The Issue of Gender Distinction in Boys and Girls

For years, society carried expectations for tasks that were appropriate for different sexes. The perception of male and female genders as different in terms of abilities led to the idea that women would fit working in the home while men went out in search of bread. Alice Munro captures this essence in her short story. In “Boys and Girls,” the author uses the experiences of an eleven-year old girl who also doubles up as the narrator to depict the distinction between boys and girls, men and women. The young girl helps her father because she does not like the domestic work that society has set aside for women and girls. Even though she tries hard, she does not get the approval she needs with the story ending having given up, accepting that she is just a girl. Through the treatment of the young girl, Munro demonstrates how society reinforced stereotypes of the male gender being superior to its female counterpart. Even though she does her work as her father’s helper well, people still refer to Laird being a more capable assistant when he grows up. Being a member of the female gender, Munro offers an informed first-hand comment on how society expects women and men to be different. For this reason, she wishes to highlight the unfairness in these practices in a way that would spur the needed change towards gender equality. In “Boys and Girls,” Munro taps into the life of a narrator to demonstrate how society expects gender distinction while reinforcing related stereotypes in its effort to ensure the maintenance of status quo regarding the place of its male and female members.

With a focus on the narrator’s experiences with her family and the neighbourhood, Munro is able to show how “Boys and Girls” try to highlight the different attributes that both genders possess. In her depiction of the different characters, she captures how gender was a major concept in the setting of the narrative. Initially, the narrator describes her father’s work. She notes that he farmed foxes, something she seems to be proud of. Munro goes ahead to describe her enthusiasm at her father’s work, stating that she liked to help her father rather than be with her mother. On the other hand, the narrator’s mother appeared to have remained accustomed to societal expectations. In a way that appears as a symbol, the girl states that her mother “did not often come out of the house”. Her job was domestic. For this reason, she was indoors most of the time. The author uses her situation as a representation of the entire female fraternity within the community. Being born a female implied that an individual had to shun outside work and concentrate on house chores. However, the young girl was a different breed. She liked to take part in what other women abhorred. While her mother never liked the “pelting” tasks in the firm, she perceived them as “seasonal”. The aroma was normal to her, the way someone else would perceive “the smell of oranges and pine needles”. In a way, farm work suited her. However, the requirements of society meant that she would ever get the support she needed.

After depicting different characters within the text, Munro goes ahead to show how the setting reinforced gender differences and stereotypes. Even though the young girl has demonstrated her abilities to the extent that her father admires her work, her society struggles to paint her in a negative light that she is inferior. Her father describes her as “a new hired hand” to show that he was happy with her work. However, through a symbol, the narrative shows that she will never be good enough. The introduction of her brother, Laird is an indication enough that society strived to maintain the status quo. The phrase laid is an alternative expression for lord or landowner. Even before the boy could show where his life would lie, society placed him in higher place compared with her sister’s position. He was still young but society regarded her as superior to her sister. In reality, she was superior to her young brother because he was doing the work that was fi for boys during the time. However, the society would not let her be. Apart from reinforcing gender differences, they were also trying to buttress the idea that boys are better than girls are. One event that confirms this assertion concerns the salesman. Having seen how the narrator was wonderfully doing her job with her father confirming that he is his new hired help, the man still focuses on her being a girl. He comments, “I thought it was only a girl,” in a manner that demonstrates that the female gender carried little significance as far as outside work was concerned. Throughput the text, Munro provides evidence of a clash of genders. The desire of a young girl to transcend societal barriers hits a snag when all the people that would help her keep pinning her down. Through her experiences, the author demonstrates how past societies reinforced gender differences as a way of maintaining the status quo.

Being a woman, Munro offers a first-hand experience that any girl in conventional societies would have gone through. The narrator serves the interests of the author in depicting the events in the society she grew up in. Authored in mid-twentieth century, “Boys and Girls” represents the efforts by women to have a fair society through the feminist movement. In a way, the book represents the initial aim and method of these groups, which was to highlight the points of injustice with the hope that society would decide to adopt changes that would see the female position change. In her way, Munro provided the evidence. She shows how the young girl not only loved tending the foxes with her father but also that she excelled at the job meant for boys. However, since her society was hell-bent on returning her to the domestic chores, its members emasculated her achievements. In this manner, using her experiences, Munro was able to deliver a comment on her society and a plea to her readers to reconsider the existing gender roles because of the injustice done on women and girls.

In its simplicity, “Boys and Girls” offers a fresh perspective to the idea of gender roles in past societies. In a way that appears as an attempt to share her personal experiences and opinion about gender, Munro uses a young girl as her narrator. The readers have the chance of walking with her through her journey to prove society wrong that she might be female but not just a girl. Although she appears to give up at the end of the story, the narrator has helped in showing the extent that her society is unjust. She demonstrates that women have always been able to move outside of domestic chores and excelled but social norms kept pulling them back. Through her experiences, Munro encourages her readers to analyze their respective societies for similar events. She implores them to go back and fix these issues because only then will the world know of fairness regarding female and male genders.

Works Cited

• Munro, Alice. “Boys and Girls.” 1964, http://www.giuliotortello.it/shortstories/boys_and_girls.pdf.