Research Paper on:
What It Means to Be Female in the Brothers' Grimm's Snow White and L.M. Montgomery's Anne of Green Gables

Unformatted Sample Text from the Research Paper:
be mothers. However, every culture throughout history has developed its own concepts as to what behaviors should be ascribed to men and women, boys and girls. These behaviors are regarded  within each culture as "natural," the way that men and women inherently act. However, if this were true, then human behavior would be uniform and consistent from one culture to  the next and this simply is not true. For instance, in the US, it is generally believed that women are more emotional then men. However, in Iran, it  is believed that men are the "naturally" emotional sex and women are the coldly practical gender (Holme 492). As this indicates, gender roles are not innate - they have to  be taught. One of the ways that societal expectations regarding how girls and boys act is through stories - oral and written. The following examination of "Snow White" by  the Brothers Grimm and Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery will demonstrate how stories have helped to "teach" little girls how society, as a whole, has considered the female  sex. One expert defines the "lens of gender polarization" (i.e. looking at life through gender-biased eyes) as "the male-female difference superimposed on so many aspects of the social world  that a cultural connection is thereby forged between sex and virtually every aspect of human experience" (Greenbaum 53). While educators and  social scientists have endeavored to wean society away from gender bias, Greenbaum and her fellow high school teachers feel that gender polarization is alive and well despite enlightened efforts. While  more girls are becoming engineers and scientists, literature remains forever caught between "issues of voice and viewpoint," fixed between the "poles of gender" (Greenbaum 53). This is why literature