Examples Of Gender Discrimination In How To Kill A Mockingbird

Within today’s world and all the way through history, everyone is either defined as a girl or boy. A simple concept known as a person’s sex or gender. Gender has established roles for each of the different sexes in which people are pushed in a guideline. As society advances there so often comes up with outliers, challengers, or rebels that propose against society’s gender rules. Harper Lee or the author of How to Kill a Mockingbird mentions the topic of gender and how people discriminate on it frequently. Even in times people push their children or even peers to being what they don’t personally feel like they are, as some transgender parents often due. Harper Lee wants to inferences that gender is a defining society rule.

Harper Lee provides her gender rules when Jem upsets his younger sister Scout by saying “’It’s time you start bein’ a girl and acting right!’” (Harper 131). Jem sated yelling this is a stereotypical gender quote and raises an unanswerable question. What really is acting like a girl? Why is one thing or

certain actions only delegated to specific gender or sex? Harper Lee’s obvious gender beating quote elucidates on her personal opinion how it would be viewed during those time periods. Not to be stereotypical but it’s a man being sexist, usually the man or men are the ones to be sexist and discriminating against women’s roles.
Harper Lee furthers her beating on gender when she adds in a part when Jem, Scout, and Dill are rolling down the hill in a tire. Scout refuses to bring the tire up and Jem insults her angrily and this happens “’See there?’ Jem was scowling triumphantly. ‘Nothin’ to it. I swear, Scout, sometimes you act so much like a girl it’s mortifyin’’” (Harper 42). This yet again brings up the same impending question. Why was what she was doing acting like a girl? How is making him doing something acting like a girl? Jem a readers eyes it seemed more like a pride thing, making her feel insignificant to make himself feel better about having to do something or Scout kind of bossing him around.
Lastly Harper Lee brings it up again when Aunt Alexandra invited Scout to her missionary circle when Miss Maudie says “’You’re mighty dressed up Jean Louise,’ she said. ‘Where are your britches today?’ ‘Under my dress.’ I hadn’t meant to be funny, but the ladies laughed.” Seeing this is kind of showing that the ladies are somewhat picking on her for being masculine. Not to mention that they completely ignore the fact she liked to be called Scout of Jean Louise. This is another fact of them picking on her gender roles. It’s odd that for a girl to wear britches and to play rough it’s wrong, but to wear a dress and essentially do nothing but house chores is alright.
These gender roles contributes to the death of a 17 year old teen name Leelah Alcorn. He or better known as a she was what we call today a Transgender. A Transgender is someone whose sense of personal identity does not correspond with the gender assigned to them at birth. The teen had confronted her parents about it but they denied her a gender change saying “’ I would never truly be a girl, that God doesn’t make mistakes, that I am wrong’” (Alcorn).This cause an outrage when the suicide note was posted. Her parents still say that ‘him’ becoming a girl wasn’t right and they would have never had it. Leelah’s suicide note consisted of her coming fully out as a transgender and blamed her death fully on her parents. Stating at the end that her death needed to be for something, a good cause. Leelah’s friends mourn the loss of their friend and her parents continue to get hate.
Society is a cruel place, one where a female or male is forced to be what society says they are.

From gender delegations, gender discrimination, and gender shaming the world is messed up place. From Scout, to the Flappers, to Leelah Alcorn nobody seemed to show any remorse towards the discrimination of any of them. Whether its society, the friends, or even the parents everyone seems to follows society’s gender guidelines and they beat up on who doesn’t no matter who they are, even if it drives them to the point of suicide. When society admits a gender rule everyone is pushed to follow this guideline and if they don’t well, from what it seems like they should just kill themselves unless they change. Similar to Scout, she was perfectly fine dressing like a boy, acting like a boy, and playing with boys until her Aunt installed these insecurities in her head to make her change her views and essentially herself. Society seems to always get it’s

way.