Girl By Jamaica Kincaid Analysis

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From the day we are born we are categorized either a male or female. From that day onward society molds, and shapes us into what it means to be a man or women. Aaron Devor’s “Becoming Members of society: Learning The Social Meanings of Gender” discusses the formation of gender roles. Devor talks about how quickly children develop, and placed into their gender group.He also discusses about the gender role behaviors and attitudes . In Jamaica Kincaid’s ,”Girl”, Kincaid focussed on her relationship with her mother, mainly on the expectations her mother had for her. From the personal observations, examples from Devor and Kincaid’s passages, I see that gender roles are not rooted into our biology, but formed from expectations from society.
The girl in Kincaid’s story had a very strict mother, one who had strict rules on how to be a lady. My younger cousin had a similar story to the girl in Kincaid's story, she was not allowed to wear jeans. Her mother was very prim and only allowed her to wear skirts. Jeans to her mom was deemed inappropriate for ladies. At the time my cousin was freshman in high school and the only girl without a pair of jeans. After seeing my cousin depressed, my older cousin and I brought her to the mall and bought her a pair of jeans. We told her to stand up to her mom and give her reasons on why she should be able to wear jeans. When we got back, my cousin stood up to her mother and from that point on she was able to buy her own clothes. A few years later my cousin’s look totally changed. She cut her hair short, spiked it up, and never went a day without wearing jeans. Gender roles can prevent us from expressing ourselves, and can leave us feeling miserable. As Devor said “Children developing concepts ...

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...possible for roles to change when needed. This shows that our society shapes our understandings and expectations of genders. Social norms often change, this means our gender roles will change too.
It is difficult to stop people from enforcing gender roles. We do it automatically without even realising it. People will treat the exact same person completely differently depending on whether he/she is wearing a skirt called Amy or wearing jeans called John. It doesn't make the people treating the person differently bad people, it's just how we've all been raised to treat people based solely on their gender. Society has a great influence on how males and females behave in their roles. Even though we have long traditions in gender roles, these roles may change due to certain situations. Biology may classify you into male or female, but it does not define who you are.

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