Sunny
These stories all happened during elementary school, which goes to show that sexism is even normalized in young kid’s lives. This first example happened in kindergarten. It was near the end of the school year, which means that it was warming up quite a bit. I wore a tank top and shorts, not knowing the school dress code very well. A teacher came out and measured the straps with her fingers, and I barely passed the three fingers test. There were numerous boys outside, lots of them were wearing tank tops, too. For the rest of the day, I saw no boys being checked for the dress code, even though some of them would definitely not pass the three fingers test. Why would you check a kindergarten girl for violating the school dress code, but not any boys? This next one happened in 3rd or 4th grade, I was out at recess and saw a bunch of boys playing basketball. I walked up to them and asked if I could join them. They looked at me in shock and said that I couldn’t play because I’m a girl and I’ll make the team with me on it lose. The only reason I got to play with them is because some middle-schoolers were watching us and one said that sharing is caring. Everybody in our grade looked up to the middle schoolers so they let me join. I felt really left out and alienated, and it was because of my gender. This last example happened in 1st grade. This wasn’t by the teachers or boys, it was by a group of girls. There was one boy before class flexing his arms in front of a group of girls. They were ooh-ing and aw-ing I saw it as a competition, so I took my sleeve rolled it up, and said, “That’s not very impressive, I can do it, too!” I flexed my arm and the girls faces instantly turned from amazed to disgusted. One girl said, “Ew, why are you flexing.” The boy was flexing, so what was wrong about me flexing, I thought in my head. These are a few of the many examples of normalized sexism that happened in my elementary school. They might seem little, but it’s the little things that can make a big difference.