Karen Zittleman, "Being a Girl and Being a Boy"

This article was an eye catcher when involving sexuality. The author Karen Zittleman is an educational author and teacher that visit’s a middle school where she surveys boys and girls. She examines the different aspects between boys and girls on how they behave with one another and each other. For example, Zittleman demonstrates the Title IX, which are the Educational Amendments constructed in 1972. This landmark legislation bans sex discrimination in schools, whether it is in academics or athletics. Before Title IX, schools naturally had sex-segregated classes such as girls learning how to cook in home economics and boys learning how to manufacture things in wood shop. Another example is how girls use to be segregated from sports, but now forty percent of athletes are girls. According to Zittleman, he mentions want boys call the “tough guise” characteristic. It relates to boys having to be tough, in control, powerful and athletic. If they do not fit into the narrow box, they are often referred as a wuss, pussy, sissy etc, and it’s all learned from the media.

Reference:Zittleman, Karen. "Being a Girl and Being Boy" in Kimmel, S. Michael and Aronson, Amy. (Eds) The Gendered Society Reader. Oxford University Press: New York, 2008.