Blog #2 Dekoekkoek

I chose Girl by Jamaica Kincaid because it shows the marginalization of women, and how society coercively places them into inferior roles.  Girl is basically a long list of do's and don'ts for how a girl is supposed to behave.  If analyzing it through the lens of feminist criticism, I would focus on the nature of the tasks that the girl is admonished to learn and do--all menial work related to keeping a home, or working as a maid, or some other position of small power.  It is not mentioned once that the girl is taught math, reading, philosophy, or anything else that might have to do with higher education.  It is implied that she won't be needing those things.  Also, the girl is constantly admonished not to be a slut, which brings up the old double standard of the man who is studly vs the women who is slutty if they are promiscuous.  I liked the part that says, "this is how you smile to someone you don’t like too much; this is how you smile to someone you don’t like at all; this is how you smile to someone you like completely" because it demonstrates the powerlessness of the girl to do anything but smile at people she doesn't like.  She is not allowed to voice her opinion or stand up for herself.  She is also taught to make medicine to end a pregnancy, by a mother who is sure that she will end up a slut.  What is sad about this, is that it shows how it is not just men, but other women who perpetuate negative stereotypes about women.  I think my initial reaction to this reading, was that it seemed pretty grim.  Plato said that he "...thanks the gods for two blessings: that he had not been born a slave and that he had not been born a women."  Reading Girl made me feel the same way, I would not want to be born a woman, at least not the one that Girl was written about!