Essay Gender Roles in Alice Munro’s Boys and Girls

There is a huge debate going on today about gender. Society believes you’re a boy if you like blue, and like to play sports and go hunting; and you’re a girl if you like pink and have long hair and pig tails and play with Barbie dolls. Society has forced us to choose between the two. I believe that both women and men can both have it all. As Dorment says, ‘competing work life balance and home as much as women’. (Dorment 697) I believe in this article Richard Dorment, has argued his opinion very well, I think both men and woman equally need to be involved in housework as well as taking care of the children. In today’s world were judging who were going to be even before were born. Throughout this article Dorment effectively convinces his audience that men and women should be equal by using statistics and emotional stories, Dorment uses personal stories and extensive research to make readers believe in his credibility, and lastly Dorment employs the rhetorical appeals of pathos and ethos effectively.

In Alice Munro’s short story “Boys and Girls,” our narrator is a young farm girl on the verge of puberty who is learning what it means to be a “girl.” The story shows the differing gender roles of boys and girls – specifically that women are the weaker, more emotional sex – by showing how the adults of the story expect the children to grow into their respective roles as a girl and a boy, and how the children grow up and ultimately begin to fulfill these roles, making the transition from being “children” to being “young adults.”

On the other hand, when both partners share the breadwinner role men are more likely to increase their core housework tasks in companion to men in the ‘new traditional’ and male-breadwinner families. Consequently, many studies found that gender attitudes are still primary indicators of who does housework, thus women still do two-thirds of housework where men do two-thirds of paid work. It is noticed that there have been significant changes for women over the last 6 decades to participate in the labour force, yet there was hardly any change to the division of core household work between men and women.

Society has told us for the last hundreds of years that the woman’s job around the house as shown in Figure 1 is to cook, clean, and take care of the family. One man, Tom Junod, who

She was the main character trying to shape her daughter’s image, she strongly believed that women belonged in the house, just like the rest of the society in the early 1900s. The narrator's mother looked forward to the day when she could “use her [daughter] more in the house” (5), after she discussed how Laird was getting older. The mother was against the idea of women helping out with a man’s job, such as working in the barn or helping out with the pelting operation, for “she was plotting now to get me to stay in the house more, although she knew I hated it” (5). The mother showed both irritation and displeasure due to her daughter always running off when she asked for help in the house, she said, "I just get my back turned and she runs off. It's not like I had a girl in the family at all" (5). Along with direct characterization, Munro released small hints about the mother’s emotions through her daughter’s dialogue and thoughts. The girl did not realize “that [her mother] could be lonely, or jealous” (5). Additionally, when the mother walked into the barn “she looked out of place” (4). This statement used the character’s actions to show how the mother disliked participating in outdoor responsibilities. Overall, the mother felt disrespected and she wanted her daughter to fulfill duties in the house, rather than

In Alice Munro’s short story, “Boys and Girls,” the narrator, a young girl growing up on a fox farm who is coming of age and is thus forced to conform to societies expectations of women. Andrew Bennett and Nicholas Boyle argue that, “Literary texts call into question many of our essentialist ideas about gender” (183) and Munro’s story is an example of how literature can help us question the validity of gender essentialist thought. In this essay, I will argue that Munro’s short story does challenge common essentialist views on gender by exploring the way that society constructs and imposes gender roles on her characters, particularly the young narrator; and by analyzing the symbolic relationship between the narrator and the mare named Flora.

The main character’s mother believes that the girl is best fit in the kitchen aiding her because she is a female. When her mother comes in the barn, she tell her father “and then I can use her more in the house” and goes on to say “I just get my back turned and she runs off. It’s not like I had a girl in the family at all” (Munro 143). Her mother makes this statement because she is frustrated by her daughter actions. She wants her daughter to act similar to a “girl” and help her in the kitchen instead of doing “male” work. From the secondary source entitled Penning in the Bodies: The Construction of Gendered Subjects in Alice Munro 's 'Boys and Girls ' by Marlene Goldman she explains the mother behavior in detailed in this part of the story. “Similarly, her mother 's behaviour is interpreted, not as an expression of frustration and disappointment, or loneliness, but as a manifestation of innate wickedness and petty tyranny” (Goldman). Goldman explains that the mother tactics that are used of getting her

Many conflicts arise in a relationship due to the difference of opinion between people. Society customs and rules also plays an important role in a relationship. The two short stories “Boys and Girls” by Alice Munro and “Responsibility” by Russell Smith show how arguments and challenges are faced by characters in their relationships due to differences in their thinking and way of living. It is very important for an indiviudal to follow norms of the society to occupy a proper status and be accepted by the society. Both of the main the characters in each story have their own dreams and wishes but finally have to compromise with the rules of society.

The narrative voice is intriguing when choosing a literacy technique when applied to Alice Munro 's “Boys and Girls” and Jamaica Kincaid 's “Girl” because it highlights the significance of women 's role during the 1960 's. The story of Boys and Girls is in third person narration describing an eleven- year old girl. This story was published in 1968, a time when the second wave of feminism movement occurred. This story gives information about adult gender roles. The setting of the story is in Canada during the winter. The narrator is living in a fox- breeding farm which correlates to the North American culture in the 1960 's. In the 1960 's, women were stereotyped as happy wives and mothers. In contrast, the society believed that unmarried

Feminist theory has been around for many years restricting women on how they behave, dress and even what jobs they are ‘allow’ to do. In the short story, “Boys and Girls”, Alice Munro portrays a young girl who is socially and psychologically undermined by her family and the sociality to show her readers how feminist theory took a toll on girls back in 1964 and still happening till this day.

Throughout In Search of Authority, Bonnycastle illustrates the differences faced by men and women based on their gender. In the beginning, he discusses the various ways men and women appear different, even if it is unnoticeable, by explaining masculine and feminine qualities. He describes a masculine quality as being “assertive” whereas a feminine quality is “passive” (187). Furthermore, he states how there may be biological and cultural differences between the two sexes. From a biological standpoint, there are physical differences, but no studies show any correlation with male and female characteristics. From a cultural standpoint, boys and girls go through dissimilar processes. He describes how as an infant, a boy will change from his mom

Gender roles and gender stereotyping have been around since the beginning of time, and although society has made great advances in trying to change these terms, they still exist. They shape our children and effect their outlooks on society. Gender roles and gender stereotyping play a huge role in the story, “Boys and Girls,” by Alice Murno. In this story, the preconceived notions of gender are played out through every character. Male and female roles portray society’s expectations of appropriate behavior, through the children, and parents. The narrator tries to rebel against her assigned gender role, but eventually conforms to the world, and becomes what they consider to be a real woman.

her father tries to change who she is and force her into a gender role

The young girl in “Boys and Girls” by Munro, follows her father around and does the job of a “boy”. She was learning to shoot a gun, gave the foxes water, raked the grass after her father cut it and made a canopy for the foxes with it, and anything else her father told her to do. She thought the work in the house by her mother was “ endless, dreary and peculiarly depressing.” Yet, “Work done out of doors, and in my father’s service, was ritualistically important.” Whenever her mother gave her “female” jobs to do indoors, she would “ run out of the house, trying to get out of earshot before (her) mother thought of what she wanted her to do next.” She loathed the womanly work done inside. She did

“Boys and Girls,” a short story by Alice Munro, tells the coming-of-age story of a young girl who wants to live a somewhat traditionally “masculine” life on her family's farm. As the story quickly progresses, societal roles pushed on the girl by her parents and brother attempt to make the girl fit into a more “feminine” role. While the story lays out a seemingly superficial meaning of changes experienced while growing up, a closer look into the details brings out a story that exposes a view on the effects that society and the roles that people push onto others have on people; specifically, the story shows the negative effects of stereotypical gender roles that affect the narrator.