I babysit two girls, ages 11 and 6, and yesterday we went out to lunch together. The three of us were sitting eating lunch when the little one let out a large burp. Her face turned red with embarrassment and she started to uncontrollably giggle, her sister followed in with the laughter. I laughed as well and asked her "What was so funny?" She responded by saying, "I acted like a boy." I was kind of surprised by her answer, I expected her to just say, "I burped!"
But I got to thinking...
Everyone burps but if you were asked to put burping under a male or female trait it would no doubt be male. Burping is something that we socially link to males.
The little girl didn't feel embarrassed from burping, she felt embarrassed because she did something she thought was boyish.
So in conclusion this is really just a cute story to illustrate what we have been discussing in class regarding gender and social constraints.
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Women's Bodies in Theory and Practice
This blog is created by students from Clemson University's spring 2009 course Women's Studies 459 - "Building Bodies: Women's Bodies in Theory and Practice." This class explores the construction of bodies from various methodological perspectives, focusing on five specific areas: theories of bodies; bodies and genders and sexes; “misbehaving” bodies; politics of bodies; and constructing bodies. We welcome comments and contributions to our posts and discussions.
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links
from the mouths of others...
"Well-behaved women seldom make history."
-Laurel Thatcher Ulrich
"There is a special place in hell for women who don't help other women."
-Madeleine K. Albright
"It is not possible to address society's needs at any level while ignoring the perspectives, priorities, and knowledge of more than half of the world's population."
-Rosina Wilshire of UNDP
"Women give life. We have the capacity to give life and light. We can take up our brooms and sweep the earth."
-Isabelle Letelier
"Womanist is to feminist as purple is to lavender."
-Alice Walker
"Violence against women will end when legal, philanthropic, governmental and non-governmental organizations and impassioned individuals unite and stand up to say it is a priority, to say that the time for ending violence is now."
-Eve Ensler
"And ain't I a woman?"
-Sojourner Truth
"Considering how dangerous everything is nothing is frightening."
-Gertrude Stein
"Also we've found that when we discuss women's problems, we need the men to be present, so that they can contribute by giving their opinions of what to do about the problem. And so that they can learn as well. If they don't learn, they don't progress."
-Rigoberta Menchu (222)
-Laurel Thatcher Ulrich
"There is a special place in hell for women who don't help other women."
-Madeleine K. Albright
"It is not possible to address society's needs at any level while ignoring the perspectives, priorities, and knowledge of more than half of the world's population."
-Rosina Wilshire of UNDP
"Women give life. We have the capacity to give life and light. We can take up our brooms and sweep the earth."
-Isabelle Letelier
"Womanist is to feminist as purple is to lavender."
-Alice Walker
"Violence against women will end when legal, philanthropic, governmental and non-governmental organizations and impassioned individuals unite and stand up to say it is a priority, to say that the time for ending violence is now."
-Eve Ensler
"And ain't I a woman?"
-Sojourner Truth
"Considering how dangerous everything is nothing is frightening."
-Gertrude Stein
"Also we've found that when we discuss women's problems, we need the men to be present, so that they can contribute by giving their opinions of what to do about the problem. And so that they can learn as well. If they don't learn, they don't progress."
-Rigoberta Menchu (222)
for reading, watching, and so on...
The Body: A Reader. Mariam Fraser and Monica Greco, eds. (Routledge, 2005).
Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood. Marjane Satrapi (Knopf, 2004).
Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood. Marjane Satrapi (Knopf, 2004).
Posts
This is a very cute story :) Its stunning how we as a society start at a very young age putting certain characteristic in certain gender groups.
ReplyDeleteIt's amazing how easy it is to get a kid to giggle. Just say any word that describe a bodily function, the noisier or smellier the better. My son's favorite bedtime book is "The Gas We Pass: The Story of Farts". It does describe the digestive tract and how a variety of animals process gas, so it's very informative. He reads it to his friends and they all laugh hysterically. I guess it is a boy thing!
ReplyDelete