The Valpo Core Reader
 

Authors

Mayra L. Quiroz

Document Type

Definition Essay

Publication Date

1994

Excerpt

Boys will be boys and girls will be girls. We have all heard this sometime in our lives and probably at some point believed it. How many times have we called a boy a "wimp" for playing with a doll or called a girl a "tomboy" for playing football with the neighborhood boys? Children who try to take part in the gender role of the opposite sex are sometimes not fully accepted. The boys will never see the"tomboy" as being one of them and the girls will certainly never invite her to their tea party. So where do we draw the line? When will we learn and teach our children how to express both the feminine and masculine side? And when will we be comfortable with it? These questions have been pondered by many but the answers have yet to be found. Lois Gould and Prudence Mackintosh are two authors who have expressed their views on gender roles in their writings. These two women express the importance of being able to raise a child who can be both feminine and masculine and I totally agree with the concept. I feel it is important to have the best of the two worlds. Unfortunately, many children are deprived of this. I can personally relate to this. I, like many other children, was brought up to play a specific gender role.

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