Cole

It’s a Boy Thing?

What is a “boy thing”? I had been talking to my mother about what it was like growing up and if there had been any gender issues and throughout the interview when I talked to her about certain places and activities she had referred to them as "a boy thing." (do you know why you need quotation marks here?) So I asked her more about what she had saw daily and if she noticed anything to be just for males. My mother had grown up in Glen Rock New Jersey where she had only one sister, her mother, and her father. She had always seen boys playing basketball and riding their bikes around parking lots but she had only rarely seen girls on bikes or out playing sports because it was considered more of a boy thing. Her mother had always expected her daughters to be polite, courteous, and gentle and whenever she had done something seemingly boyish such as throwing mud or stepping in puddles her mother would say “Dear god Katharine, you’re a woman for Christ sake!” My mother had always reminded that she was a woman and not some boy. She had expectations and my mother had to meet them. When it came to dating, men had been expected to ask, pay, and if needed provide transportation not just for my mother but for any girl! So basically what you would see had been like routine. Boys playing basketball, girls knitting, boys out riding bikes, girls reading, it was just the same things. My mother while watching men get down and dirty found that she wanted to also but she just outright couldn’t. She had expectations to live up to and she was a woman after all. She had to be polite, courteous, and gentle.

Good idea, and good connection to your mother's interview, but you should add about what you think about gender on that topic.-Eleanor Sadik-Khan

The opening paragraph doesn't draw the reader in. The story is good, but you should expand on what you think "boy things" are, and what these stereotypes might be. -Allison Dammann

Dear god, Cole, this sentence is perfect as the opening! You must make it the first sentence and then rearrange and fill in the details. “Dear god Katharine, you’re a woman for Christ sake!”

Try to start with an anecdote and talk about why your mother felt that she could engage in activities boys generally engaged in - TAS

Doesn't draw reader in, need real anecdote not situation telling, expand on what stuff boys did and what stuff your mom could do and couldn't do, good idea, but also add section for what girls things are to get the view from both sides and even interview your grandma- Conor Winston

Don't start by sayign the whople interveiw, gewt right into it. Then explain your topic more, your opinion.-Gwen
 * Maybe you can interpret your mom's experience growing up in Glen Rock, into a story. Or you could compare your life here, to your mom's in New Jersey, making sure you are relating your experiences to gender. SiF **


 * Good anecdote, but you could add more about your personal beliefs. Eleanor **


 * ﻿Expand more on boy vs. girl things, why you think they arise, why certain stereotypes are made, etc., so that we get more of a feel of your own ideas. -Allison Dammann **