Many women during that time period were expected to stay home, cook, clean and take care of the children, while the man of the house would work. The quote also continues “A juicy red steak, or a tender fish fillet, done to a turn, in a bright copper skillet, And leaves the man happy, content and drooling” (Brides Cookbook, 1956), It states that the meals the women makes will leave him happy, and during this time era, women did all the work in the house (Brides Cookbook, 1956). Even television shows during this time era make is acceptable to be a house wife, such as I love Lucy and Leave it to Beaver.…
In the past years women have been fighting for equal rights, but in the year 1933 it was pushed on to young girls to be a “proper lady” meaning to serve the husband and have a woman’s first interest in the well being of men. The novel To Kill a Mockingbird is about childhood and growing up with Scout. The narrator, Scout has been taught like an adult by her father for her whole life and gender was never a problem with Atticus, he taught her and her brother Jem the same way, but as she grows up she is pressured to become a proper lady by her peers. We can gather that gender roles are a major part in Scout’s life by the several symbols of women, such as flowers, that show, the theme of gender roles that Harper Lee weaves into To Kill a Mockingbird.…
In the story, “Girl” by Jamaica Kincaid, the idea and tone come from a mother, who raises her child on her own past experiences and control of being a woman in her time and tradition, she is a guide to her own daughter in this changed world, to discipline her daughters new ways and views on society and their culture on how it used to be. The author shows in the story how she thinks the women should dress, behave and the jobs they should do.…
Being a boy or a girl seems a very certain thing referring to the “sex” of the child which is determined by the child’s physical characteristics. Actually, children are able to decide to behave like a boy or a girl or something in between when growing up by their personal internal definition and interpretation of self which is their “gender identity”. This identity does not completely depend on their biological sex though most children’s gender identity aligns with their biological sex. Sometimes it is also influenced by expectations of gender from children’s parents, grandparents, teachers and some other previous generations and the society. Expectations from different people in different societies differ to each other and children of a society are often punished or rewarded for the degree to which the social roles they play accompany culturally constructed expectations of gender which is their “gender role”.…
In contrast, the short story “Girl” by Jamaica Kincaid suggests that women are sentenced to patriarchy as a result of socially constructed gender stereotypes. She criticizes the idealized patriarchal norms and pressures which overshadow the lives of women. Starting early on in their childhood, little girls are explicitly exposed to the pressures and expectations of how they should live. As a result of gender stereotypes, young girls are brainwashed to believe that their role as a woman is a domestic homemaker and that they should always be kempt and maintain a feminine outer appearance. Kincaid ultimately criticizes how women and girls are trapped under a system of patriarchy that can not be erased.…
It is no mystery that the women in Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s 100 Years of Solitude center on their lives around home or sexual ventures. They have no interests in the politics or wars that surround the village of Macondo. They have no desire to pursue creative expression or ponder about reality like the men in the novel do. It could be that the incest taboo, which revolves around the family, is what keeps the women disengaged from outside concerns and more focused on their home environment and sexual escapades. Ursula spends a good chunk of her life trying to keep away incestuous behavior from polluting the family, yet it spreads like wildfire.…