Gender Stereotypes In 'Honor To Us All'

Just like a robot, a person who believes in gender stereotypes has only one algorithm in his/her head — girls do specific work, and boys do the rest. These gender stereotypical people do not understand that the ideas they have in their heads are extremely primitive. What they do not understand is that we live in a modern world, a world where rights are more appreciated, and people should be “equal”. A song that demonstrates this is “Honor to Us All”, which emphasizes on the fact that girls can only do one thing to get their family honor: Marry someone else. This is similar to Squeaky, the protagonist of Toni Cade Bambara’s story, Raymond’s Run that takes place Harlem, New York. Squeaky is a character who loves to run and does not have time
Like the song “Honor to Us All”, where a girl has to be “matchmade” to her soulmate, Squeaky’s mother wants her to be “her version” of a girl. In the song, similar to Squeaky’s situation, it states
I was once a strawberry in a Hansel and Gretel pageant when I was in nursery school and didn’t have no better sense than to dance on tiptoe with my arms in a circle over my head doing umbrella steps and being a perfect fool just so my mother and father could come dressed up and clap. You’d think they’d know better than to encourage that kind of nonsense. I am not a strawberry.
(p: 32, lines: 182 - 199)
In this quote, Squeaky is stating that she is not something like a flower, fairy, or strawberry. She is herself (“a poor black girl who really can’t afford to buy shoes and a new dress you only wear once a lifetime cause it won’t fit next year”). This shows that even though there are many gender stereotypes in the world, there are always some brave enough people to counter