How has Paterson in the novel "Bridge to Terabithia" showed the hardship of conforming to gender norms as a child? And how rebelling against the norms can form an unlikely friendship.
Jesse Aarons was the only boy in his family and with this came curtain responsibilities of him. From the time he got up in the morning to the time he came home from school had a to do man's work because his father was in Washington working from sunup to sun down to provide. Jesse's sisters on the other had got away with a lot of this because they were girls. All they were expected to do was help take care of the house like washing dishes. Jess loved to draw which was not a mans profession he tried to show it to his dad once and he asked "What are they teaching in that damn school? Trying to make my only son into some kind of ..." You can imagine what the end of that sentence would be because art is for women. One day someone moves into the home next to theirs and while practicing his running in the morning a girl stops by but she looks like a boy from her clothes to her hair cut. Her name is Leslie Burke and like her parents she does not conform to gender norms. She owns dresses and girl clothing but chooses not to where them. Jess doesn't like her at first but we don't know if that is due to her being a girl or because she is different. What I do know for sure is it is not because she dresses like a boy and the reason is because he is in love with Miss Edmund's and she wheres pants. No, i think it is because he is so used to girls being like his sisters that he is a little apprehensive of Leslie.
Why are we so set in making our children conform to gender norms? We would love to say we're not but the fact is we are. When we hear we are going to have a little baby girl when we thought it was a boy are first thought is now I'm going to have to by pink dresses and shes gonna want a princess party. We stop looking at all the boys toys and just shop in the girl sections. I remember as a child I hated pink and my mother says "your a girl you where pink". We surround our children with the appropriate toys for their gender and the correct color for their clothes that by the time we're older the cycle continues again. Why is it so wrong that Leslie likes to wear pants or that Jesse likes to draw and color? We need to stop and think about how to help our children grow into an individual and not a conformists.