Gender and Sexulaity - 1627 Words

Jackie Pappas Professor Winchock ENWR 106-AN March 5, 2013 Paper #2 – Middle Draft Gender amp; Sexuality Our everyday lives are greatly affected by ones gender and sexuality. They shape who we are and define our identities. Society expects a certain gender to behave in a specific way and if this does not happen, one is seen as shameful and wrong, leaving the individual to feel defeated and out of place. In society only a few decades ago, women were meant to be silent and restricted. Men were the superior ones who had a voice. They freely got to do whatever they pleased. In Julia Avarez’ â€Å"Daughter of Invention and Judith Ortiz Cofer’s poem â€Å"The Changeling,† women were restricted of their true identities and their voices were†¦show more content†¦In the Dominican Republic under Trujillo’s rule, women were only expected to be two things: a wife and a mother. They were restricted to being anything but. They did not have permission to explore their interests such as inventing. Women were expected to take care of the house and the family and if they did anything else, saying they’d be in trouble is an understatement. Women were not allowed to be free to be who they are. Women were expected to only take care of the family and the house even if they wanted to do something else. It is still joked about today all over the Internet that women belong in the kitchen. While it is meant as a harmless joke, it is a reality for others. For example, it was a reality for the speaker in â€Å"The Changeling.† While her father was very amused with his daughter dressing as a man, her mother was not. When it was time for the family to sit down for dinner, the mother â€Å"[forbad her] from sitting down with them as a man† (Cofer 725). The mother felt that when her daughter dressed in her brother’s clothes, it was distracting her from being a girl. She is forced to go back into the closet to change back into her expected outfit. The speaker, who once saw a closet full of adventure, then saw the same closet as a dark space (Cofer 725). When she emerged from the closet, back into reality, she walked back into â€Å"the real world of her [mother’s] kitchen† (Cofer