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Katha Pollitt

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Katha Pollitt
Katha Pollitt

Gender roles are not always prominent in a child’s life. Sometimes their parents influence how a child will grow up and act due to the way that they teach them to be at such a young age. However, when it comes to Katha Pollitt’s article, I do agree with her when she states that feminism does have a “natural limit”. When the subject of a natural limit to feminism is brought up, the idea of where the influence of this comes from comes to my mind.

When it comes to parental influence in a child’s life that ends up being a large factor as to how they grow up and act. For example, parents tent to feed into the general sexist roles such as the woman being in the kitchen most of the time and the father is always at work. The children see this and learn from it thinking this is how my life is supposed to be. Also, parents tend to be the leading factor in gender roles because of the fact that that is how their lives are being lived.

On top of parents being a large influence, the surrounding community also plays a big role in this. For example, when children go to birthday parties, as Katha Pollitt says in her article, when one mother brought her child to the other parent’s daughter’s birthday party and apologized for the Barbie Doll that she had purchased as a birthday gift. Also, when children are at the mall or at the park, they always see parents and adults around their living areas in their general sexist roles for society.

When it comes to children, they tend to do what they see or copy those who are around them. Whether it is parents, friends, or adults around the community, they tend to do as they see not go by what they are told. Children learn by example, and if parents don’t want their children to feed into the typical gender roles then they shouldn’t be leading them by the example that they put forth with their gender
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