This One's for the Girls

typewriter. Oscar, alone, dreams of the woman he saw on the bus earlier in the day. Oscar. Alone. In The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, Junot Diaz illustrates the way in which one’s society can both burden and create one’s identity. As Oscar meanders through his life without any firm direction, his approach towards girls and his rare parlance determine the life he lives. They are what ostracize him, but are also what make him special. They make him worthwhile in the world he lives in: the…

When determining what color outfit to buy a newborn, one must color code according to the gender; pink for girls and blue for boys. If one stops to think, one wonders about the origin of this distinction; it must lie in the gender. According to her book, Gender Troubles, Judith Butler defines gender as a cultural construct with defining features that must be followed, which is distinct from sex, a biological attribute. Consideration toward such "consequences", must be acknowledged, such as…

The concept of self-actualization is defined as reaching one’s full potential as a human being. The concept originates from and organismic meta-theory meaning humans are not born empty to be filled, but are actively in pursuit of actualization. Humans are genetically setup to thrive in their environment in the best way possible if given the correct tools. The Self Determination Theory is used to explain actualization and defines it as normal human potentials. The theory assumes that humans…

the Mirror How can one’s body be seen as beautiful and one’s confidence radiate, if there is no opportunity to promote those feelings? Today, this concept is relevant in regards to large amounts of media, that do just this. Living in a world filled with photo shopped advertisements and magazines, standards of beauty have created unhealthy body image. Through this disorders like anorexia and body dysmorphia have been given life, and until we begin to change the conversation this cycle will not…

Ever wonder what this world would be like if there didn 't exist any labels like those that already exits? What if the label women, men or female and male didn 't exist where everyone could live their life how ever they wanted to live it of course without doing anything illegal. If you are a girl or a boy this society has establish certain codes and rules according to ones gender. Also, society thinks they have a say on the relationships between males and females. Also, guess what this society…

Brown Girl Dreaming is an emotionally touching children’s book that contains vivid and descriptive language—this makes this book a well-written children’s book. Such language describes Woodson’s childhood, specifically growing up in South Carolina and New York during the 1960s and 1970s—it changed her life. Throughout the course of this book card, I will focus on how an educator can make a difference in a student’s; especially when it comes to motivating students to chase after their dreams. As…

challenging, complex, and comprehensible, she provides somewhat enough evidence and analysis of David Reimer’s case to prove her claim that society uses language to set the norms of what a gender should be and how one should act in accordance with one’s gender. First, Butler’s use of David Reimer’s case, known as “the John/Joan case” ("Interview: John Colapinto”), “a boy who accidentally had his penis burned and subsequently amputated at the age of eight months” (740-741), is somewhat sufficient…

John Maxwell Taylor an American author once said, “Inside every man there is a potential woman and inside every woman resides a potential man” (Taylor, 2015) for the majority this sentiment may not ring any truth however to some minority it does. Androgyny, according to Encyclopædia Britannica defines this term in two categories, from a biological aspect and a psychological one, it states from the biological stand point that androgyny is refers to persons with fully developed sexual organs of…

Social comparison theory is the idea that people judge themselves based on others for their own validity. The article “A Diary Study of Self-Compassion, Upward Social Comparisons, and Body Image-Related Outcomes”, the movie Mean Girls and my own personal experiences support the theory about how people compare themselves socially. The article demonstrates that social comparison has happened between young Australian university women aged 18-30 years. The experiment had the women do online surveys…

Starting at a young age, children are often dressed in and surrounded by what is seen as appropriate colors based on their gender-blue for boys and pink for girls. Disregard for this standard may cause preconceived judgement and a distorted idea of one’s character. Not many parents stop to understand why these colors have been assigned to their respective genders, and simply go along with the cultural norm. But I believe many would be surprised to find that that in 1918, it was the exact…