...Being Girl: A Sociological Memoir My first memory of kindergarten was this: dozens of tiny, petrified 5-year-olds being dropped off at their first day of school, and dozens of exhausted, overworked mothers consoling their weeping sons and daughters. I remember it vividly because, despite the terror and chaos, a single thought pervaded my mind, the thought that “these moms are not as pretty as my mom.” I wasn’t entirely biased, either. By North American standards of beauty, I was correct. Here was my mother, a rail-thin, blonde-haired, blue-eyed statuesque stunner, among a sea of frumpy women with visible wrinkles and tangles of black hair. And here I was, the daughter of this perfect specimen, the proud owner of a mother who was more “feminine”, more “womanly”, and therefore, I naively deduced, “a better mother”. In fact, although my vocabulary was fairly limited at the time, I believed her to be the epitome of all mothers. She looked, I told her that morning, “like a mom was supposed to look.” In interviewing my mother, she said that this was my “first brush with what it meant to be a girl.” Throughout kindergarten, I was labeled “weird”. I dug for worms, collected Pokémon cards (which was deemed a “boyish” activity), and none of my friends were girls. My teacher, a young woman who had just recently graduated from university, was often concerned for me, and thought that my lack of female friends would be detrimental to my developing of social...
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...A week being a girl board member Breathing gases out of my mouth with my right hand covering it, I slowly opened my bag and placed my pen and books into it. Now, everything is ready! Anytime by now we’ll be leaving this air-conditioned room full of students patiently waiting for the results. I was half-asleep when I heard my name, that’s the girl in the podium calling me. So I went in to the stage together with the other students beaming with great happiness, I looked above and said to myself, “this is going to be the start!” It was Thursday morning when I and my four other classmates were sent by our school to take the examination for the Boys and Girls Week. When I opened the door, I really wished to evaporate on that very moment when almost all the students, already seated and taking the exam, turned their heads to my direction. I just walked slowly as silent as possible, as if I’m invisible, as I was heading to my seat. My hand and my pen had a fight, I can’t write even a single letter. Luckily, after a minute or two, they finally reconciled and I was able to pass my answer sheet even before the time ran out. I made a pig of myself while eating our lunch; I was acting like I had never eaten for years but can you blame me? I was really exhausted after taking the test. Finally, the result came in no time and I almost jumped out of joy when the emcee called my name as one of the qualifiers for the next round. I never really expected it to happen but I should keep going...
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...Author Tutor Course Date Change in Milk Bacteria and Effect in Teenage Girls Milk has been known to be important in the growth of human beings as well as other suckling mammals. This fact that cuts every corner of the globe may make it hard for one to comprehend that milk also has disease causing bacteria. Scientists however, have proven beyond any reasonable doubt that indeed such bacteria exist in milk. The list of these bacteria is endless and the diseases caused by them have had extensive effects on human body functioning. Change in milk bacteria has been found to affect the prevalence of a number of diseases. To counter this, pasteurization of milk was discovered to kill a huge number of diseases causing bacterium. However, pasteurization does not kill every bacterium (Gupta 52). Milk products such as cheese, yoghurt and butter carry the potential of having some bacterium in them. Their consumption in large numbers is relative to an increasing risk of affection. For instance, increased intake milk products correlate with but do not necessarily cause adolescent acne. At this point, it is good to note that milk has two layers one that contains fat and one that does not. The fatty layer has hormones such as progesterone and androgens that stimulate acne. Acne leads to hormonal imbalances and thus abnormal experiences in regard to menstruation (Fox 45). The number of diseases caused by bacteria is large but this paper intends to focus on female genital tuberculosis...
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...If you're a girl and really love playing football or a guy and you really love cooking, would it be fair or respectful if someone said to you “you’re a guy/girl you shouldn’t be doing that.” I believe that gender roles should not be in our society. Everyone may have different perspectives on this issue but they keep it themselves, and not be disrespectful to others. Ones who have a passion of something that the other gender is ‘supposed’ to do, should be able to share that passion with others without the fear of teased or told not to do that, from those who think they shouldn't do that. In our society today people have the fear of being teased or bullied because they are not follow the roles of their gender. Perspective one states that being a girl is bad and that you can avoid the badness of being a girl if you don’t act like one. In the book To Kill a Mockingbird, Scout’s brother, Jem, teaches her that being a girl is bad. However, being a girl is not a bad thing, to some people I can see why they think that. Some girls are snotty and mean, but others aren’t and saying that it is bad to be a...
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...why has today’s society become so obsessed with being so exceedingly thin when for many years before curvy women were considered ideal? Many women, teenagers, and even young girls look at themselves...
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...Should the Girl Scouts of America be Allowed to Include Transgenders? The Girl Scouts of America has recently issued a statement allowing transgenders—associated as a girl—will be accepted as a member. There has been a continuous argument with right-wing conservatives throughout the entire country but specifically in Louisiana. Upon the release of the statement, many donors have stopped funding the program considering they believe transgenders shouldn’t be allowed in the gender specific society. There have been only a few stipulations considering transgender entry and portray the purpose to be for the well being and safety of the member. Changes in something that is correlated as traditional has caused a stir throughout the balance of equality and proves ideas can be changed in an instance upon someone or something being too insensitive about a subject. Therefore, Girl Scouts of America has just begun a revolution within the transgender youth community and should be ceased regarding they are straying away from their foundational beliefs. The origin of Girl Scouts was brought to life within the state of Georgia. Girl Scouts of America was founded by Juliette Gordon Low in 1912 claiming that her idea spawned from the creators of Boy Scouts. She believed that there should be an organization girls could be involved Humphreys 2 in where they “had a place to grow and develop their leadership skills.” Therefore, her legacy would...
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...superiority as being an issue that is accepted by women and obviously other men. The violence of women and young girls done by men should be addressed because they oftentimes result in major consequences. Instead of addressing the issue of the violence done to women and young girls, these violent acts are continuing to be accepted. The violent acts of honor killings, sexual assaults, and prostitution are resulting in the deaths of many women and young girls. The violent acts of honor killings are happening to women and young girls worldwide. Honor killings are the killings of relatives, especially a woman or young girl, who are accused of bringing...
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...Should Girls Ask Boys Out? Outline Thesis: Although boys have always asked girls out, why can't girls return the favor; society today has changed and girls are asking boys out. I. Almost everybody is taught that tradition has always been that the boy has to ask the girl out, because this shows that he can be a man and take charge. a. This tradition goes back far as the eighteenth century. b. Most boys who took interest in a girl they liked or were attracted to, nine times out of ten wanted to get to know her and in doing so by asking her out. c. A girl will never understand how much pressure and sense of masculine it puts on a boy to ask a girl out. II. Nowadays, people live in a civilized society with a continuous development. d. Women are stronger and more confident about themselves and certain situations than women in the past. e. Boys do not know how to handle rejection or failure, so they think that they can avoid rejection or failure by not asking a girl out all together. f. Boys would sometimes prefer for a girl to ask them out. III. For those who agree with the idea or for those who do not, there are however pros and cons to asking a boy out. g. It seems sensible to go after what you want and take initiative. h. If he feels like you are extremely interested he might not be that interested. i. As one becomes more skilled, one’s chances of finding, appreciating, and deserving a more satisfying...
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...society’ (30 marks) Girls have rapidly improved, compared to boys, in terms of educational achievement, as Item A states, since the 1980’s. In Key Stages 1-3, girls consistently do better than boys in writing subjects such as English; at GCSE, girls are 10 percentage more likely than boys to achieve five or more A*-C grades; at AS/A-level, girls are more likely to get higher grades. Additionally, at each stage of a pupil’s education, the gap gets narrower. Therefore, more girls go into higher education. However, this is not the case for boys as there are in changes in the both the education system and wider society. As item A suggests, there are many external factors resulting in gender differences in educational achievement. One factor is the impact of Feminism. Since the 1960’s, feminists have challenged patriarchy by creating the ‘Feminist Movement’. This has help to improve the rights of women, as well as raise expectations and the self-esteem of women. Although many would agree that true equality with males has not yet been achieved, women have now started to reject the traditional stereotypes of women such as the ‘mother and housewife role’. For example, in McRobbie’s study of girls’ magazines shows how girls view of themselves have changed. She found that in the 1970’s, girls emphasised the importance of getting married and being ‘left on the shelf’. However, nowadays, they contain images of assertive, independent women such as Oprah Winfrey. As a result, girls are motivated...
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...that the women of Afghanistan rights and quality of life were ranked second to the lowest country out of 165 countries investigated. There are many factors that cause difficulties for women in Afghanistan, some being, child marriage, lack of education, few job opportunities and groups such as the Taliban. Many women struggle to be heard and have to follow what the families want them to do. In the UK women are much more included in society and there are laws that stop the exploitation of women. Education for women has always been a problem worldwide, however as society has developed, girls and women are much more entitled to an education. In the UK the literacy rate of women is 99% with all young girls being expected to attend a free full time education up to the age of 16. However it is very much different to the education of girls and women in Afghanistan. The literacy rate for women if Afghanistan is 12.6%. Only 40% of girls attend elementary school and only 1 in 20 attend school beyond that. There are various reasons why girls do not attend school. One of these being that families of young girls will only allow them to attend all-girl schools and so little of these exist especially in rural areas. This meaning that in more than 80% of rural areas there are no girls...
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...measure of self-esteem, young girls may grow up lacking basic skills needed to succeed in life; athletic involvement beginning at a young age is a good way to begin developing necessary social skills that will lead to greater self-esteem later in life. Although participation in sports can have a negative effect on teenage girls, the positive impact the sport has on them greatly outweighs the negative. Research has found that the most common negative effect of athletics on females is over training. Over training occurs when the body is pushed beyond its limits both physically and emotionally. The more females participate in sports, the higher the risk she has of obtaining a sports-related injury (Sabo, 1997, p. 38). The more competitive the sport is, the more training is needed in order to be successful, and this training can become risky to girls’ bodies. Girls tend to over-train under pressure, which in turn, leads to unnecessary injuries. Some of the most common injuries girls sustain due to overuse are stress fractures, kneecap disorders, and compartment syndromes (Storm & Jenkins, 2002, p. 164). According to Go Girl! Raising Healthy, Confident and Successful Girls Through Sports, a book written by Hannah Storm about girls participation in sports, “Stress fractures are a series of tiny cracks that don’t heal because of the frequency or intensity of an athlete’s training schedule, kneecap disorders are aching pains caused by the kneecaps being pulled out of alignment by...
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...educational achievement refer to the significant differences in educational success and failure. This difference can be found between the two genders where it is a fact that girls outperform boys in the education system; some may argue that this is a result of factors outside of school. The validity of this or whether the differences are caused by factors outside school will be discussed. One reason as to why it can be argued that gender differences in educational achievement are caused by factors outside school is because of changes in society’s views on females. In past generations, girls would not attend school and instead stay at home and learn from their mother how to cook and look after children, they were nurtured to become housewives for their future husbands. This meant that women had low aspirations, however this has changed. Sue Sharpe argues that this is a result of a gender quake that society is experiencing. Previously, girls had aspired to get married at a young age and become mothers to children early on in their lives. However, girl’s priorities have changed to getting an education so that they can have a career (Francis and Skelton) and therefore being able to support themselves above all other priorities rather than relying on a husband. This therefore means society accepts that it is normal for girls to get an education and provide for themselves; therefore society’s views on women can be argued to be an important outside school factor to influence gender differences...
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...everything you wanted, but you have to do just one thing for him which turns into human trafficking, where they mistreat you, abuse you, hit you. Now that’s happening because they tricked you, and told you all these lies that weren't true. Laura Abasi became one of the girls of human trafficking when she was just 18 years old. She says, “If they told you she was going to kill you, and she actually started fighting. They had to almost kill you, to beg them not to kill you,” (Fisher, 2014). Some don’t even want to do this but they...
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...Pushout: The Criminalization of Black Girls in Schools by Monique W. Morris focuses on the experiences of Black girls in the American education system and how systemic racism and discrimination has often criminalized their existence and fundamental right to an education. Pushout: The Criminalization of...
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...1990', the girls over took boys at all levels in the education system. The percentage of females in the UK achieving two or more A-levels or equivalent has increased from 20% in 1990 to 42% in 2006. Over the same time period, the percentage of males achieving the same level increased from 18% to 33%. On the other hand, there still continues to be a large difference in the choice of subjects by males and females. Even with the national curriculum being restrictive in the lower levels, meaning both male and females do the same subjects, when they get to a-levels and degree level, both male and females still tend to choose different subjects. At A-level males are more likely to study subjects such as; business studies, politics, economics and technical subjects, whereas females are more likely to study subjects such as; English and Modern Languages, and a large percentage also tend to choose Sociology and Psychology. Sociologists argue that these patterns of achievement and subject choice are the result of factors both within the education system and wider society. These changes within the education system are seen as the result of gender differences in education, although, external factors such as the impact of feminism, changes in the job market may have also influenced the increase in girls grades within education. Firstly, it may be argued that the way pupils are assessed has favored girls and disadvantaged boys. Sociologist Pirie (2001) believes that coursework being introduced...
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