Gender Roles and Female Sexuality
Mothers train their children to hate their sexuality and conform to societal norms. The Girl by Jamaica Kincaid is a 1978 short story that gives a glimpse of a worrisome relationship between a mother and a daughter. Communication between a parent and a child leads to the transmission of role modeling, societal values, and family expectations. Parent-child communication has the potential to curb negative sexual health outcomes. However, the communication should be two-way and not as it was with the Daughter and her Mother in the story. ‘Girl ‘is a story that consists of advice given in singular sentences from a mother to her daughter. The daughter interrupted only twice to defend herself or ask a question. The mother intends for the advice to be of use to her daughter even as it scolds her. Kincaid uses semi-colons in separating the words of wisdom and admonitions but repeats herself often, especially in warning her daughter from becoming a ‘slut.’ Therefore, based on the key cultural terms the mother uses and her worry about how Kincaid will fit in society demonstrates how gender roles and female sexuality are embroidered in cultural characteristics and are passed down from one generation to another. The essay seeks to explore gender roles and female sexuality, which stands out as the main theme in ‘Girl’ by Jamaica Kincaid.
The society acts as a conduit that passes female sexuality and biased gender roles from one generation to another. The mother defines everything the daughter should do, and in so doing, we can see that she is passing down what her parents or society taught her. For example, the mother scolds the daughter and tells her that she must always wear something on her head when the sun is up. She goes ahead to demonstrate to the daughter how a lady should walk on Sundays; “try to walk like a lady and not like the slut you are so bent on becoming” (Kincaid). The harsh language used here is a good example of the mother’s tone in the entire piece. The line is repeated severally in the entire piece, emphasizing her agenda and fortifying her absolution that her daughter must not become a slut. The mother also warns her daughter from singing benna songs during Sunday School or to squat while playing marbles. Mothers can be very overbearing; in the entire story, the mother fails to consider her daughter’s feelings and thoughts. The story demonstrates that the mother has no desire to accommodate her daughter’s thoughts.
0ver time, women have been forced to be malleable and conform to societal misconceptions of gender roles. The mother forces the girl to bend her character so as to fit what the mother feels is acceptable in society. The ideas and the directions that the mother gives her daughter are an indication of how society discriminates against women. The mother is so embroiled and engrossed in her past that she wants to define and monitor whatever character her daughter portrays “You must learn how to cook” ( Kincaid). She also tells her that she has to know how to iron her father’s clothes: “This is how you iron your father’s khaki shirt so that it doesn’t have a crease; this is how you iron your father’s khaki pants so that they don’t have a crease” (Kincaid). In this text, the mother narrows the scope of what her daughter is capable of. The mother spells out a woman’s duties to her husband; cooking and making sure he looks good. She sends the reader directly to the concept of sexuality and why girls should be worried about their sexuality, skills, or anything else.
The mother is teaching her daughter how to keep the home clean and tidy at a young age: “This is how you sweep a corner; this is how you sweep a whole house; this is how you sweep a yard” (Kincaid). The mother then picks the name slut, to demean and coerce the daughter to do what she, the mother, pleases. Ironically, the mother also shows her daughter how to make herbal medication that will help her abort an unwanted baby “This is how to make a good medicine to throw away a child before it even becomes a child” (Kincaid). In one way or another, she succeeds in shaping the behavior of the daughter. She prohibits the lady from eating fruits when on the streets. In effect, the daughter does not have the power and space to enjoy her freedom of choice.
The mother represents the idea that women should always look presentable before men, or they would be viewed as un-virtuous. Men, on the other hand, may be allowed to dress whichever way they want. A woman’s length of clothes determines whether she is a slut or not: “This is how to hem a dress when you see the hem coming down and so to prevent yourself from looking like the slut” (Kincaid). The mother also tells the daughter that “this is how to behave in the presence of men who don’t know you very well, and this way they won’t recognize immediately the slut I have warned you against becoming” (Kincaid). Society imposes its stereotypes on females, and this is a condition that the story illustrates.
The mother holds that domestic knowledge will save her daughter from ruin and promiscuity and empower her and convert her into a respectable community member. She believes that there are two categories of women: the sluts and the respectable women. Household work brings prestige and power to a woman, keeping a woman away from temptation and busy at all times. The mother reveres domesticity, as can be seen in her instructions to her daughter on how to grow okra, cook pumpkin fritters, and even soak her underwear immediately after she takes them off: “Soak your little cloths right after you take them off” (Kincaid). According to the mother, a woman is aware of and carries out her domestic chores, is hygienically clean, and knows how to take care of her male spouse. Therefore, the shreds of evidence collected and addressed in the article show how deep the root of gender inequity has sunk in society.
In conclusion, the author uses the mother’s character to bring out the theme of gender roles and female sexuality. She tries to exert power over the daughter by continually telling her what to do, and at any time, she uses abusive and harsh language to coerce the daughter to comply. She also links tangential objects to the abomination topic of sexuality. She believes a woman belongs to the kitchen and bedroom, and that’s why all her teachings revolve around the two places. Above all, her obsession with the daughter’s behavior makes how much the mother wants the daughter to accept that she is not a man and that the daughter should act to make her acceptable in society.
Work Cited
Kincaid, Jamaica. Girl. San Francisco Examiner, 1991.
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Question 
Paper #1 — Final Draft:
Submit the final draft of the paper that you submitted in Week 3 (Short Essay 1), showing clear revision to your work after having reviewed the instructor feedback.
Gender Roles and Female Sexuality
To successfully complete this essay:
- make sure to structure your paper according to the essay template available in Week 2 Assignments.
- explain your own ideas clearly.
- Use quotes from the story to support your ideas.
- Document your quotes:
- after each quote, include an MLA-style in-text citation. Usually, the in-text citation has 2 components: the last name of the author and the page number. Since the electronic version of the story you have been reading through Canvas does not have page numbers, you only need to include the last name of the author.
- at the end of your paper, include a Works Cited to list your sources
- Write a paper that is 2-3 double-spaced pages, exclusive of the Works Cited page.
REMINDER: Submitting a paper twice, without making revisions, is a form of plagiarism and as such is in violation of the college’s Academic Integrity Policy