Gender Informal Experiment
By: Jessica Pulla
Option B
Scenario 1: Read a porn magazine in a public place and starts to touch
themselves.
Scenario 2: A parent kills their own child.
Paragraph 1: Introduction to topic and past history or topic
Paragraph 2: My scenarios
Paragraph 3: Results from scenario 1
Paragraph 4: Results from scenario 2
Paragraph 5: Reflection of what I learned
Report Details
In society today, women are still looked at differently than men.
There is still no equality between the genders as women get more harsh
punishments than men do when it comes to their actions. Women are
looked at as being kind, sweet, harmless, and loving, so they would never
be seen as hurting anyone, nor would they do anything inappropriate.
Back in the 1900’s, “girls, but not boys, could be arrested for the nebulous
offence of ‘sexual immorality’, a status offence usually applied to socially
disadvantaged girls” (Barker, 2009). Female youth, who were also
convicted, were more likely to be held in custody because they were
subject to longer stays than males were even though they had similar
offences. The females were also provided with little education as well as
being trained for domestic duties.
“Boys will be boys” is a typical saying that everyone goes by when a
boy/man does something that a girl/ woman would not usually do. When
the boy/man does an action, they do not get punished or questioned by
their parents because it is more typical and normal for a boy/man to do
that action. It is completely different for a girl/woman to do the same
action as the boy/man and not be punished or questioned by their
parents. In my experiment, I questioned 10 different friends and family
members and asked them their thoughts and opinions on the scenarios
listed below:
Friend 1 & Family 6: Jim reads a porn magazine in a public place and
starts “touching” himself.
Mary kills her own child.
Friend 2 & Family 7: Jack reads a porn magazine in a public place and
starts “touching” himself.
Margaret kills her own child.
Friend 3 & Family 8: Joe reads a porn magazine in a public place and
starts “touching” himself.
Mandy kills her own child.
Friend 4 & Family 9: Angela reads a porn magazine in a public place and
starts “touching” herself.
Mark kills his own child.
Friend 5 & Family 10: Amy reads a porn magazine in a public place and
starts “touching” herself.
Matthew kills his own child.
The results of my research were mostly the same for both genders
doing each situation. Majority of the people who answered my scenarios
said that both the male and female who were reading the magazine
should be given a warning or they should spend a few days in jail
because touching yourself in public is not something that you should be
doing. A few people said that if it was a male doing it, he should also be
banned from the public space if children were around because it is
wrong for children to see that. Society may make more of a joke out of it
because guys have stereotypes around different sexual contexts or
actions. It would not be as inappropriate as it would be for a woman
because men are seen as doing more sexual crimes than women are, so
touching yourself in public is almost typical for a man to do and it’s almost
normal for them as well. Most people might also ignore it because they
do not care since it is just a guy being a guy. A few people then said that
if a woman was touching themselves in public, it would be seen as very
inappropriate and disturbing because women do not do things like that.
They could be looking for attention or they are really desperate for
someone. One person then stated that if she saw her daughter touching
herself she would question her about why she is doing that and what
made her do that, she would be angry/mad at her, she would punish her,
and she would always keep a close eye on her because she should not
be doing that and she should be acting more like a lady, but if it were her
son she said that she would ignore it because that’s what guys do.
The results for my second scenario were also very similar in answers.
For both the male and female killing their child, a majority of people said
that it does not matter what gender is doing the killing, they should both
be sentenced to life without any chance of parole because killing
someone is killing someone, there’s no difference. A few people said that
if it were a male killing their child, his life in prison would be different than a
female’s life in prison because men are used to being handled with force
and tasks for them are easier since they are more physically built. A lot of
people said that if it were a female killing their child, she might be
experiencing post-partum depression or she might have a mental illness
and has not realized what she did. They would also be looked at
differently because people would not understand how a mother could kill
her own child and it is worse for a female to kill their child since they are
seen as more loving people and they are supposed to take care of their
children no matter what. Females would also be treated a lot more harsh
in jail for their crime and they would be handled with the same force as
men are.
I learned that “boys will be boys” still holds true to this day because
they can do no wrong in life. They do not get punished the same way girls
do when committing the same incident. Society sets such high standards
for girls/women and when they do something wrong, they are seen as a
disgrace to the entire community and they should not be allowed to do
the actions they do that portrays them as non-classy females. The actions
of boys/men are not as inappropriate or wrong as it would be for
girls/women because it is normal for boys/men to do what they do and
their actions just get ignored. It’s like males are treated as royalty
because they are just being the typical males where every inappropriate
act they do does not get questioned the same ways it would be for a
female. Every little detail is analyzed when females do wrong actions.
People do not realize that there should be no difference when a female
and male commit the same crime or do the same actions. They are both
human beings who do the same things in life, so they deserve to get the
same punishments for committing the same crimes or inappropriate acts.
References
Barker, J. Women and the Criminal Justice System: A Canadian
Perspective. Emond Montgomery Publications Limited: Toronto, Canada.
2009
GNED 1309 - Women and the Criminal Justice System
Assignment 3 Rubric
Names: Jessica Pulla___________________________________
Points
Your Score
Report Details
Introdution to Topic
2
2
Past History of Topic
3
3
Option A - five (5) interview questions or Option B - two (2)
scenarios/situations
5
5
Results of your research - summarized
7.5
7.5
Reflection of what you have learned from the assignment
7.5
7.5
Subtotal
Work not referenced
25
-2.5
25
Spelling, Grammer, Typos, etc. - -1 per error**
TOTAL SCORE:
** If more than 10 errors found - assignment will receive a mark of zero
***If any unprofessional language used - assignment will receive a mark of zero
25
25