In reading Girl by Jamaica Kincaid I couldn’t help but think about my anthropology class and the recent section of Gender, Sex and Sexuality that we have been discussing in class. This piece reminded me of gender expectations of certain cultures and the use of gender power in the power structure of society. This to me is a list of expectations of a girl in Antiguan culture with a subtle gender power enforcer being displayed for the reader to see. What’s particularly interesting is the use of the word “slut” a kind of gender power enforcer; such power one word holds over a girl. The use of such an oppressive word is I feel a way for Kincaid to display the power that men have over these girls and the power their mothers and women elders hold over them. Just from reading this particular piece I have learned so much about this culture, it is a patriarchy. That being said the power men and elder women hold on girls is so ingrained in this culture, the way Kincaid drops this word is so effortless. This effortlessness is enforced in the form of the piece, which is read like a list of instructions. Making this distributing to read from a modern day American Perspective.
What also caught my attentions are the expectations of girls in terms of their economic/ spousal duties of the culture. This is a list of instruction from a mother to daughter showing her the expectations of what it is to be a good wife and virtuous woman in Antiguan culture. There is something so robotic about how this information is being spitted out by this “mother” to daughter dynamic. I feel like this daughter is just going through the motions of listening to the mother’s instructions but not paying attention to the content as she is coming to realize what is to become of her life. This list of instructions is going to be her life if she wants to fit into this culture. How depressing it must be to have your life displayed for you and planned out like this. I mourn for this girl, if I was in this situation it would feel like such a punch in the gut to come to the realization that this is the summation of my life.
