Steven Doloff’s article, “The opposite sex?” offers an extensive look at the difference of genders. Doloff writes this article from the perspective of students from a classroom who are assigned to write an essay about being a member of the opposite sex for a day. This article focuses on the way that people think about being for a day as the opposite sex. Doloff asserts that gender is more than just a word. The male students “after their initial paralysis wore off, did not write as much as the females” (742).
I found Doldoff’s article very interesting. Although I consider myself somewhat educated on the reality of gender ‘’favoritism’’, Doldoff revealed a number of new ways of preference. For example, I hadn’t thought about the friction that exists between genders, especially when a guy played the paper of a girl having a very boring life just being at home, go on random dates, or not letting any guys touch them. Similarly, I didn’t think about the advantages of being a girl, especially when it came to have someone paying for your bill at some expensive restaurant, or being careful about what I wear or my whole appearance. Doldoff makes an important point regarding sexism: young people even now are still burdened with sexist stereotypes and sexist self images not nearly as vestigial as we would like to think.
In reading “The opposite sex,” I remembered a story by T.K. Kenyon, Sexism and speaking out, about Hispanic women living in a community in Chicago. Kenyons’ work, although fictional, addresses many of the themes found in Doldoff’s article. The lady living in Mango Street living a luxurious life thanks to all of her escorts and expensive gifts she would get from them. Thus, Kenyon’s claims that the experiences of more mature individuals differs substantially from those with less life experiences.
From ancient times women have always been criticized or discriminated. They can be very clever and watchful, trick men, and at the same time have a great heart. On the other hand men could be very careless about the things that surrounds them (might be the cause of why women are mad as a march hares when it comes to dealing with guys). On this story gender characteristics towards the opposite sex are shown, making women a little more interested in the topic due to their inextinguishable hunger for knowledge and undying curiosity.
Works Cited
Barnet, Sylvan, William Burto, and William E. Cain. Literature for Composition: Essays, Stories, Poems, and Plays. Boston: Longman, 2011. Print.
Cited: Barnet, Sylvan, William Burto, and William E. Cain. Literature for Composition: Essays, Stories, Poems, and Plays. Boston: Longman, 2011. Print.
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