Arlena Bateman
T00554734
Reading log #7
History 4250
Tracy Penny Light
March 4, 2018
Anika Nicole Stanfford’s article, “I Feel Like a Girl Inside”: Possibilities for Gender and Sexual Diversity in Early Primary School” focuses on the challenges males face due to the stereotypes faced at such a young age and continuing throughout their adolescence. The overarching argument is the stereotypes that resonates within the male gender, this includes the way they behave as children and the irrational behaviour they have due to the stereotypes the males try to live up to in order to be portrayed as “masculine”. The article discusses how school is a factor where individuals get these preconceived notions. This article includes an author who discusses majority of teachers in the United States are women and the influence that may have on the male students.[1] This leads to his argument that the abundance of female teachers over male teachers is problematic in relation to the influences they teachers leave on the males. Michael Gurian also argues “the female brain’s learning and teaching style dominates, and more boys are left out.”[2] He argues that males brains work different than females which makes it more challenging for male students to understand specific methods teachers use. This is an interesting perspective that not all consider to be problematic, due to society seeing women as nurturing and comforting which leads society to see teaching and nursing as more of a woman’s career. However, an educator that the author included, Margaret, who spends the time with children and helped students face their inner challenges and the reason for their irrational behaviour. Overall, this article touches on resonating problems within society, in history and also remain today as a challenge to live up to the ideals of how males and females are supposed to be perceived.
Tracy Penny Light’s article, “From Fixing to Enhancing Bodies: Shifting Ideals of Health and Gender in the Medical Discourse on Cosmetic Surgery in Twentieth-Century Canada” focuses on the controversies between what is best for one’s well-being versus the appearance individuals are trying to maintain. Advances in society allowed for this shift between surgery being done on perfectly healthy individuals versus individuals in need of surgery due to health complications. This article defines the shift within the twentieth century of how these views changed and how society molds to justify the actions doctors are taking in order to “fix” an individual who does not have any health issues but has insecurities about a specific body part. This article relates to Standfford’s article in the sense that they are both gender focused. As this article focuses on the female appearance and the beauty that we are supposed to be precieved with, whereas, Standfford’s article is focused on male stereotypes and how they are supposed to be perceived as “masculine” by being “tough”. These issues have always been prevalent in society, however, with advances in technology, comes advances in all areas such as plastic surgery.
Daniel Malleck’s article, “”A State Bordering on Insanity”?: Identifying Drug Addiction in the Nineteenth-Century Canadian Asylums” discusses who is deemed to be mentally ill and people attending asylums who thought drug and alcohol was deemed a mental health problem. This led to challenges faced within asylums, as the abundant amount of people in asylums and the amount of people who needed the to be in the facilities. There was a large demand for people seeking help and the challenges the workers and researches faced on who needs to be in the facilities. However, it shows the challenges of how to deemed who is mentally ill and who is not. This led researchers to study what contributions drugs and alcohol had in regards to mental illness.
Bibliography:
Malleck, Daniel, ““A State Bordering on Insanity”?: Identifying Drug Addiction in Nineteenth Century Canadian Asylums.”” Canadian Bulletin of Medical History, 16, 2 (1999): 247 269. http://www.utpjournals.press/doi/pdf/10.3138/cbmh.16.2.247.
Penny Light, Tracy, “From Fixing to Enhancing Bodies: Shifting Ideals of Health and Gender in the Medical Discourse on Cosmetic Surgery in Twentieth Century Canada,” in Penny Light, et.al, Bodily Subjects: Essays on Gender and Health, 1800-2000, Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2015: 319-346.
Stafford, Anika, “‘I Feel Like a Girl Inside’: Possibilities for Gender and Sexual Diversity in Early Primary School,” BC Studies, 181 (Spring 2016): 9-29.
https://eds-a-ebscohost com.ezproxy.tru.ca/eds/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=2&sid=6a18a4f9-e1f5-45a6-a329 ba912959a39c%40sessionmgr4009
Endnotes:
[1] Anika Stafford, “‘I Feel Like a Girl Inside’: Possibilities for Gender and Sexual Diversity in Early Primary School,” BC Studies, 181 (Spring 2016): 12.
[2] Ibid.
