1 314 "'1!lapter 8 Cause-and-Effecl Analysis

Why Boys Don't Play with Dolls 1"\.<1 ,,1>, Poll i tt

Kat ha Polhtt 's column, "SubJect to Debate" a le ft -leanm<Y weekly m . f ' appears 10 The NatIOn

:=> agazmc 0 opinIOn A v g I . Po lhu IS known for her pr . I orous po cmlc ls t, porm y Issues such as f avocatIve analyses of hot-button conlem-

is a poet as well as an e:~:~;S I~~I~~~~~~I~:enage mothedlOod Pollitt eler, won the NatIOnal Bo k C . C of poctry, Antalctlc T, o\!­later, a "Subject to Deba t ~' niles lrcle Award 111 1982. Ten years \Ve Read C e piece on the culture w::t rs, entitled "Why

anon to the Righi of Me ,. aZlIlc Award for essa)'s ad' received the Nalional Mao. I . , n cnticism A nallve of N Y k C ~

S l C IS the author of severa l books J d ew or I1 y, Essa J W. ' mc U 109 Reasonable CJeotlll )S 011 omen and F emIllIsm (1994) S b es

and Dissems on Women Po/we de', /I 'Ject 10 Debate Sense t D , s, an ulllle(2001) andL o live and Other Life STolies (2007) J h ' ( eafJlIl1g

senes of pomted causal a d nt is selection , through a , , n comparative analyses P II t b Id

ente rwlIllllg, IHHaled case a a " 0 I t UI s an gender d ifferences by refe g IIlst re~~nt arguments that account for NOllce, for example how ~~nce to Innate" bIOlogical tendencies, opposlIlg explanatlO;lS of wh e : ses causal analYS IS both to explore to cas t a cnocal eye on the d r~ oys an~ girls behave differently and

between what parents preac~ ae~~n\~~~t l~h~he matter of chtld reanng, Po llitt assumes about the v I d ' Y do ConSider, too, what essay on gmally appeared 1 a t~es~n Opinions of her audience- the

n e ew yO! k Tunes, October 8, 1995

PREREADING: THINKING ABOUT THE ESSAY IN ADVANCE

Gender roles are somethin~ we all kn f and therefore somethin~ w" c °lw rom personal experience . " e may lee we know' 'd IS your answer to the ue t' ItlSt e out. What will be answering? r; YO~~O; that th: essay, accordtng to its title,

what ways, if at ali , is it baSe(~~~e~O~ed just on experience? In ino or research? A ledge obtamed from read-

" . re you open to hear ~ . own on this subject? 111" vtews other than your

Words to Watch

prenatal (par. I) before birth hormonal (par. I) having to do with ho .

chemical substances that are created b~~li'~:' t~~t IS, those ger act ivity elsewhere in the body :::. ce sand tn g-

Who J ys Don ' \ Play with Dolls Kalha poll in

cognitive (par. 2) having to do with mental processes innate (par. 4) inborn, something we are born with

index (par. 4) indication

315

ambivalently (par. 7) with mixed feelings hierarchi cal (par. 13) alTanged in order of rank, status, or

importance determinist (par. 13) the view that acts or attributes are wholly

caused by preexisting factors, such as genes

inculcating (par. (6) instilling

I It 's twenty-eight years since the founding of NOW, and boys still like trucks and girls still like dolls. Increasingly, we are told that the source of these robust preferences must lie outs ide society- in prenatal hormonal influences, brain chemistry, genes-and that feminism has reached its natural limits , What else could possibl y ex plain the love of preschool girl s fo r party dresses or the des ire of toddler boys to own more guns than Mark

from Michigan? True, recent studies claim to show small cogni tive differ-

ences between the sexes: He gets around by orienting himself in space; she does it by remembering landmarks , Time will tell if any deserve the hoopla with which each is invariably greeted, over the protests of the researchers themselves , But even if the results hold up (and the history of such research is not encouraging), we don ' t need studies of sex_differentiated brain act ivi ty in reading. say, 10

understand why boys and girls still seem so unalike. 3 The feminist movement has done much for some women, and

something for every woman, but it has hardl y turned America into a playground free of sex roles. It hasn't even got women to stop

dieting or men to stop interrupting them, 4 Instead of looking at kids to "prove" that differences in behav-

ior by sex are innate, we can look at the ways we raise kids as an index to how unfinished the femini st revolution really is, and how tentatively it is embraced even by adults who full y expect their daughters to enter previously male-dominated professions and

their sons to change diapers . 5 ]'m at a children's birthday party. ' 'I'm sorry," one mom silently

mouths to the mother of the birthday girl, who has just torn open her present- Tropical Splash Barbie. Now, you can love Barbie or you can hate Barbie, and there are feminists in both campS. But apologize for Barbie? Inflic t Barbie, against your own convictions, on the child of a fri end you know will be none tOO pleased?

" I I , I , ,

316 ) hapler 8 Cause-and-Effeci Analysis

Every mother in that room had spent years becoming a person 6

who had to be taken seriously, not least by herself. Even the most attractIve, I'm willing to bet, had suffered over her body's failure to fi t the Imposslble American ideal. Given all that, it seems crazy to transmIt Barb1e to the next generation. Yet to reject her is to say that what BarbIe represents-,being sex y, thin, stylish- is unimportant, whIch IS obvIOusly not true, and children know it 's not true.

Women 's looks matter terribly in this society and so Barbie 7

however ambivalently, must be passed along. Af;er all, there ar~ worse toys. The Cut and Style Barbie styling head, for example, a grotesque object mtended to encourage "hair play." The grownups who gIve that probably apologize, too.

How happy would most parents be to have a child Who flouted 8

sex conventIOns? I know alot of women, feminists, who complain m a comIcal ,. eyeball-rollmg way about their sons' passion for Sports: the ruIned weekends, obnoxious coaches, macho values. But they would not think of discouraging their sons from partici­patmg In thIS actIVIty they find so foolish. Or do they? Their hus­bands are sports fans , too, and they like their husbands a lot.

Could it be that even sports-resistant moms see athletics as 9

part of manlIness? That if their sons wanted to spend the weekend wntIng up their diaries, or reading, or baking, they'd find it dis­turbIng? Too anti-social? Too lonely? Too gay?

Theones of innate differences in behavior are appealing. They 10

let parents off the hook-no small recommendation in a culture that hol~s moms, and sometimes even dads, responsible for their chIldren s every mIsstep on the road to bliss and success .

They allow grown-ups to take the path of leas t resistance to II

the domInant culture, which always requires less psychic effort, even 1f Jt means more actual work: Just ask the working mother who come~ home exhausted and nonetheless finds it easier to pick up her Son s socks than make him do it himself. They let families buy for their children, without too much guilt, the unbelievably sexIst Junk that the kIds, who have been watching commercials SInce bIrth , understandably crave.

But the thing the theories do most of all is tell adults that the 12

adult world- in which moms and dads still play by many of the old rules eve~ as they question and fidget and chafe against them- is the way It S supposed to be. A girl with a doll and a boy with a truck "explain" why men are from Mars and women are from Venus, why WIves do housework and husbands just don 't understand.

Wh) ~)YS Don 't Play with Dolls Katha Pollitt 317

I3 The paradox is that the world of rigid and hierarchical sex roles evoked by detennini st theories is already passmg away. Three-year-olds may indeed insist that doctors are male and nurses female, even if their own mother is a phYSICIan. Slx-year-olds know better. These days, something like half of all medIcal stu­dents are female, and male applications to nursing school are inc~­

ing upward. When tomorrow's three-year-olds play doctor, who s to say how they' ll assign the roles? .

14 With sex roles, as in every area of life, people aspIre to what is possible, and conform to what is necessary: But these are not fixed, especially today. Biological detennmlsm may reassure some adults about their present, but it is femIlllsm, the Ideology of flexible and converging sex roles, that fits our children's future. And the kids, somehow, know this. .

15 That 's why, if you look carefully, you'll find that for every kId who fits a stereotype, there 's another who's breakmg one down. Sometimes it's the same kid- the boy who skateboards and takes cooking in his after school program; the girl who collects stuffed animals and A-pluses in science.

16 Feminists are often accused of imposing their "agenda" on children. Isn ' t that what adults always do, consciously and uncon­sciously? Kids aren't born religious , or polite, or kind, or able to remember where they put their sneakers. Inculcatmg these behaviors and the values behind them, is a tremendous amount of work, involving many adults. We don't have a choice, really, about whether we should give our children messages about what It means to be male and female-they ' re bombarded with them from morning till night.

BUILDING VOCABULARY

The writer engaged in contemporary debate assumes that. her reader will naturally understand topical allusions or other kmds of references, especially insofar as they are political. Define or identify the following topical terms or phrases: a, NOW (par. J) b, feminism (par. 1), feminist revolution (par. 4) c, the Cut and Style Barbie styling head (par. 7) d. macho values (par. 8) e. men are from Mars and women are from Venus (par. 12)

318 ' f 'l:lprcr 8 Cause-and-Effeci Analys is

THINKING CRITICALLY ABOUT THE ESSAY

Understanding the Writer's Ideas

I. What is the implication of POllitt 's opening sentence? 2. What does the writer say that we are told explains the contin­

ued preference of boys for trucks and girls for dolls? 3. According to the writer, instead of innate qualities, what "uldex"

should we look to in order to explain differences in behavior by sex?

4. Why does the writer say you should not apologize for Barbie? What does she mean by this?

5. What do you think is the writer 's answer to the question that Opens paragraph 8?

6. What reasons does POllitt give to acCOunt for why innate dif­ferences in behavior are appealing?

7. Why does the writer think that the era of rigid, hierarchical sex roles is at an end?

8. "People aspire," the writer says in the opening sentence of paragraph 14, " to What is possible, and Conform to what is necessary." What does this statement mean? What would you say the writer thinks is Possible, and what does she think is necessary when it Comes to sex roles?

Understanding the Writer's Techniques

1. What is the thesis statement of this essay? Where does it appear?

2. Pollitt attempts to answer the question why it seems that boys continue to prefer trucks and that girls continue to prefer dolls. In other words, she attempts to explain the causes of behavior. How does POllitt explain the causes of the persistence of chil­dren 's preferences in toys?

3. One provocati ve rhetorica l device is the question th at is actually a s tatement, either directly Or by implication. ConSider, for example, the qu es tion that opens paragraph 8. The qu esti on implies an argument- the argument th at, whil e in principle most parents might reject as "sexist" OUr soc iety's sex-role conventions, in practice most parents do not want their children to deviate from these conventions. Where else in the essay does Pollitt use questions to make an a rgument ?

') Don't Play with Doll s Katha Poll itt WI .•• oys 319

What is the lone of this essay? Are there places where the tone 4.

changes? 's conclusion effective or 5. Explain why you fi nd the essay ineffective.

. '* MIXING P~'FTERNS . . '

. d trasts that appear in the . . Dns an con .~ What are the essentIal compans. - tive method reinforces

? QUer examples of how the campara essay _ 11'

the writer's thesis.

Exploring the Writer's Ideas f

e who we are because 0 1 The "nature/nurture" debate-are w ammed or are we the . . b geneltc or preprogr ,

something III am or h'ch we are reared?-Is b of the soctety III W I . way we are ecause b alludtng to new eV idence P II tt pens her essay y . d an old one. a I O . ) 'd but she clearly mten s d ru stiC (nature St e, to support the etenml . . . w of sex roles. However,

. t a detennllltstIc vte h h to argue agams C In the next paragrap , s e d· . ssive re,erence ht aside from a Ism I b hat this new eVidence mig

II nythin o a out w ? does not te us a d this omission affect her essay be. Why? How, Ifat all, oes PollItt use to make her case? Is What kinds of eVidence does

h 'dence suffiCient to refute 2. " . tIfic"? Is er eVI .

her evidence SClen . h ver address detenntms-. . ? Why does se ne . detenmmlstlc vtews . . of the writer's eVidence

d tJy? Which piece f tIc arguments Irec . f y? Which piece a eVI-d au find especJally persuasive, I an .

a y I rsuastve? Why? . dence do you find east pe h' she says that feminism IS

think Pollitt means w en 4)? I 3. What do you lllg sex roles" (par. I . s "the Ideology of ftexibl~d c~n~::7ble sex roles? Can you be a ferrurusm an ideology? at ~ Can au be skeptical about deter­femirust and a detenrumst too . y t be a feminist? Is Pollitt's mInist views about sex roles andhyet nt~er-anltdetenmmism and

. f posllIon Wit ana d? assaeratIon a one bltrary and opllUonate . femllUsm- justified and necessary, or ar

IDEAS FOR WRITING

Pre writing . b s wh oirls like to play With dolls or oy

List some examples k of M~:YOur examples specific. like to play wtth truc s.

320 ~

)lpter 8 Cause-and-Effecl Anal . y S1S

Guided Writing

Write an essay bas d h . e on t e prevIOus prewritin o exerci se 1 B . 0 .

. egJll with a paragra h simila . , primary and secondar p r to PollItt s that introduces

2 I . . ' y causes and effects. . ndlcate that thIS chain of cau r . nurture over nature. sa Ity Illustrates the power of

3. Provide two or three extended paragraphs to each Co exadmples, devoting well-rounded

d . mpare an contrast the t

an , using causal analysis suo e " "pas or present, stereotypes might have m~de o! ~~:~; nature or conventional roles you are discussin

o the emergence of the new

4. Show that these new r~ies are em r . . of adults about steppin be on e glllg despile the d iscomfort sex roles. g y d the bounds of conventional

5. Conclude by restat ing your 0 enin . oriented perspective . p g po lIlt, but from a future-

Thinking and Writing Collaboratively

In small groups of four or five d opments (one or two new findi~ oa Web search for new de vel-research) in the nature/nurture ::b

ll1 biOlogIcal or psychological

ev idence you d iscover s e ate. ThJllk about whether the e ms to support or ef t P 11 ·

argument, and share your I ' . rue 0 Itt's main conc USiOns WIth the rest of the class .

Writing About the Text

Write an essay bas d . Ideas . e on questIons 2 or 3 in Exploring the Writer 's

More Writing Projects

1. 10 your journal explore the wa s in who can see that you have been "s~ I" Ich, upon reflection, you

2. Write an ex tended apec by parents/genes/society paragraph that explo .

experience of sex roles C res your personal have wanted to do and ~h o~pare~ ~nd contrast what you may

3. Write an essay that ex I a you e t was expected of you. say and what the~ do p I~~~s ~hecontras t between what people defense of why peop l~ . ~ e 111 your discussion a plausible

mig t say one thmg and do another.

321 . ')

SUlnnlll1 t> u p: Chapter 8

SUMMING UP: CHAPTER 8

1. Working in small groupS, develop a: questionnaire that focuses on men's and women's roles in our society. Then have each group member get at least three people outside the group to complete it. When all the questionnaires have been completed,

analyze the results and present them to the class. 2. For the next week, kecp a journal about something that is

currently causing you to have mixed emotions. (Note: This should not be the same issue you wrote about in the Guided Writing assignment following the Stephen King essay; this should be a current issue.) Try to write fi ve reasons for the emotions each day (or expand upon prev ious ones) . At the end of the week, write an essay that analyzes how the issue is affecting your life or how you plan to deal with it in the future.

3. Some of the essays in this chapter identify inner drives that seem to function as compulsions-as things that have to be, that arise from us no matter what we would like. King writes about our anticivilization emotions, Wiesel aboul patriotic feelings, Herbert about multitasking, Pollitt about gender dif­ferences. Write an essay that analyzes these writers' responses

to the compulsions they describe. 4. Compare and contrast Elie Wiesel's view of how cause-and-

effect analysis works in feelings of patriotism with Brent Staples' s view of how it operates in race relations ("N ight

Walker," pp. 221-223). 5. What do you think Elie Wiesel, a Holocaust survivor, would

say to Stephen King's assertion that people need some insan­ity in their lives to stay sane? Write an essay about how Wiesel

would respond to King's essay. 6. Do you think Wiesel's cause-and-effect analysis of why he

loves America is right for all immigrants? Why or why not?

I

~ ,

322 ') Chapter 8 C ause-and-Effecl A I . na YSIS -

Why has a police officer sto d t . -An"!yze some of the posSibl~pe h~ person rn this phOtograph? ObVl0US (the driver was s ed~:u)sa relatIons, moving from the causes. Offer a complete:'1 . g to mOre subtle and complex

FROM SEEING TO WRITING

of possible main and se-cond YSIS m which you consider a range ary causes as well as possible effects.

CHAPTER 9 Classification

WHAT IS CLASSlFICATION?

Classification is the arrangement of infonlJation into groups or categories in order to make clear the relations among members of the group. In a supermarket, the soups are together in one aisle, the frozen foods in another. In a music store, all the jazz selections are in one secti on while rap is in another section. You wouldn 't expect to find a can of tomato soup nex t to the butter pecan ice cream any more than you 'd look for a CD of Wynton Marsalis's Christmas Jazz Jam in the same section as Eminem's Recovery.

Writers need to classify because it helps them present a mass of material by means of some orderly system. Related bits of infor­mation seem clearer when presented together as parts of a group. Unlike writing narrative, for example, developing classification requires a different level of analysis and planning. The writer not only presents a single topic or event, but also places the subject into a complex network of relations. In a narrative, we can tell the story of a single event from start to fini sh, such as the time we saw a Van Gogh painting in an art museum. In class ification, we have to think beyond the personal ex perience to try to place that Van Gogh painting in a wider context. Where does Van Gogh " fit " in the hi story of painting? Why is he different from other painters? How does his style relate to other work of the same period? In pur­suing these questions, we seek not only to record our experience in looking at the painting but to understand it more full y.