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Situational Irony
Explanation and Analysis—Instructions:
A central irony at play in “Girl” is the idea that femininity is considered natural and innate but also seems to require an elaborate training manual of sorts (which the story itself functions as). The fact that Mother has to specifically tell her daughter how to behave as a girl contradicts her apparent investment in gender essentialism, or the idea that there are innate biological traits associated with a person's birth sex. This implied belief is observable when she says:
Don’t squat down to play marbles—you are not a boy, you know.
The phrase "you know" indicates that this is self-evident information. If gender really did come with certain inherent traits, it would not be necessary for Mother to lay out intricate rules for her daughter. The story plays with this irony, ultimately inviting readers to consider the ways in which gender norms have been socially constructed—it is only because society has cultivated a specific set of gendered expectations that it's necessary for someone like Mother to teach her daughter how to be a girl. She sees these rules to womanhood as necessary for survival. Explaining them to her daughter is almost a mercy, a required kindness. And yet, her participation in patriarchy, by passing these norms on to her daughter, is precisely what perpetuates the patriarchy.
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