Life Experience
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The theories and concepts contained within the four articles for this assignment reverberate in memories of my own childhood development. In junior high school, most of my closest friends were boys. I often found girls to be competitive, while boys let me engage in activities without having to worry about who liked who the most or who was the most popular. However, because of this I was often subjected to teasing because of preferring to hang out with boys more than girls. As Powlishta (1995) maintains, “In a sense, the two sexes are raised in distinctive cultures,” (R137). While I tended to resist these categories or different cultures naturally while a young girl, I found that doing so often made me the subject of ridicule from others. Girls were often fond of teasing me, calling me names like “tomboy” because I enjoyed playing games with boys like kickball and tag. My own family members were often guilty of encouraging such distinctions. My mother used to tell me that girls should play with girls, and my father would say that others would talk about me if I did not act more like a girl should act. This relates to Gropper and Froschl (2000) who inform us that “Girls and boys are bombarded with messages about sex roles from birth,” (R132). While I could often discuss this issue with my mother in an open manner, my father refused to think I had any right to continue the behavior. This is in alignment with Kimura’s (1999) comm
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is valid when they discuss how parents and educators often add to the environment or culture that promotes teasing and bullying of children based on roles of sex and gender.
In Billy Elliott, we also see evidence of the validity of Gropper and Froschl. Billy is a young boy who is naturally interested in ballet, but he is continually teased or shunned by his macho dad and older brother. They believe he should be a boxer, something he has no skills and even less interest in doing. Once again, we see that in contrast to Jess and Jules who are perceived as masculine for their interest in sports, Billy is perceived as feminine or homosexual because of his interest in dancing even though he is not homosexual. As Billy’s father tells him when Billy’s Nana says she used to go to ballet, “All right for you Nana, for girls. No, not for lads, Billy. Lads do football…or boxing…or wrestling. Not friggin’ ballet,” (Daldry 2000). Like Jules must finally rebel against her mother’s stereotypes of sex and gender, so too does Billy, “Just because I like ballet doesn’t mean I’m a poof, you know,” (Daldry 2000).
Developing Effective Learning Environments
The films Billy Elliott and Bend It Like Beckham clearly demonstrate the limitations pl
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Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1364
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page)
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