TOW #18- Why Do We Teach Girls That It's Cute to Be Scared?

Caroline Paul, a firefighter from San Francisco, captured my eye with the title of her New York Times article, "Why Do We Teach Girls That It's Cute to Be Scared?"  Before I opened it, even the title got me thinking about the issue that society really does make it seem cute for girls, but not boys, to be scared.  I thought that it may just be another feminist rant that would lead to pay in the work force, but it introduced an entirely new topic, by using both personal anecdotes and scholarly sources to prove that society should no longer shy young girls away from risky situations, but rather encourage them to be confident and smart about their choices, like we teach young boys to do.  Although this article could apply to anyone reading it, it feels like Paul was gearing her writing towards parents, as most of her examples are directly examining the ways that children are parented.

One of her first examples was a personal anecdote about a talk that she had with one of her friends about her daughter.  The mom had said that she cautioned her daughter much more than her son, but she used her daughter's clumsiness as her reasoning.  This helped to prove that this is a real issue, that doesn't just affect a small population.  Paul builds off of this example by using a quote from Parents Psychology, stating that "...parents are 'four times more likely to tell girls than boys to be careful..."  And though this may seem like Paul is just stating facts from other people, she continues to analyze these points through her article.  However, without these examples and outside sources, this article may have seemed more like the typical feminist rant that are flooding every popular news source.

Through her almost excessive use of examples in her article, Paul successfully proves her purpose to her audience that as a society, we need to build girls' confidence instead of trying to protect them so much.  Instead of saying "aww" when a girl shys away from something, we should prove to them that they should be confident and attempt risks, or else they will not be able to learn important life lessons.  

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/21/opinion/sunday/why-do-we-teach-girls-that-its-cute-to-be-scared.html?ref=opinion&_r=0