Friday in English class, my classmates and I were having a discussion on chapter 24 of Harper Lee's novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, in which the tomboy protagonist Scout must attend her aunt's tea party.
For the most part, the chapter is fairly dull. I commented that it was a highly significant chapter because it illustrates another kind of predjudice in the racially charged community--sexism.
My peer agreed. "A good foreshadowing quote for this chapter," she notes, "is a couple chapters before, when Atticus notes that girls can't serve on juries."
Atticus says no such thing. Girls can't serve on juries, of course, but neither can boys. Atticus actually says that women can't serve on juries, ("woman" generally being the appropriate word for a grown female.)
It is seemingly OK in our culture to refer to grown males as men, and yet refer to grown females as girls, the same term used for young, naive, innocent, etc, girls. It is implying that females forever stay cute and innocent, but men become MEN!, a prepackaged, patriarchal product demanding respect and power. This is not the case.
Boys and girls!
Ladies and gentlemen!
Must we go as far as a circus sideshow to receive respect?
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2 comments:
The comment about the circus was a really great contrast that made me stop and think. Another thing to think about is that often when we ARE adressed as women, it is in the sense like "Pssht, women. They don't know anything."
yeah i agree with em. i'd never really noticed that men calls us girls until now...
its really not right. AND WE MATURE FASTER THEN MEN!!
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