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. The daughter is Kincaid. The story revolves around a mother who prescribes behaviors she deems fit for Kincaid. She imposes this set of characters on her daughter. The resultant constrictive behavior is a consequence of the mother’s imposition of behaviors on Kincaid. 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 passed down from generation to generation. The essay seeks to explore gender roles and female sexuality, which stands out as the main theme in The Girl by Jamaica Kincaid.
Society acts as a conduit that passes female sexuality and biased gender roles from generation to generation. The mother defines everything Kincaid should do, and in so doing, we can see that she is passing down what her parents or society taught her to Kincaid. For example, the mother scolds the daughter and says 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 321). 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. Mothers have a way of forcing their agenda down the throat of their daughters. In hindsight, women, who have passed through the very ills of gender inequity, are the very conduit that passes the gender biases to the next generations.
0ver time, women have been forced to be malleable and conform to societal misconceptions of gender roles. Kincaid’s mother, or rather the girl in the story, forces the girl to bend her characters so as to fit what the mother feels is acceptable in society. The mother strongly believes that women are weaker beings life and that revolve around their reputation and respect and that a woman should be concerned about what society has to say about their lives—so embroiled and engrossed in her past that she wants to define and monitor whatever character Kincaid portrays “You must learn how to cook, ( Kincaid, 321). In this text, the mother narrows the scope of what Kincaid is capable of. She sends the reader directly to the concept of sexuality and why girls should be worried about their sexuality, skills, or anything else.
Their close relatives teach girls to remain submissive. Kincaid’s mother teaches her daughter to how to iron her father’s clothes at a tender age. “This is how you iron your father’s khaki shirt so that it doesn’t have a crease” (Kincaid, 320). This kind of teaching demonstrates that familial ties are to blame for women’s continued objectification and biased gender roles in society. The mother then picks the name slut, to demean and coerce Kincaid to do what she, the mother, pleases. 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. Kincaid does not have the power and space to enjoy her freedom of choice.
Parents exert control over their children and act as conduits passing the traditional general roles to their children. In the entire piece, the mother always tells the daughter what she should and should not do. Upon analyzing the teachings, the mother is obsessed with submission and is always teaching the daughter the traditional gender roles. This is how you set the Table for dinner. This is how you set Table for important guest… this is how you set Table in front of men who don’t know you well” (Kincaid 321). This quote is a clear portrayal of traditional gender roles. The mother is busy teaching her daughter to take on roles that are perceived as feminine, and she is not bothering to empower the daughter. The mother is obsessed and cornered around maintaining the house chores, and what predominates her teachings are cooking and cleaning.
Parents continue to impose gender stereotypes on their daughters. Almost all the pieces of advice that Kincaid’s mother gives her are derogatory and discriminatory to the womenfolk. For instance, the mother advises the lady that she should not behave like a boy. She furthers her claims by saying, “Dot to play Marbles like a boy” (Kincaid 321). Such a statement depicts that the mother doesn’t believe in women and thinks there are things women should not engage in. This is an insult to women in the 21st century, and the mother needs to be enlightened on the matters of gender roles. 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 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 Kincaid should act to make her acceptable in society.
Work Cited
Kincaid, Jamaica. Girl. San Francisco Examiner, 1991.
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Question 
Literature Essay
Create a 2-3 page, double-spaced rough draft of Short Essay 1. Your essay should explain what you think the main theme of Jamaica Kincaid’s “Girl” is.
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: a. after each quote, include an MLA-style in-text citation
- at the end of your paper, include a Works Cited to list your sources
- Write a draft that is 2-3 double-spaced pages, exclusive of the Works Cited page.
Reference Book:
- “Girl” by Jamaica Kincaid
Essay Template
Introduction Paragraph– has 3 main components in this order:
- Hook/Attention Grabber: start with a statement that can perk your reader’s interest.
- Context: Identify the author by name the title of the work you are writing about. Provide context necessary for the reader to follow your argument (e.g., who the characters are).
- Thesis: the closing sentence of the Introduction should clearly state your interpretation, position about the literary work. It is this interpretation that you will explain in the rest of the paper.
Body Paragraphs – for each body paragraph, follow this model:
- Topic Sentence – this is the first sentence of the paragraph. It clearly explains what idea the paragraph will focus on. This idea should clearly connect to / develop / support the thesis statement.
- Analysis – this is where you explain in more detail the idea you identified in the Topic Sentence. In order to achieve this, you need to use relevant quotes from the text that speak to your point:
- introduce the quote (e.g., who says it, what the context for the quote is)
- quotation (remember to document it with an in-text citation)
iii. follow-up commentary (explain to the reader what you think the quote means and how it supports your interpretation).
For a fuller analysis, use 2-3 quotes for each body paragraph. Avoid long quotes. Your commentary should be longer than the quote.
- Concluding sentence – in a short sentence, summarize what your main idea was for this paragraph.
Repeat this model for each body paragraph. (You usually need 2-4 body paragraphs for a complete essay.)
III. Conclusion – review the main points of your interpretation. Emphasize what you think is most important about your reading of the literary text.
Works Cited