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Unspoken Expectations
Smile; you look prettier when you are happy. Laugh; laugh at their jokes, even if they are not funny. Make-up; cake it on, because if you have imperfections you are ugly. Dresses; because pants are too boyish. Follow these steps and you will be loved. Break these rules and all of a sudden you are teased and a disgrace. School grades do not matter because the higher the grade the more nerdy you are. And they want submissive girls who do what they say, because having your own mind is ugly. Hang out with the popular group, because if you hang out with anyone else you are “not cool”. These unspoken rules were and still are some of the social standards set for girls. Some girls, like Squeaky, the main character of the short
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For example, the quote, “Because I am Miss Quicksilver herself” (p. 31, line 172), shows how Squeaky is seemingly self confident. However, as the song ¨Little Game¨ by Benny states, “Put on false confidence, just to feel alive,” many people fake self-confidence to hide their insecurities from the world. This relates to Squeaky because the supposed, egotistical Squeaky is actually using confidence to hide her insecure, sad, self. Maybe this is because Squeaky wants to hide from the ridiculously girly expectations of her mother, as another quote from Raymond’s Run states:
The biggest thing on the program is the Maypole dancing, which I can do without, thank you, even if my mother thinks it’s a shame I don’t take part and act like a girl for a change. (p. 31, lines 175-178) This describes the girly stereotypes placed on Squeaky by her own mother, which is perfectly captured by the “Little Game” song lyrics:
Don’t you think it’s funny how they tell us how to live?
Don’t you think it’s funny how we’re all delinquent
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Sadly, Squeaky has to deal with things that many kids around the world face—neglect, gender stereotypes, and mental disorders. On top of that, the stereotypes Squeaky’s mom places on her are even more heartbreaking. Squeaky’s mom expects Squeaky to want to go May Pole dancing and dress up. She expects Squeaky to want to be girly and act proper. If that were not bad enough, on top of that, when Squeaky and her mom do go out together, and Squeaky does exercises for her running, her mom walks ahead of her, pretending Squeaky is not her child. Squeaky’s mom is ashamed of having a tomboy daughter. However Squeaky will have none of that. Squeaky’s wall of confidence protects her from the superficiality of society. Smile; you look prettier when you are happy. Laugh; laugh at their jokes, even if they are not funny. Make-up; cake it on, because if you have imperfections you are ugly. Dresses; because pants are too boyish. From Squeaky, the reader learns what it means to stand up for yourself in a society that pushes gender stereotypes; instead of giving in, she adopts her own motto: Be yourself; you look prettier when you have a brain.
The two stories “Raymond’s Run” by Toni Cade Bambara and “The Good Deed” by Marion Dane Bauer may seem different. “Raymond’s Run” is about “a little girl with skinny arms and a squeaky voice” balancing running and her mentally impaired brother, Raymond. “The Good Deed” is about a girl scout helping out a blind lady. But, deep in their cores, the two stories share the theme of opening up and letting others into your life.
In the short story, The Fall of a City, by Alden Nowlan, Teddy’s dreams are crushed by his uncle when his dreams should remain true till the day he achieves his dreams and his uncle’s stereotypical behaviour influenced teddy is a negative way. It is important for children to pursue the personality and dreams they want to take with them into their future. Firstly, adult’s stereotypical behaviour can influence a children's future choices, but children should have their own dreams and goals to pursue so they get the life they deserve. “Paper dolls and doll houses. An eleven-year-old boy!” (Alden Nowlan, 133). We see how gender stereotypes come in the way of children achieving their goals and dreams since society tend to follow stereotypes every
She’s just so weak. If she would stand up for herself, no one would bother her. It’s her own fault that people pick on her, she needs to toughen up. “Shape of a Girl” by Joan MacLeod, introduces us to a group of girls trying to “fit in” in their own culture, “school.” This story goes into detail about what girls will do to feel accepted and powerful, and the way they deal with everyday occurrences in their “world.” Most of the story is through the eyes of one particular character, we learn about her inner struggles and how she deals with her own morals. This story uses verisimilitude, and irony to help us understand the strife of children just wanting to fit in and feel normal in schools today.
She uses third person diction to construct an image of what the male and female consider regarding a situation that is not declared. Just like every other girl, it is implied that the daughter in the situation wishes to conform to society by having a Barbie Doll. An ironic situation arises as a result because the father doesn’t want his daughter to be influenced by the doll. He is concerned with how she may perceive beauty as a consequence of it. He states, “It's not just the pointy plastic tits, it's the wardrobes. The wardrobes and that stupid male doll, what's his name, the one with the underwear glued on?” (Atwood 491). The situation is ironic because throughout this vignette, women are characterized as being “fake” or “plastic”. Although the father’s concerns are valid, he doesn’t realize that his daughter would otherwise spend the rest of her time wishing to have the doll. Eventually, she would become just like that doll. Atwood summarizes this by saying “repression breeds sublimation.” (Atwood 491)
Women pageant queens think they are supposed to represent the ideal of female beauty. The tomboy is especially associated with childhood and is defined by the girlhood performance of masculinity. As Michele Abate noted, “The traits most Americans are likely to name as constitutive of this code of tomboy conduct include proclivity for outdoor play (especially athletics), a feisty independent spirit, and a tendency to don masculine clothing and adopt a boyish nickname” (Abate). What does it mean to be a boy in children’s literature and the kind of varieties of boys that are represented? J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series typically features a social, educational, and physical dangers of school life that provide opportunities for adventure, mischief, and exploration. This collection of experiences allows boys to enact traditional forms of boyhood while practicing many of adult men’s culture and the ability to plan out schemes. Not all boys in children’s literature fit these conventional models of the physically robust athlete, hearty survivalist, or mischievous bad boy. Children’s literature also includes boys such as Laure in Little Women, who are described as sensitive, saintly, sickly, or effeminate. The literary and popular texts help understand expectations of boyhood and the insight into contemporary constructions of
Running around barefoot, playing outside, and getting dirty were a few of my favorite things to do when I was younger; however, things have changed drastically since then. Now, at eighteen, all of the activities I used to enjoy make me want to cringe. Often, girls are encouraged to look and act a certain way based on what society’s expectations are at the time. Throughout adolescence girls tend to drift away from their old ways. Romances, body changes, and tensions with parents are all factors in this time of change. In Mary Pipher’s Saplings in the Storm, she claims that adolescents must adapt to stereotypical gender characteristics in American culture.
Cinderella Ate My Daughter: Dispatches From the Front Lines of the New Girlie-Girl Culture. By Peggy Orenstein. New york, NY: HarperCollins Publishers, 2011, 192 pages
The poem starts with the line, “This girlchild was born as usual,” which suggests that as soon as a girl is born, society already expects her to learn the role she will soon play in when she hits puberty (1). Thus, showing why we are given dolls as little girls to illustrate how we should act and appear according to society. After we learn all the roles we will soon take part in, “the magic of puberty,” hits and girls immediately begin applying the ideals to their own lives (5). As if this attempt to conform is not enough we have other people telling us we are not to perfect. “You have a great big nose and fat legs,” says a classmate to the girl (6). This type of pressure can slowly but surely destroy even the little confidence women do have in themselves.
She begins to cry fearing that her father will not trust her anymore. However, when the father does not become angry, but blames her action on the fact that “She’s only a girl” (Munro 147), the young girl seems to accept his explanation. She said, “I didn’t protest that, even in my heart. “May be it was true” (Munro 147). At that point, it is possible to understand that the girl who once viewed her mother as being silly and dumb for talking about boys and dances was becoming that girl. She was accepting a gender role in society for herself that was based on going to dances and being with boys as opposed to feeding wolves and working on the farm (Rasporich 114).
When a book published in 1868 with the name “Little Women” is given to you, one would think that the story inside is about the lives of prim and proper young women, and it almost is. But Louisa May Alcott’s character Josephine “Jo” March chips away at society’s carefully constructed gender conforming mold. Her actions and speech appall most of the other characters in the novel, but there is one boy who is unbothered by it all. Theodore “Laurie” Laurence, another gender nonconforming teenager created by Alcott, never bats an eye at Jo’s different behavior. His own way of living, while not as drastically different from the norm as Jo’s, also shows that he is not your average young person. The two become great friends;
In “I Was a Skinny Tomboy Kid” and “Bad Boy” they both have one central idea, that being different is difficult, but both express this in very different ways. Both authors share stories from them being different. The authors share experiences on how they struggled to fit in and how it was a difficult time.
The poem, "Barbie Doll," written by Marge Piercy tells the story of a young girl growing up through the adolescence stage characterized by appearances and barbarity. The author uses imagery and fluctuating tone to describe the struggles the girl is experiencing during her teenage years, and the affects that can happen. The title of this poem is a good description of how most societies expect others, especially girls to look. Constantly, people are mocked for their appearance and expected to represent a "barbie-doll"-like figure. Few are "blessed" with this description. The female gender is positioned into the stereotype that women should be thin and beautiful. With this girl, the effects were detrimental. The first stanza describes the influence that a child is placed into during early childhood. Girls are expected to play with "dolls" and "stoves and irons," the usual toys that relate to the old-fashioned duties of women. A young girl begins to learn what she should be for society and not to deviate from the norm. The tone used in this stanza is quite silent and simplistic at first,...
Disney movies have a very narrow view of what women should be like. Since the arrival of the first Disney movie, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in 1937, the idea of it has expanded, but rather marginally. There is a clear distinction of what a young women should be and what she shouldn’t be. Those who do not fit the mold of Disney’s expectations are cast aside to become villains, but those who do, end up becoming the damsel in distress. Ultimately, these stereotypes are what influences young girls who watch these films, and can have devastating effects on their self worth and change their idea of what it means to be a women. Films like Sleeping Beauty, The Little Mermaid, Cinderella, and Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs,
Sometimes, people can find slang within a city and see how it affects their surroundings and themselves as a person. In the story “Raymond’s Run” a little girl is surviving by running in New York. A mixture of running, hazel’s big brother “raymond” and the little fire that is it within her attitude builds a whirlwind of a story. Though the story itself is interesting enough, the author gave Hazel linguistics, the ability to “trash talk” in a slang way, which creates a whole new mood throughout the narrative. Toni Cade Bambara notes, “And I don’t play the dozens or believe in standing around with somebody in my face doing a lot of talking.” Linguistic can change everything from the words the world speaks to the actions everyone shows.
In squeaky’s interior thinking we can see that she believes “you should be trying to be yourself” which is also shown in an important line from the song believer which is