Analysis Of Tits Up In A Ditch By Annie Proulx

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In society, women have been associated with being the cooks, maids and concubines for years. This misogynistic viewpoint has been shown in various forms of media, and societal stereotypes. However, these stereotypes of women are thoroughly shown through literature like “Tits Up in a Ditch” by Annie Proulx, which questions and challenges the role of women in society. In “Tits Up in a Ditch”, the protagonist is forced to remain in a housewife’s place after trying to escape the gender norm and be in the military. Likewise, the stereotypical role of women becomes probed in an academic setting such as the scholarly article, “Women Know Your Limits: Cultural Sexism in Academia.” Like “Tits Up in a Ditch,” cultural sexism is defined through the stereotypes …show more content…

Dakota is a single mother, battling a steady job and an angry toddler to make ends meet because she wasn’t the definition of a perfect wife. Because she was stubborn and challenged what her gender role was supposed to be, and didn’t give Sash Hicks what he wanted physically, she was useless to him. In an argument between them about Dakota getting him a beer, she tells him “I been bossed around since I was a kid. I didn’t agree to be your maid. I worked a full shift and I’m tired. You should be gettin me a beer” (Proulx 2008), which shows her defiance to him as her counterpart. After this stubbornness is shown and declared to Sash, they decide to get a divorce because she wasn’t domesticated. That divorce led her to pursue a career in the military to provide for her son, but she must come back to her old hometown and she ends up taking care of her ex-husband. Dakota becomes stuck in a position as a housewife and she couldn’t escape the gender stereotype she was …show more content…

Dakota encounters being a single mother who struggles to make ends meet, which has become a social norm for women, especially in the American society. However, Dakota decided to enlist into the military to be able to provide for Baby Verl. By enlisting in the military, she goes against the gender stereotype that women are incapable of being in the military. For example, Dakota affirms the stereotype by stating that “the first thing she learned was that it was still a man’s army and that women were decidedly inferior in all ways” (Proulx 2008), which applies to society’s perception of women in the job market. These various stereotypes and selected perspectives of women play into culture sexism; Cultural sexism is seen in various settings and controls how the opposite gender is perceived. The way women are perceived in these various settings originate from cultural

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