Inequalities of Gender and Age
5/2/09
Inequalities of Gender and Age
“You can’t because you’re a girl.” Too many times when I was a kid did I hear those words; I was just as good as some of the other boys if not better. I was never a girl who wanted to play house or dress up, I always wanted to play sports and rough house. But whenever I tried to play some of the sports, I was considered the weak link because I was a girl, not as good as the guys, not strong enough, not tall enough, just not enough of a boy. I knew the stereotypes; girls cook, clean, and take care of kids; whereas boys are tougher and build, work and lead. I hated these stereotypes and never really felt like I fit into the stereotype for a girl…I never liked to clean and I can’t cook. But I loved building things and working. I think in the case of Nature vs. Nurture, it mainly depends on how you were brought up, because although men have more testosterone in their system and it makes them easier to anger not all men are flying off the handle because they are mad; the same thing applies to women, we have more estrogen in our system which people would argue that it makes it easier to make us cry, but there aren’t a lot of women sitting in the streets crying for no reason. I believe that nurturing has a lot to do with the way that someone grows up, I grew up with a lot of boys, so I learned how to hold my tears if I fell down, I picked myself up, sucked it up, and kept going. I never saw anything wrong with that, that’s just how everyone in my family was no one, was really ever babied. I was taught at a young age that if I wanted to do something, even something that was considered a boy sport or something that usually only boys did, I was supported. I loved football as a kid. My dad and I would go to the park on the weekends and throw a football around and play a whole bunch of different sports. In middle school I really wanted to play football on the school team. I never got a chance to because I didn’t have the
Inequalities of Gender and Age
“You can’t because you’re a girl.” Too many times when I was a kid did I hear those words; I was just as good as some of the other boys if not better. I was never a girl who wanted to play house or dress up, I always wanted to play sports and rough house. But whenever I tried to play some of the sports, I was considered the weak link because I was a girl, not as good as the guys, not strong enough, not tall enough, just not enough of a boy. I knew the stereotypes; girls cook, clean, and take care of kids; whereas boys are tougher and build, work and lead. I hated these stereotypes and never really felt like I fit into the stereotype for a girl…I never liked to clean and I can’t cook. But I loved building things and working. I think in the case of Nature vs. Nurture, it mainly depends on how you were brought up, because although men have more testosterone in their system and it makes them easier to anger not all men are flying off the handle because they are mad; the same thing applies to women, we have more estrogen in our system which people would argue that it makes it easier to make us cry, but there aren’t a lot of women sitting in the streets crying for no reason. I believe that nurturing has a lot to do with the way that someone grows up, I grew up with a lot of boys, so I learned how to hold my tears if I fell down, I picked myself up, sucked it up, and kept going. I never saw anything wrong with that, that’s just how everyone in my family was no one, was really ever babied. I was taught at a young age that if I wanted to do something, even something that was considered a boy sport or something that usually only boys did, I was supported. I loved football as a kid. My dad and I would go to the park on the weekends and throw a football around and play a whole bunch of different sports. In middle school I really wanted to play football on the school team. I never got a chance to because I didn’t have the