stereotype

I Wear Shorts To School

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Our school has a uniform which was recently updated to allow students to wear shorts so I wear shorts. They pass the rule- not too short or long- knee length. In music: Boy(b): “Are you sure you can wear those?” Me(m): “You know that the school allows shorts now.” B:”Yeah, but are girls?” M:”Yes, they are.” B:”Why don’t you just wear a skirt?” M:”Why don’t YOU wear a skirt!?” B:”Urr… ‘cos I’m a BOY.” M:”So?” B: …silence… M:”Ok. So you can wear what you want and I’ll focus on what I’m wearing. Thank you for your concern, fashion cop.”

4 Females

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One night my 3 girl friends and I went to a local fair in the town I live. We decided we wanted to purchase a drink from a vender and we were patiently waiting in line on one side and there was one man in front of us. Another man walked up and went straight to the counter; he walked right past us like we were statues. The bartender looked at us and said, “I’ll be right with you.” The bartender was a male in his early 40s. The man who approached the counter was a businessman in a suit who looked presentable. The bartender ignored us (even though we were clearly in line first) and served the businessman before attending to our order. The bartender was expecting a higher ‘tip’ from this businessman because he was a successful looking male and he did not want to serve four mid-twenty females first whom he did not think would give him gratuity. Little did he know, my friends and I work as bartenders and servers who tip generously. This man discriminated us because we were a younger group of females and he stereotyped us on what we look like and how society views male and female.

Katie Thomas

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Today I was standing in line at COop and happened to be right next to the papers and magazines when one children’s magazine caught my eye. It said on the front “Stickers for boys”. My heart sank as I opened it up and found loads of GREAT stickers of dinosaurs, tools, traffic cones and cars. I can’t stand that children are prescribed their interests, abilities and careers in this way. I am a construction worker and would love a spanner sticker but it has taken me some years to know this.