Gender+Lesson

Description of Assignment Writing this essay was definitely a learning experience because I never really deeply thought about "gender lessons". I learned a lot about myself through this paper because I always felt strong about being a girl and I never really understood why exactly this was. My parents always taught me to be a strong individual but never really about never letting someone discriminate against me for being a girl. Well, they didn't teach me verbally but they did teach me through their actions. They never stopped me from trying to do what the boys did. I really appreciate everything that they taught me about this.

No Way Brownie

 My whole life I grew up as “one of the boys”. My brother is an enormous part of my life and his friends came with that. I always rolled around in the dirt and caught creepy crawling bugs with them and wasn’t afraid to do anything they did. I enjoyed the fact that they accepted me even though I was the younger sister. I even wrestled with them, covered in sweat on a regular basis. Nothing that the boys did bothered me or stopped me from trying to do exactly what they did. I got so accustomed to playing with only boys that I was a very big “tom boy” in my younger days. Out of all the years playing with the numerous boys that my brother, Sean, became close friends with, there is only one instant that I could remember where I wasn’t allowed to do what all the boys did.

 As a young boy, my brother was a Cub Scout. I really enjoyed watching all of his events and sitting next to him as he made projects. One of the projects was to make a race car out of wood. I accompanied my father and brother in the garage while they were sanding away at the wood, trying to form all the details that a real car has. The saw dust flew throughout the garage and made me feel like I was one of the boys, getting dirty and making something amazing out of a piece of wood. I was so excited when my dad let me spray the bright blue paint on to the figure. Although the smell made me sick, I made myself forget about it because I wanted to be able to do everything my brother did. As we were sweeping the ground a wonderful idea, so I thought, popped into my mind so I exclaimed, “I want to be a boy scout, just like you, Sean!” My father and brother stared at me and laughed hysterically in my face. I didn’t understand why they were laughing because I was only 5 years old at the time; I had never encountered a situation where girls couldn’t do what boys did.

 My dad giggled and said, “Sweetie pie, you can’t be a boy scout, you’re a girl.”

 Followed by my brother who said, “Yeah! Girls can’t be boy scouts!”

 Disappointed, I lowered my head walked back into the house. I was hurt, sad, and mad because I was never denied when I wanted to do what my brother did. I began to cry and ran to my mother for comfort. I buried my sobbing face into her shoulder and asked her why they were being so mean and didn’t let me be a boy scout. In her sweet voice she said, “boys can be boy scouts and girls can be brownies, brownies are the girl scouts.”

 “So I can be a brownie and do everything Sean does?!”

 “No, Angel, brownies sell cookies, they don’t camp or make cars.”

 “Then I don’t want to be a brownie, I want to be a boy scout!” Upset I ran to my room and tried to comprehend what had just happened. This dark cloud which I couldn’t understand hovered above my immature head. As I was laying my bed I went into deep thought. This moment has miraculously stuck with me since that day. However, I eventually got over it due to my short attention span. It wasn’t until years later that I understood what happened. It was my first encounter with unequal attitudes toward gender and therefore my first gender lesson.

 On the down side, I also became quite envious of boys because they were allowed to do things that girls couldn’t do. I always wanted to be just like my big brother, tough and protective. But as I grew older I realized how much girls and boys were different. When I was young I didn’t understand that there were different expectations from the two genders. I began to see how much different we are and on the other hand, that we have many similarities.

 This single event taught me so much and changed me as a person. I didn’t change the way I act around boys and it definitely didn’t make me a “girly girl”. I became a stronger girl who strives to show the boys that girls can do anything that boys can do. I accept that physically males are built stronger and bigger than girls, but I know that we females are much stronger and much more capable of doing wonders than people might think. From that day on I didn’t let any boy tell me what I can and can’t do. If I have a daughter and she asks the same question, I would tell her the truth and that girls and boys sometimes do different activities. However I would also tell her that she can do anything that she puts her mind to and that she should not be held down by any type of gender discrimination.

 I believe that my parents brought me up wonderfully because I never had to deal with true gender discrimination. They always allowed me to do everything my brother did that didn’t involve rules. Even though I couldn’t do many of the same activities that my brother did, I was able to try and learn firsthand why boys did certain things and girls didn’t.