There Is No Unmarked Woman Summary

What does it mean to shape something? Shaping, in psychology, can be defined as gradually training or guiding toward a desired behavior by reinforcing behaviors similar to the desired (Myers, 276). There are various kinds of reinforcement, from positive to negative, primary to conditioned, etc. Through these various kinds we’ve learned to let society shape who we are. Society influences how we make decisions, from decisions as simple as how we dress to as big as how we spend our time, where we work, what we do. We form our identities from these decisions and are shaped by these societal influences. Shane Koyczan discusses this topic as he addressing bullying in today’s society in his poem “To This Day: For the Bullied and the Beautiful”. He brings us through a few scenarios of kids who’ve been bullied and how it has affected their lives. In one description, he says, “…had a personality made up of tests and pills, lived like the uphills were mountains and the downhills were cliffs, four-fifths
In paragraph 20, she shows us that even women’s titles are marked, “Women can’t even…attitudes and assumptions.” (Tannen, paragraph 20). A women, based on these titled, is immediately giving away the information that she is either married or not, and if she chooses the title “Ms.”, she still marks herself as liberated, rebellious, or something similar according to the observer. Men simply are titled “Mr.” which has no marking because nothing is asked when asked for a title from them. Women are then left with a decision, which will be heavily influenced by how they want people to view them, heavily influenced by society, and shaping her own