Throwing Like A Girl Analysis

Dr. Ortega

PL 385-52

14 April 2016

Conditioned From a Young Age

The issue of "throwing like a girl" is one that still exists in our society today even though it is considered to be progressive. From a very young age girls are taught that they can only throw like a girl and that this throw is somehow weaker than a boys of the same age. Iris Young develops this idea in her article entitled "Throwing Like a Girl." She does this by describing the ways in which women often restrict their movements in everyday life and also, through the patriarchal idea that women are viewed as objects. Throughout this paper I will speak about these two topics in relation to modern day girls and how they are conditioned to restrict their movements and to view themselves

When girls are told that they need to work towards certain standards and ideals entirely created by society, then they can only see themselves as an object following orders. This type of patriarchal and sexist objectification "keeps [women] in [there] place" and limits women's potential as productive beings (Young 271). There is a massive double-bind in our society which tells women to be quiet and to restrict the space they take up, but in the same token also requires them to be sexy and flirtatious. The ideas women have about their bodies always come back to societal expectations and how others view them because there is always the "possibility that one will be gazed upon as a mere body, as shape and flesh that presents itself" (Young 270). It is hard to break the cycle of seeing oneself as an object in world where that is what is explicitly

I do agree that women are told to reduce the space they take up in the world which is what they are conditioned to do almost from birth. If a women takes up more space than she needs then she is considered to be a burden. If a man takes up more space than he needs then he is seen under the clichéd phrase "boys will be boys." There is a double-standard when it comes to how women and men take up space. One specific example is the new term man-spreading, where a man takes up more space then he needs on different forms of public transportation as well as in restaurants and bars. He will sit back and extend his legs as wide as he possibly can in order to make himself more comfortable. If a woman acted the same way she would be considered "unladylike." This ladylike attitude is a conditioned thing because girls are taught to cross their legs and minimize their space. A specific example from my grade school was an etiquette class we were forced to take where we had to cross our legs for hours at a time in order to learn how to be ladylike. Sitting with our legs apart caused the teachers to yell at the girls saying "what do you want to be a boy?." That being said, it is up to the women to accommodate the men in public situations by taking up the space that they are given and nothing