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Sexism. Negative female stereotypes are still prevalent in todays society leaving a lingering sensation that the male is the dominant sex. This idea is represented in many ways throughout society, and mainly parade through the subconscious thoughts men

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Christina Hernandez Ms. Turner AP Lang/ Comp 2B 11 December 2009 Our Sacred Duty When entering the threshold to a new first grade class, children are greeted by a friendly smile and a point in the direction of the coat hangers. One then hangs her belongings and puts away her lunch. She makes her way around the room, subconsciously finding a seat closely connected to familiarity. Martha plops down next to Susan and soon they find themselves in an enchanted castle with delicate sugar plum fairies dancing through their imagination. David spies an intense situation and quickly includes his finger gun in the war being fought by Jimmy, Paul and Joe. The idea that all girls compose themselves in more close and exclusive friendships and boys interact through larger rough, physical groups feed the notion that "differences tend to be exaggerated and similarities ignored, with little integration of similarity and difference" (Thorne 155). Sexism begins at such an early age that it becomes hard for our society to transgress, and in result negative stereotypes are formed. Negative female stereotypes are still prevalent in today's society leaving a lingering sensation that the male is the dominant sex. ...read more.


Women who play sports are looked at as delicate because the sport itself is placed under the category of a "gentler fare" even though the same sport is practiced by men daily (Crary 1). It is almost humorous that women are subjected to the discrimination of a sport being renamed to better suit its players. For example, women who play the common sport of football are considered to be playing 'powder puff'. The name in itself is demeaning enough as the diction portrays the feelings of a soft and delicate game though the only difference is the sexes involved. The idea that Martha and Susan dominate the sidewalk at recess with the jump ropes and hopscotch while David, Jimmy, Paul and Joe manage the courts and fields connects to the preconceived notion that those are the things they were meant to do. Men feel as though they are more qualified to play the tougher contact sports than woman are because their role in society permits it, while a woman's main motherly duties contradict their capability to partake in any activities. Stereotypical thoughts of sexes concerning sports obviously exist and prosper in youth as well as into adult hood. ...read more.


Men in today's society feel they are more prominant and more powerful because a woman would not exist if a man was not there to create her. The superiority represented by this has amplified significantly to the point where women are apparently completely dependent on a male and a woman's role in society has been diminished to the weaker, less complicated tasks. If sexism did not exist, there would be a consensual understanding that the sexes dissociate periodically due to separate spaces, rituals, groups, but "they also come together and are, in crucial ways, part of the same world" (Thorne 155). Sexism is not static, but is a variable and complicated process and very much still exists in our world today. Women receive unfair assumptions concerning personal areas of strength and weakness by the stereotypical views that fuel the ongoing sexist attitude in society. Whether these statements rest on factual resources or not still does not change the sole fact that women do not always have the opportunity to provide their input and clarify the misunderstandings men organize through the subconscious necessity for dominance. Instead of the friendly smile greeting Martha and encouraging her to pursue the ordinary, maybe a friendly nudge toward the unfamiliar would better suit our society because it is ignorance that fuels conventional views. ...read more.

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