Putting Down The Gun Analysis

Over the last six weeks in AP Lang I have studied gender and read many authors who have different opinions when it comes to gender and gender struggles. I have come to the conclusion that men struggle more because they have more power and are the dominant gender, and men have greater expectations of them to exert their power and be a “man” whilst women have more freedom. In Putting Down the Gun, Rebecca Walker addresses this idea that men struggle because of their power and the expectations people have for them when her son said “Maybe girls will like me if I play sports.”(Walker) This boy felt he would never get a girlfriend if he did not play sports because boys are expected to play sports. In his mind the boy felt that this meant girls would never like him unless he played sports. He felt he had no other options but to play sports because that is just what boys do, and he felt that there were expectations of him to play …show more content…
Women also as the supposed weaker gender have the ability to fight against their struggles because they are clearly going against their expectations to be submissive housewives which although society may not like it, it does make sense for women to be strong business people as well as men. It is opposite for men because they are the dominant gender who are expected to enjoy their position in society, so they have no freedom to fight for equality. Society believes men should enjoy their position as the dominant gender, so there would be no benefit for them to help in the fight for gender equality but there clearly