Sunday, April 3, 2011

Anything You Can Do I Can Do Better

Hyperlinks/ Connections with some Reflection 


Its no surprise that girls are treated with less interest than boys when it comes to education. Doing the research, I came up with a few reasons on why this is. We can’t forget the past. In the “olden” days pretty much everywhere women were of a lesser breed then men. Us women have been seen as beautiful trophies, domesticated housewives, and unintelligent vessels whose only worth was to take care of her hardworking husband and pop out babies. And that’s how the world spun for a very long time. Sure there would be tiny things that made women feel important, like taking sewing classes, or having magazines all about her needs and how she should take care of her husband, but nothing truly revolutionary really. 
So its no surprise why women are regarded with less enthusiasm in schools than men. Through studies, it has been proven that boys are more likely to be asked to thoroughly explain their logic and analysis when answering questions than girls who receive acknowledgement for their work, even though girls get higher grades than boys. Girls are also praised on how “neat, quiet, and calm,” they are rather than their actual work. If a girl speaks her mind or is empowering she is seen as a bitch or a tomboy. Girls also focus on conformity, which means following the leader, who usually isn’t really self-empowering or ground breaking. 
Girls are also discouraged from masculine things like sports and careers based in math and science. And when  a girl actually does succeed in a “man’s world” her success is greeted in ways Allen Johnson describes, like “She did that and she’s a girl!” or “Did it better than a man.” rather than, “She did an excellent good.” This sexist discrimination is hazardous to everyone, separating the human race into alpha and beta sexes. Also, insults such as “You hit like a girl” or “Only girls cry” are used to embarrass boys alluding that girls are inferior to boys. 
But where does this all stem from. As I stated earlier, history does play a big role in gender issues because of women’s roles in the past. Also the parents have a hand in establishing gender roles with their children. I know personally when I was five and wanted to be a fire fighter my grandmother told me I should be a nurse instead cause that was a woman’s job. We’ve all heard something like this. 
Going back to Christensen, another reason for this is the secret education being enforced by the media. From the media children learn that girls where the dresses, they clean the house, and if a girl is playing a sport, its something like tennis or softball. Girls don’t get down and dirty and play football or rugby, but they do knit and cook. There’s is a pink world of butterflies, unicorns, and flowers. Going on the example of what we value in society, all the girl’s Halloween costumes at Wal-Mart are princess, gypsies, or other cute things. The boys are the fire fighters, police men, adventurers, etc. So with all this reinforcement on making girls submissive, its hard for reformation. 



3 comments:

  1. this was a very interesting post. i know i get very upset when i hear someone say you hit like a girl or something along those lines. i always come back and whats wrong with how a girl hits? or and how would you describe that? its just something that is very annoying to me and im glad you posted on it

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  2. i really enjoyed this post heather, you made a lot of points that really made me think... especially with the halloween costume - so true. and like rachel said , i find it offensive too when someone says "you hit like a girl"

    also, i used this video for my post too - its a sad, but great example!

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  3. I almost used this video for my own post and I saw that Casey had it in her post too. It really is a good video that shows how children are taught gender roles in society at such a young age.

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