By: Yesenia Rayo
Reading the article “Girls Find Safety Posing as Boys on Tehran’s Mean Streets” made me think about how at a very early age we learn about gender roles and that in some way we need to stick to them or else we will be punished by society. Little girls shouldn’t have to dress as men to have a better life or have more opportunities. One of the girls said that dressing like a man was the only way to find a job and another girl said that “[she] wouldn’t have been able to survive in women’s dress” and that [she] would have been finished by now.” The same opportunities should be available for both females and males. It is interesting that women have also had to dress as men in the United States in order to achieve their goals.
I’m currently reading a book called Medicine Women, Curanderas, and Women Doctors by Bobette Perrone, Henrietta Stockel and Victor Krueger (for my anthropology class), which focuses on the many struggles that early women healers faced for choosing a male dominated field. This book relates to the article because some women had to also act and dress up like men in order to succeed, for example Lillian Heath. Heath was the first women doctor in the state of Wyoming. During the period that Heath became a doctor society had not yet accepted this idea. So, in order to protect herself Heath had to wear men’s clothing and act like a man. Disguising herself as a man was the only option to succeed in her field.
I think that it takes a lot courage and strength to go against society but it’s necessary if we want things to change for the better.
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