Gender is important in the story because the men take on more masculine traditional roles while the women are expected to be more feminine and do things more around the house. The reason why the main character has to outside chores with her father is because her little brother is not old enough. Her mother and grandmother pick up on her tomboyish nature and try to instruct her to change her ways and act her gender. The main character has to deal with her gender issues and the sexism she lives with “ The word girl had formerly seemed to me innocent and unburdened, like the word child; now it appeared that it was no such thing. A girl was not, as I had supposed, simply what I was; it was what I had to become.
A women should have a good job, but still be the main care taker of the family. A woman should be strong, but not too strong or shes masculine. These stereotypes are not helpful to society and only lead to judgement. Gender roles don’t just effect women, they hurt men too. "Men are Stuck" Emily Alpert Reyes discusses the stereotypes that surround men.
In today’s society, gender roles are now distributed more equally, and discrimination on the basis of gender has seen a marginal decrease. Burke 2012 states, “In this new age, men are often "house-husbands" while their wives go out to work. Many women who do things typically associated with men are as muscular as men, and indeed look like men. There are policewomen and female soldiers who are rougher than the men.” This shows that there are many male dominated activities that are now being pursued by females. These new developments and changes in gender roles have aided in the fight to have gender inequality and discrimination discontinued both in society and the workplace.
Comparing Boys and Girls and Emma Watson’s speech for her HeForShe campaign Gender is not referred “to sex, but to this set of prescribed behavior,” as said by Marlene Goldman’s “Penning in the Bodies” (Goldman). There are many rules set upon an individual as to what is acceptable and what is not. The short story Boys and Girls by Alice Munro focuses on the implications the narrator had to endure on her journey to womanhood by reason of gender stereotypes. Emma Watson’s speech for the HeForShe campaign targets on abolishing gender inequality. Despite inequity, there is a myriad of comparable traits that are shared by humans which portrays our personality.
The short story “Boys and Girls” by Alice Munro is narrated by an unnamed young girl who talks about life on her family’s fox farm where she lives with her parents and younger brother. She undeniably prefers working outside with her father on the chores and tending to the foxes instead of working in the house with her mother. Throughout the story there are subtle and obvious indications of the differences in and expectations of boys and girls. Although the narrator clearly demonstrates her preference to the role of a boy, she finds herself conforming to society’s expectations of a girl. Notably, the roles of males vs. females was clearly defined and differentiated within this story using the narrator’s parents.
Appendix A it is clearly a call to arms for the men of Britain, yet it holds within a strong archetype for women to conform to. This is portrayed, firstly, and most obvious is through the writing, reading “Women of Britain say ‘GO!’”. By having soloy women wanting the men to ‘Go!’ it points towards the belief at the time within Europe that women were unfit for combat, and must stay at home while their men went to war. The second way this gender role of the lover is depicted in this postcard is within the picture itself. By having the women facing away from the viewer of the poster, clinging to each other and a child it forces them to look, “vulnerable and in need of protection”, according to historian Fox.
Women is not different in the modern life. In the story “Boy and Girls” by Alice Munro and the Info-text “We haven’t come that far after all” (WHCTFAA) by Diane Framcis, both two texts talk about the gender stereotypes. In the story “Boys and Girls”, the narrator want to get the right and change the female stereotypes. In the info-text “WHCTFAA”, the writer illustrates that how women want to turn the female stereotypes in society. Both two texts show the writer against the traditional female stereotype, however the narrator in story think that she does not changed it, while the info-text express that it is changed but little.
The chores that the children do have create early gender roles, mainly for girls. Girls typically are assigned the role of caretaker and nurse for the younger children. The girls are trained to take care of the infants, which allows for the children’s mother to go out and gather. Boys are not typically given the role of caretaker for the younger siblings. This chore delegation forces girls to stay closer to the camp while the boys can venture farther off.
While the roles of females have changed very much. Today the roles of men are changing drastically, and so are the male stereotypes. We can see males taking on the roles of female dominated jobs like caring for children and cooking. And the old male stereotype are slowly evolving. In the story “So Much Water So Close To Home.” By Raymond Carver and the story “Where have you gone charming billy” by Tim O’Brien the male stereotypes of showing strength, the inability to show emotion, and only males do dirty jobs are exemplified by the protagonists.
Everyone can agree that males and females are born biologically different from one another, but there has been an extensive debate surrounding the development of stereotypical masculine and feminine gender roles within individuals. One side of the debate claims gender roles occur naturally; however, others argue another point. Alice Munro’s short story “Boys and Girls” is a piece of literate that argues the other side of this long-established debate. Munro’s critics have noted that she has a “commitment to the everyday lives of women [and she conducts] unflinching investigations into the by turns suffocating and satisfying world of the domestic” (DeFalco 377). In “Boys and Girls”, the reader follows the narrator as she grows into a gendered adult.