Gender Roles In Garcia's The Decline Of Latin Women

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Gender roles and expectations change depending on the community, what may be considered to be feminine or masculine in one community may not be in a different community. In “The Myth of the Latin Woman: I Just Met a Girl Named Maria” by Judith Ortiz Cofer, juxtaposed to the previous writers, conveys her argument through the use of personal anecdote. Cofer narrates her experience as a Latin girl growing up in America. Through the appeal of ethos she explains how as a teenager she was taught to behave as a “proper senorita” (Cofer, 371) encouraged to look and act like a women. This made her feminine in the eyes of her community, however her Anglo friend and mothers found them too “mature”(Cofer, 371) for their age. Through Cofer’s diction she …show more content…
As the gender expectations change within communities, so have they changed over time. From the beginning of recorded history men and women have always had roles that have set them apart. Men were the strong leaders, head of the house, while women were the homemakers. In “The Decline of Men” Garcia addresses how the advances in the world have had an immense impact on the gender roles- while women are escalating, men seem to be dumbing down. Garcia’s arguments are mostly supported by logos and ethos- information and statistics provided by credible sources. He makes comparisons between women and men on the professional level, and women are demonstrating to make a bigger effort to get educated than men do. Unlike The previous time period, women are also obtaining economic empowerment. Garcia provides a list of reports of investments made by women to support his argument, and not only is he appealing to logos but he also appeals to ethos as he demonstrates that he is well acknowledged on the subject. However, one may wonder what can be the possible reason for this decline in men? Garcia argues that men haven 't been able to adapt to the competition with women, he also claims through the appeal of logos, that society has become feminized. Through statistics he proves how most TV shows are being made …show more content…
Similarly to Garcia, Brooks compares girls school record to boys, statistically proving that girl do better in school than boys do. He informs the reader that the data is from the Department of Education, establishing his ethos as this becomes a credible source. Brooks counter argues himself and implements the possibility of males educational decline on social consequences, however “Among African Americans, there are 200 females grads for every 100 male grads.” (Brooks, 411) So whatever is causing this gap between the two genders is present in different social classes and cultures. He argues that the reason for this gender gap, has to do with the education system being feminized. “Girls are better suited to classroom environments that reward self control, cooperation and verbal participation-the exact behavior that many boys find difficult o impossible.”( Garcia, 15) Classes are suited to fit female ways of learning, not males. Brooks appeals to ethos as he makes an allusion to Thomas G. Mortensen, who has observed that these same trends, are present around the world. Brooks urges his audience to “help boys keep up with girls” (Brooks, 411) Through the use of rhetorical questioning, Brooks demands for boys to get as much attention as girls do, and to focus on

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