The Molded Woman

Within the text for "Girl" the ideology of the "submissive woman" in society is indeed prevalent. The way the author portrays the list of things being told out in the text is also very much like how the woman's brain is said to always be working--she must be thinking of 20 million things at once as well as analyzing and over analyzing decisions to be made and ways to conduct herself in society, (not being a slut, not to sing benna, etc) as well as only having a small category of things that women should be concerned with and not to be able to handle anything else besides those things. The ideology that women are supposed to know how to cook and sew this way, know how to conduct themselves in certain atmosphere's (Sunday school and the Baker's), and to only be concerned with the "woman's work" is the lecture given to the girl. The two main things that are repeated over and over are: not to be "the slut you are bent on to becoming" and singing benna in Sunday school. The main ideology set up for a women to adhere to and be judged upon is the image that they portray in society (nice girl, intelligent girl, dirty girl, and in this case a slut) and those two lines are repeated in order to emphasize that the way the world see's you externally and where you stand in socioeconomic status, as well as what people say about you, reflect who you are as an individual and how you should react within the society you live in as well.

This story infuriates me for those reasons in particular. I hate the idea of a categorized woman and I also hate the whole concept of conformity, as well as the precept of being judged externally and by the material things of the world. Every individual (woman) has so much potential to be so unique and this story is just gathering everyone up and squishing them into one character mold in which the society expects them to be and if not they are rejected. Ugh.