Allison Ramos

                                            There Are Two Sides To Everything

        Just as there are two sides to every story, there are different ways to look at boys and girls. Boys grow up with the feeling of having to be macho and heroic, whereas girls need to be proper and ladylike. But, when girls want to be just as macho as the boys, they are labeled as tomboys; whereas boys act proper or play with dollhouses, they are labeled as sissies. What has society come to today? Why is it okay for girls to play with boys toys, but boys can't play with girls toys?
        In Tracie Moran's essay, she writes of a boy named Billy whom always teased her whenever they played around with their friends. She talked of how Billy treated her as if she was one of the guys, but he would also treat her badly. He would spray her with a water gun and he laughed at her when she fell off the fence. She wrote, "This time I was so upset when I went home that my mother went storming down the block. She knocked on Billy's door and when his father answered she told him the story. You would think an adult would think this was wrong. But, he was just like his son." (Moran, 1) This shows that Billy developed the machoness from his father, which was probably passed down from his father. In Natalie Romanoff's essay, she writes, "I was an eight-year-old tomboy, it was a beautiful summer day and she expected me to wear a lacy pink dress to a birthday party." (Romanoff, 1) In her essay she discusses how her mother wanted her to be "proper" and wear this lacy pink dress instead of wearing her usual clothes. Her mother probably wanted to show the family that she had this gorgeous little girl who wore dresses, and not show the people that her little girl liked being a little tomboy. The lacy pink dress was pretty much a disguise of who Natalie really was.
        Many girls not only had the idea of themselves having to be pretty and accepting themselves, but they need a feeling of acceptance from other people, such as boys their age or form their parents. In Kim Saunders' essay, she writes, "If I climb this tree, I'll be the coolest girl on the block. If I don't I will be banned from this block." (Saunders, 1) With this story, it shows how many of the neighborhood kids dared her to climb the tree. It was something she really didn't want to do, but she knew that if she did it, she would be labeled as "cool" from the other kids. When reading the anthologies from the boys in the class, many of them were about sports, and how it affected their life. It was dealt mostly with the individuality of the boy, and how when they failed the sport, it hurt them deeply. In Dan Aquila's essay, he writes, "One night you are the hero the next no one wants to know you." (Aquila, 1) In most of the stories, there is a feeling of pressure amongst boys and girls. The levels of pressure are different between both of them. Boys have that pressure of being tough and strong and masculine. Girls have the pressure of being pretty, proper, feminine. Also in many of the stories, the girls wanted to be accepted by the boys because the boys were doing more exciting things than the girls. It was if the girls were restricted from doing the things the boys did because the things the boys did were too rough. The girls probably wanted to do those things even more because they were told not to do it. In Natalie's story, once again, she wrote about how her mother wanted her to wear dresses when they would go to parties, Natalie didn't want to because she didn't want to be a "girlie' girl.
        The idea of being "girlie" is what separates the boys and girls. Girls have an image of being "girlie"-being polite, well-mannered, cute, and innocent. Whereas boys are able to be touch, masculine, the hero. In conclusion, being macho is easier than being proper which explains why it's easier for boys to grow up, and girls act proper to be accepted by guys.

                                                                Works Cited

Aquila, Dan. "The Pressures Little Boys Face." "Growing Up and Confronting Gender Issues: Stories from

        Generation X."  Ed. Ed Jones. South Orange NJ: Jones Works, 1999. 1

Moran, Tracey. "Billy The Bully". "Growing Up and Confronting Gender Issues: Stories from Generation

         X."  Ed Jones. South Orange NJ: Jones Works, 1999. 14

Romanoff, Natalie. "Untitled". "Growing Up and Confronting Gender Issues: Stories from Generation X."

        Ed. Ed Jones. South Orange NJ: Jones Works, 1999. 15

Saunders, Kim. "Little Boy Kim". "Growing Up and Confronting Gender Issues: Stories from Generation X."

        Ed. Ed Jones. South Orange NJ: Jones Works, 1999. 17