Kincaid

This weeks reading was an article by Jamaica Kincaid titled "Girl".  It is unclear to me who is narrating this story, I think it is just the author, Kincaid. It could be anyone who is telling someone else how to be a girl and all the "rules" associated with such a role. The speaker is suggesting that girls and boys are completely separate and cannot do the same things. Girls must be concerned about making everyone around them comfortable and make sure they perceive them in a way that is proper or acceptable. I do not agree with many of these. I think that girls, or women, can do whatever they want. If a girl wants to play with the boys, she should be allowed, if she doesn't want to wash her fathers clothes she shouldn't have to. Many of these thoughts are older and don't pertain to American life or ideals anymore. Many of these examples of things girls "need" to be taught or "need" to know how to do may still be applicable in other areas of the world. This list suggests that at this time in the West Indies, girls and women were expected to take care of everyone. They were to know how to cook, clean and make home remedies. All of this was for the benefit of the men that surrounded them. I think there are many social and political implications. All of the examples given in this list are about how it is socially acceptable for girls to act. In this area and at this time there very possibly could have been laws in place to keep things this way. I'm not completely sure but there is that possibility.