Reading Response 20

Flynn – “Composing as a Woman”

Summary

In her article, “Composing as a Woman,” Flynn attempts to show that gender differences in writing are pronounced and that they need to be addressed. She claims that writing, as with most things, has been male centered, and that there needs to be the inclusion of the female perspective. She gives some examples to show the inherent differences in gender perspectives to back up her ideas. She also comes back later to write about the context in which she wrote the article, stating that the time period she wrote it in needs to be taken into consideration.

Synthesis

This piece is helping to show a little about how identity works within a person’s writing, to help back up Gee and Wardle. However, instead of conforming to the standards, which would be the male centered concepts, Flynn wants to have both male and female influenced ideas to be considered and taught.

Pre-Reading

I haven’t experienced too much gender difference in the classroom. Both genders always have different ideas to offer during a discussion, but you can say the same about two people of the same gender. I have had teachers that have treated one gender of student differently than the other, mainly being more lenient with the female students about due dates and make up work; the boys had to earn the respect of the teacher while the girls automatically had it; but it was just another quirk that you worked around, and it didn’t inhibit learning.

QD

1. Flynn is stating that for most of history, the woman’s perspective has been removed because of the stereotype of gender roles. In relation to her last comment, “difference is erased in a desire to universalize,” it shows that this marginalization could happen to anyone, minorities especially because the majority of people want uniformity, because differences lead to conflict.

Thoughts

While this piece was educational and interesting, I really had to think to try and associate it with the readings that we have been doing recently. Though it has certain inherent concepts similar, it seemed almost out of place with what we have been reading, so I was confused for a lot longer than I probably should’ve been.