Chris

Chris Valenti 4/4/11 English Gender Essay 8E-4 ** The //Male-//Man ** "Marc, what the fuck are you doing?" "I'm cooking dinner, Phil." "That's Phillis's or Carol's job." "no, they just do it most of the time. And plus, i'm a better cook then them, and I love to cook." "yeah but your a man." "So what if i'm a man?"...........

Being born in 1946 wasn't so hard for men. But the struggle for women was major. Men had way more rights then women did. after researching some history about those faithful years, I asked my father about how his life was growing up in the 40s and 50s.

Between the years 1966 and 1968, Marc Valenti went through daily life everyday without seeing women...damn...

Marc Valenti was like most kids living in his neighborhood; he was born and raised Astoria, Queens, New York, he is the youngest of four, and his parents had split up when he turned ten years old. Marc’s parents then moved to different parts of the United States leaving all four kids behind to be raised by the oldest child who was sixteen at the time. Because of all that had happened with his family, Marc’s grades started to drop and he became more bored with school. He eventually dropped out of high school during his junior year. This was the beginning of his all male experience. School was one of the main things that kept him in the same environment as women; once he dropped out he started to see much less women in daily life. Marc had lived with his siblings until he decided to join the Army and go to fight for his country in the Vietnam War. He joined the Vietnam War in 1966. By this time he had been in an all male environment for two years. At the time that he joined the war, women were still not allowed in the Army, because of this law the amount of women he would see daily dropped drastically. During Marc’s two years in the service his view of women changed completely. The most of women that he would see daily would be the occasional women in the hospital on base, and the nude pictures his fellow soldiers would pin up against the walls of their quarters. Marc never felt that women were only good for their bodies and for sex, but all of the people he was around did. His point of view started to change. He thought of women to be a more inferior sex compared to males. Because of all the laws giving men more choices compared to women, he eventually felt as if they were less of importance.

Once Marc had returned from the war in Vietnam, it was hard for him to get back to daily life and think of women the same way. When he joined a community college to get his diploma he slowly started to get back into the loop of things with women. He gave them the respect that they deserve, accepted their rights, and forgot about the stereotypes.

Gender stereotypes have lived on for centuries, and they will continue to live on. But they have also adapted and changed. About 80 years ago women had little to no rights. look at them now, we had a woman run for president in 2008. even though women are suspected to be the ones controlling the kitchen, or the laundry room doesn't mean that they are any less inferior to men. But also, on the contrary there are certain things that men and women do better then the other. In MY OPINION i feel like women are usually smarter then men in the schooling years. But i also feel like men are more athletic then most women. This is not to push the fact that, "men are stupid" or, "women can't play sports." this is just to show how men and women are equally different.

In Marc's life today he is the one that does most of the cooking in the family, which is usually considered as the woman’s job in America. The Way Marc grew up was with his 100% Italian parents. In Italy the man of the house usually cooks the dinner. Because of his family culture, this is not an uncommon type of family situation. He believes that the “woman cooking” stereotype could possibly be the stupidest stereotype he has heard. Whenever he travels to Italy, or to one of his parents houses the man ALWAYS does the cooking. And most of his male friends do the cooking for their families as well. There are many stereotypes that he believes are pointless, for example he believes the stereotype that men are better than women at sports is false. He believes that any woman can play sports just as well as any man. A big question for this essay is, “So what if I am a man?” this is an important question to ask today and any time in daily life because all people judge based on stereotypes every day. Sometimes we don’t even notice but we do it anyway. If both genders become aware of these stereotypes then eventually we will realize that all sexes are equal and both can do anything just as well as the other.

I liked your essay. I think it would make more sense to put your essential question at the beginning of your essay, in addition to the conclusion. -Allie

Really good job. I like how you used a lot of details about gender and thoroughly explained your dad's life. -Amanda

You did a good job, but I found it kind of hard to follow along sometimes. -Cooper

Wow, this essay is really really good!!! :) You did a really good job with explaining your dad's life and also connecting it to your main idea - Carolyn :)

I liked that you put a "big question" you added at the end. It concluded the whole idea and made me think after reading your essay.

I liked how you added the quote at the beginning and added more details. - Allie

This is so good!!! :) The quote at the beginning really made the whole essay a lot better. - Carolyn :)