The article, “Why Do We Teach Girls That It’s Cute to Be Scared?” by Caroline Paul describes that society encourages females to be reliant on males and is expected to have fear. Her point was that society taught girls to be less daring during childhood. She also points out that humanity classified work and other activities for a particular gender. Through this discrimination it contradicts gender equality, and makes both sexes left clinging onto gender stereotypes. Her claim might have not applied to every women on the planet, but it has many aspects that are true.
People have been brainwashed in a sense that it is mandatory to protect the female. Branching off this principle, the article described a study about fire poles and what the parent’s reactions were towards son or daughter trying it. The article said, “...The Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology...showed that parents cautioned their daughters about the dangers of the fire pole than they did their sons and were much more likely to assist them.” The result of not pushing girls out of
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their comfort zone leads to fear, which makes them cling to stereotypes. Classifying activities is another factor.
For example, Paul said in the article, “Girls are often warned away from doing anything that involves a hint of risk.” Parents encourage this behavior to their daughters by teaching the dangers of activities so they would select a profession that is risk-free. As more and more females choose a profession or activity, it becomes a “women’s activity,” and promote bigotry.
Nevertheless, parents still think that their daughters are “fragile” and must be treated with care. The article quotes the Journal of Pediatric Psychology that “Girls may be less likely than boys to try challenging physical activities which are important for developing new skills.” Due to this psychological maldevelopment of having a bold component, they become more meek and submissive, left only to depend on the more brave male, who has been taught to always be brave and never have apprehension of
anything. There are still females out there in the world who have not been affected by this prejudice like the author, Caroline Paul. Paul said that “...she never tried to stop me (from misadventures).” There are also boys who were not instructed to “be the man of the house,” so they hold anxieties like acrophobia, claustrophobia, and others. Some boys are also unwilling to try daring things, like females, but complete other tasks of their interest. Therefore, you cannot make the assumption that “all females are fragile and have many things they abhor.” In order to solve this problem, both genders must be taught the same thing like getting over arachnophobia. But, there are restrictions like preventing your child from lighting fires in the house. The editorial had a strong opinion that civilization has been morphed into believing that women were expected to be meek. It based its thesis on three strong details that had some strong selections of evidence that backed the main statement. However, there were outliers like Paul and many others who grew up to be bold and daring. The text had too much personal experience than factual information from research or science journals.
1. Based on Article 3, “Tiger Girls on the soccer Field” explain how and why many upper-middle class parents encourage their daughter to adopt as “aggressive femininity.”
Throughout history, women have been mistreated as the weaker gender. It has been evident throughout the epic of Sunjata, the history of Greek society as well as Indian society. It is evident today with the social classes we have formed that there are predominant gender roles in our society; history as we know tends to repeat itself.
Girls are told to stay indoors and play with their dolls or bake, while boys are encouraged to go outdoors, get dirty, and be adventurous. Wade and Ferree also state “sports are squarely on the masculine side of the gender binary” (Wade and Ferree, 174). Hence, we are brought up with the understanding that playing and talking about sports is a boy’s thing, which further promotes the notion that sports are a very masculine thing. Furthermore, as playing sports is competitive and is a way to show excellence, young boys are considered as “real boys” and “real men” later on. However, when boys do not talk about or play sports, they are considered feminine or “not real men.” The same rule applies for young girls. If young girls are too into sports, they are considered to be “too masculine.” This is true for me too. When I was younger, I was told to not play too much outdoors and to behave “like a girl.” The stigma that only boys should be allowed to play sports and it is not a feminine thing needs to be erased for us to welcome a more gender-equal
She is responsible for training her daughter to gain abilities to discover her roles herself through knowledge, and also responsible to provide her daughter with inner and social safety. In addition, in the society, it is necessary for a mother to be fully aware of the significance of her daughter’s adolescent stage; she has to direct her daughter’s potentials by useful activities while she maintains a healthy, relationship with her daughter. Social norms and traditional conduct if care isn’t taken might affect a child. One should be able to express one’s self, by not been judge by the society. Whether a one acts a certain way the society doesn’t except one to act, one should have a freedom to express his or her gender roles in the way one wants it to
Since the beginning of time, women have been treated as inferiors by men. Due the supposedly weak anatomy their body, they have always been seen as weak and fragile, a description that can’t be farther from the true. Women have been proven to withstand a large amount of pain and have a stronger emotional stability. Just like racism, gender deferment has been less with the progression of time but it’s still a factor that is present in the everyday life of modern society. We can see this in the fields of work like science where it is rare to find a women scientist and how the technological world is mostly ruled by powerful male figures. Women have been oppressed since the beginning of time and have fought for their rights bravely and consistently, women went from not even being able to speak their own thoughts unless their husbands said so and being an incubator for male heirs to being inspirations to many people and fighting for what it’s right. We, as a society, have progressed in that way through the ages, even though, some women are still being oppressed daily on various parts of the world, it is something that we must overcome and we will, because this world is a better place with more smart, educated and outgoing
Gender is intertwined in many of society’s institutions-education, religion, relationships, and politics- and because it is tangled up in all, it is very hard to change gender as an institution. It is very likely to be reinforced beginning in childhood; from children, adults, and peers. Because of the reinforcement, it is reproduced from parents to children and conforming is the easiest way to go through society. Change happens very slowly and although there is change from my grandmother’s experience to my own, I see the change as not very fluid- instead of water it’s more like heavy mud.
Although we may see that females have the same rights as males in most circumstances, there is still a gender norm which controls how each gender should act. Women have fought for their rights and have been successful but the gender norms are still holding females back from being able to freely enjoy what males enjoy. Our society has been governed by these gender norms that help control how each of us as males and females should live. These gender norms help guide us through our life as being a male and female. When we were born, we are able to see our gender as displayed by someone else and we learn on how we should also act as well. These gender norms help guide how we live our lives and what we do with ourselves and helps make our decisions when we are unsure. In educating ourselves, gender norms are visibly throughout the education system as males and females are taught what is acceptable by each gender and how we should act. If we act outside of these gender norms, we are considered deviant and different. In school we are taught as males and females in what courses we should be taking and how to act as a male and
It is no secret that in history women have been generally looked down upon, in the United States women were not allowed to own property (seeing as they were already considered such), vote, or sign legal contracts (Henslin 2011). Of course, over time women have gained more rights and have worked towards an equal footing with their opposite sex shown with the rise of feminism. This, of course, doesn 't mean that the footing is equal. Being a woman still comes with negative connotations seen in casual sexist sayings such as: "you throw like a girl", "she 's just PMSing", and "do not be such a drama queen" all meant to demean and portray females in a negative light. It 's these types of comments that illustrate why girls can typically be too "mean" to each other. Internalized misogyny perpetuated through negative female stereotypes creates a competitive attitude between females. The sociological concept that best fits this hypothesis is symbolic interactionism, the textbook definition being "a theoretical perspective in which society is viewed as composed of symbols that
They are taught to “smile pretty, play it safe, get all A's. Boys, on the other hand, are taught to play rough, swing high, crawl to the top of the monkey bars and then just jump off head first” (02:21). She says that girls are taught to be perfect, whereas boys are taught to be brave, and this is not right- not just for the girls but also for our society. Our society is not going to progress if we keep young girls and women from reaching their full potential. Saujani uses anecdotes from her personal experiences where she decided to be brave instead of perfect. She explains how she ran for Congress and was hopeful about winning, but she ultimately lost. She was not upset though because for the first time in her life, she decided to be brave and do something out of her comfort zone instead of trying to be perfect. Saujani also uses statistics to explain how women will only apply for a job if they meet one hundred percent of the requirements, whereas men will apply if they meet at least sixty percent (04:12). Saujani concludes her talk by asking the audience to encourage all young girls and women. She tells them to remind the girls that it is okay to not be perfect; it is okay for them to step out of their comfort zone and make
Since the begging of civilization, women have been stigmatized in society as weak individuals. They have been serotyped to stay at home and raise family. Whereas men are portrayed as dominant role in society and are more linked to careers.
In spite of knowing the facts of gender equality and its benefits, still in many cultures, girls at young age are taught to
Gender-neutral parenting is a method for raising children, used by parents who have a passion to teach non-sexism and social justice to their children (Dumas 2014). It is rooted in a desire to maintain a child’s individuality and offer more outlets for self-exploration. For example, parents do not restrict their child, regardless of a boy or girl, to wear pink or blue, play with Barbie dolls or fire engines. Parents allow their child to freely explore what they are passionate about without attaching any labels. The concept of raising children with gender-neutral identities is considered feminist and extremely radical. Butler (1990) argues that gender is performative, arguing that the naturalness of gender is something that we do rather than something we are. Parents have the most influence on the gendering of children during infancy, foremost in handling expectations for behavior. They are also responsible for their own behavior as it related to the treatment of
That is why for years to come women will still be seen as motherly, passive and innocent, sexual objects, or they are overlooked or seen as unimportant entities. Whether it’s motherly birds on kids TV shows or scantily clad dancers on Monday Night Football, the portrayal of women has yet to catch up with what real life women are like. There are single women, obese women, and smart women. Women who are single mom’s, lesbians, or don’t have any children at all. Women are able to do the same type of work as men without being manly.
Socially constructed gender roles have a large impact on the society that we are bred in. Boys and girls are told from a young age what is considered normal for each of them based on what sex they were assigned. Girls are immediately told to be shy but not rude, love the color pink, and clean and cook in preparation of the man they are inevitably going to marry. Boys are told to ‘be men’ and never cry in the presence of anyone, emotions are for girls and anything less would be seen as merely weak. Parents usually prescribe their own upbringings to how their children should be brought up; girls are constantly reminded to watch how they come off to people. Girls must clean and cook, but never show frustration, smile even if she’s scared of unfamiliar
When you think of a girl you think of someone who has shown their emotions. Many times women are seen as the weak gender. Women are seen as weak and vulnerable and this shouldn 't be as confident. Many girls