Michelle Plante
10/10/12
How Society’s Expectations of Females Shape Girls’ Lives Society’s high expectations of females guide their everyday actions and decision making whether consciously or subconsciously. In Stephen Hinshaw’s essay “Impossible Expectations” he discusses what he calls the “Triple Bind” where girls are supposed to be good at both typical girl and guy things as well as conform to a specific set of standards created by society. These contradictory expectations shape girls’ lives and drive their decision making from what type of career they will pursue to how they dress. Hinshaw also explained that girls are supposed to fit a cookie cutter image portrayed by the media yet encouraged to break the mold at the same time,
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According to Hinshaw, pleasing others is a typical female trait. Erica didn’t really want to go to the club to “mess around” with guys, but she did it because Jasmine was her friend and she may have felt obligated to go with her. She didn’t feel comfortable with what Jasmine was doing, yet she chose to go along with everything anyway to avoid confrontation. It wasn’t until the point where she didn’t feel safe that she finally chose to abandon Jasmine at the hotel. In today’s society, Hinshaw pointed out that girls are expected to be good at the typical male things. Because of this, girls are more focused on their career and education rather than starting a family. “In today’s competitive environment, girl skills are not enough” (Hinshaw 826). On top of female skills, girls must also be more assertive like guys, excel in school to get into a good college, and be a good athlete. The narrator in “The Story of My Body” displayed the struggle to meet these expectations even though that involved doing things she didn’t want to do. She was a smart girl who was not interested in sports, yet wanted to be picked for teams in her gym class: “I wanted to be wanted. I wanted to be chosen for the teams” (Cofer 80). It wasn’t until later in her life that she finally focused on the things she truly wanted and was good at.
Girls constantly feel pressure
In Larry Lankton’s text, “Beyond the Boundaries” we gradually enter an unknown world that is frightening yet filled with immense beauty for miles. Due to the copper mining industry, a gradual increase of working class men and their families start to migrate to the unknown world with unsteady emotion, yet hope for a prosperous new life. In “Beyond the Boundaries”, Lankton takes us on a journey on how the “world below” transformed the upper peninsula into a functional and accepted new part of the world.
In this essay I discuss that "doing gender means creating differences between girls and boys and women and men...." (West & Zimmerman 2002:13) I am concentrating on the female perspective, how societyputs forth expectations of what is 'natural' or biological even though, in some cases, it can be quite demeaning and degrading. I am using some examples from the local media and also a few childhoodexperiences that have helped me to now strongly suspect that the quote from Simone Beauvoir (1972) "One is not born a woman, but rather becomes one" most likely has quite a bit of truth to it.
Throughout “The Disappointment”, Aphra Behn critics the established gender roles in the society particularly sexually. This can be seen in the relationship between Lisander who is the male figure and Cloris who is the female one. In this poem, Cloris can be seen as the object of desire while Lisander can be seen as the sexual object which challenges the pre-established roles in society.
I have chosen to focus this paper on the portrayal of gender stereotypes and expectations as seen in the book Ethan Frome written by author Edith Wharton. Before I proceed with this topic, allow me to highlight the ingenious writing style of the author and her subtle discussion of unhappiness, which opened the door to adultery in the marriages of both Wharton and her main character in the book Ethan Frome.
In sports, women can benefit from the locus of physical control because it can create a sense of empowerment and freedom from being sexualized (Bradshaw, 2002). This is a common obstacle for young aspiring female athletes to come in sports. This is all due to the fact that women often feel submissive and less expressive about their actions in redefining body image for women. Women’s Sports Foundation (2011) mentioned the common things that girls face a lot in the coming of age time in their sport lives were the lack of good role models, few quality opportunities, and the poor sport conditions that are available to them. The social causes of their lives such as parents and friends can have a major role in shaping the girls’ decisions to join
This is interesting in comparison to women because their expectations from society are the complete opposite. In "Impossible Expectations" by Stephen Hinshaw the standards by which women should live by and up to are described. Now, when girls in this text are asked their thoughts on what it means to be a girl most said The Triple Bind, a set of
How Gender Roles and Societal Expectations Shape Personal Lives” “Boys will be boys”. “If a girl flirts she should follow through”. “A woman belongs in the kitchen”; We all have heard these phrases in some form or another on our TVs, on campus, behind a pulpit, be it indirectly or directly. Somewhere along the line, these messages become a mentality, and in turn the mentality becomes a mandate: do what is expected of you. “Boys”, “Girl”, and “Lust” are all examples of how gender roles and societal expectations shape how we think, act, and see others.
Writing for the Huffington Post, Temimah Zucker presents her opinion on society’s expectation for women in America through different forms of communication and advertisement. Zucker’s article is based off of what you as a woman, think of yourself, versus what society thinks of you. Zucker believes that society’s opinions and beliefs will constantly change through the generations, but your thoughts about your own beauty will not become gray to you; “Beauty is molded by society -- by the advertising, fashion, and cosmetic industries. We live in a society of billboards and ads, Photoshop, and Botox. We are trained to believe that size two is perfect, while most healthy women in America fit into a size 12.” (1)
In Disappointment is Impossible, Gene Kranz relates these exciting noteworthy occasions and offers new data about the acclaimed flights. What seemed, by all accounts, to be an almost immaculate mission to the moon were, indeed, a progression of hair-raising close misses. At the point when innovation flopped, as it once in a while did, the controllers' just plan of action was to depend on their abilities and those of their partners. Kranz uncovers little-known subtle elements to exhibit the initiative, pupil, trust, and collaboration that made the space program a win.
In The Lives of Girls and Women, the main character Del Jordan grows from a young curious child to a woman. At a young age she is very curious about her sexuality, but is forewarned by her mother to be careful about her decisions. Del's curiosity leads her into making many wrong decisions regarding men. All these wrong decisions cause her to lose everything she had worked so hard for her goals, her dreams ruined.
Today’s generation of women has been hit by an epidemic of expectations and guideline necessary to follow - unless you want to be an outsider. These beliefs are hidden by society, and women fail to notice these views and some even claim to not be victimized by this today. When we got the information on this essay, I was discussing with one of my friends (a female) which to write about, a gender essay based on women or on men. As I asked her, she began to shake her head and say “I think I’m going to do the men’s one because I don’t feel victimized by society and I don’t feel like it limits me at all.” She went on to say she could see the men’s argument in her brother.
Girls are one of man kinds most confusing creatures. they have random mood swings, try to be something their not, whine and bitch over nothing, create drama for absolutely no reason, and nobody gets them half the time.
November 24, 1922 12pm.: Ever since I cut my hair I’ve never felt so free. I refuse to wear the corsets that I have been obligated to use since childhood. You cannot believe how relived I am to not have to wear those tight close fitting undergarments. So instead I have started wearing loose dresses that I feel more comfortable in. My mother always told me that men liked women with a slim waist and emphasized breast and with my new look no man will want to marry me. Of course she is livid. Not only at the fact that I cut the “beautiful long cascade of never ending long dark hair” as she says, but mostly because I’m rebelling against society’s norm. I’ve decided that it is time to take a stand for my rights and fight for my independence. I refuse to comply too these social norms. The submissive woman, restricted from freedom due to her traditional modest, accustomed, womanly gender roles. I will not be that woman. I will be the change. I’ve seen my mother, grandmother do it for years and I’ve had it. We have been repressed, and made slaves of the household generating a perspective that all we have to offer is pleasing our men and doing chores. But these social conventions will finally come to an end. Thanks too many women who have decided to be the change for today’s society. The Voting right for women has already commenced. And I can’t find the words to describe how incredibly joyful I am that now we have the right to vote. As of now we have a whole new sector of power and
Today we live in a world that continually stresses to us that, "All men are created equal." While this sounds great at face value, further inspection tells us that this is far from realistic and sadly may never be. One can examine any aspect of society whether it be race, religion, language, level of education, sexual orientation or economic status and notice that there are numerous characteristics and factors of identity that enable others to treat others differently. This truth may not be pleasant or make one feel all warm and fuzzy inside, however it is our society’s reality, however dismal it may be. Even if the statement above as to the equality of all men were true, how about women? Clearly women have made tremendous strides towards
What regulations and standards has society upheld for both genders? Do you believe that parents stick to those same regulations and standards while raising their children? Throughout history, complaints have come from the mouths of males and females of how differently each gender is treated. Whether it has been that parents still have the mentality of how society used to be, or their generational culture factors as a cause for the delineation between the two genders. Parents’ mentality may also be embedded differently or the children themselves have pointed out the different gender based ethics that their parents have. Due to these factors, the world has become molded into a melting pot where not only society, but the parents as well hold disparate standards for their sons than their daughters.