Melissa Snow Gender Analysis

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Gender is a very controversial subject and is not something that can be clearly defined to others. Gender differences in society show that you are not just born as a man or a woman; you are made that way through cultural backgrounds causing several complexities dealing with this issue. Both Melissa Snow and Clive Thompson, feel that “gender isn’t simply innate or biological,” rather it is shown through your actions and how you feel about yourself. The idea of being born into a gender is something that has been displayed as a basic principle to life. For example, when Melissa Snow states, that people learn, “the key differences between man and woman are in their plumbing” (Atwan 104), she is displaying the opposing argument that gender isn’t…show more content…
Just as you learn different rules by whom you surround yourself with, gender is that same way. Journalist, Clive Thompson, observes that “males and females display different types of behaviors;” these behaviors that are acted upon are setting guidelines as “children recognize certain sex-role identities” (Atwan 82). This point is also proven in Frank McCourt’s novel From Angelas Ashes when the mother character, Angela, has to stay home and take care of her family and can’t do anything about the father taking the hard earned money to the pubs to drink it all away. With these influences on gender roles in society it is understood that “boys tend to be more aggressive and competitive, while girls’ behavior is generally more social and accommodating,” (Atwan 82). These classifications among men and women help to set a barrier to show the differences each gender has on society and how these common tendencies they acquire start to develop who they are. As Thompson points out it is clear and easy to discover a females writing from a males writing because it is simply the fact that, “women talk about people, men talk about things” (Atwan 89). These trends are what have been labeled as the common capabilities and expectations of each…show more content…
Boys will get the dinosaur pajamas while girls get the princess pattern. When they can’t even talk yet they are still told different things. Boys might be told how tough he is when he throws a ball and a girl can be cute she when she plays with her doll. This is how gender roles and actions are instilled and almost forced on most children. If they have male plumbing they are treated one way and just the opposite for a girl. It is obvious that everyone has their own ideas of what the regular male and the regular female should be like. A lot of the time we can see this when parents teach their children different things to try to make them the ideal person of

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