Gender Conflicts In The Girl With Bangs By Zadie Smith

956 Words2 Pages

Gender role conflicts constantly place a role in our everyday life. For many years we have been living in a society where depending on our sexuality, we are judged and expected to behave and act certain way to fulfill the society’s gender stereotypes. The day we are born we are labeled as either a girl or boy and society identifies kids by what color they wear, pink is for girls and blue is for boys. Frequently, we heard the nurses in the Maternity facility saying things like, “Oh is a strong boy or is beautiful fragile princess.” Yet, not only in hospitals we heard this types of comments but we also see it on the media… The Girl with Bangs is a short tale about the storyteller, a lesbian, who is love with a lady named Charlotte. However, she …show more content…

It talks about a girl, who is “experimenting” with how it would feel to be with another person of the same gender. Which when people read this, they say it is fine if the girl does this. It just does not make sense that when a guy wants to make the same choice, they get looked at as if they are stupid. I find that kind of sexist. (I am straight.) I just feel like people are too easy on girls. They are just hating on the guys for making the same choices. We talk about equality, but I am just over here like “What da!?!”. I am so confused with all this stuff. People need to stick with what they are saying, if you want equality then stop bringing up stupid stuff and just …show more content…

A young girl is forced to live with her step-mother and step-sisters after her father and mother die. She becomes the maid of the family, tending to their every need. Eventually there is a ball; she acquires a fairy Godmother, goes to the ball, falls in love with the prince, blah blah blah. All you really need to know is that she has a happy ending. A happy ending. No matter how much suffering she went through in her early years, at the end, it all came together and she had no more worries. And this is the problem. Cinderella is not realistic. It never was and never will be. Watching this movie when I was young made me believe there was a prince waiting for me somewhere. I grew up thinking that life was simple and uncomplicated, that I did not need to worry about the future because there was a man that would provide everything I wanted and needed. But as I got older, I realized this was not the case. I saw many of my friend’s parents divorce, people die, and the world fight with each other. My fantasy died off, and I realized I had to work hard for myself, and not others. The poem Cinderella by Anne Sexton made fun of the ending of Cinderella. She states, “Cinderella and the prince / lived … happily ever after … / their darling smiles pasted on for eternity. / Regular Bobbsey Twins. / That story.” (Sexton 11). Notice who she referenced and how she has a sarcastic tone. Cinderella and the prince smiled for others, trying to convince

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