"The Trouble With Bright Girls"

As a psychology major, I found this article fascinating. The comments section also brings up some interesting points. Thoughts?

LEARNING MODULE TWO

Gender is a social construction; a category of difference invested with meaning. As Simone du Beauvoir states: “one is not born a woman; one becomes a woman”. In light of our assigned readings this week, please write (in 4 paragraphs) a mini-“gender autobiography” for yourself. 

The two readings for your on-line module are larger examples of this. Make this a personal story. Think of your early years, how was gender inscribed by the key people and institutions in your life? What were the primary expectations about how you were to behave, think, feel, etc. Did you ever feel limitations or restraints (or advantages) for what you could and could not do; who you could and could not be based on dominant gender assumptions? 

Then, as you have grown, how do you “do gender”; in what ways do you perform, practice, embody your gender? What are the dominant “scripts” that influence how you “do gender”? Where do they come from? Do you ever challenge gender normativity or normative gender differences? How?