I am Leviathan

Girls are unfairly restricted from doing certain things. Sometimes, it’s really important, such as education; other times, it’s things such as dreams and passions. However, both of these things are significant and in some situations, girls are expected not to have these opportunities. This theme of gender inequality is prominent in books “Leviathan” by Scott Westerfeld, and “I am Malala” by Malala Yousafzai. “Leviathan” follows Alek and Deryn, who meet by accident on board the airship called Leviathan. Deryn is a girl disguised as a boy so that she can join the British Air Service. “I am Malala” is a true story about Malala, a girl who stood up for girl’s rights to education and was shot by a fundamentalist Muslim movement. Both “I am Malala” and “Leviathan” bring up the subject of stereotypes and expectations preventing girls from following their passions. Girls being restricted from doing things can have a big effect on their life; usually, it pushes girls to take action, either on a large or small scale, which sometimes has life-threatening or simply humiliating consequences.

A theme in both texts is that girls are confined due to expectations, which urges them to protest against it. Deryn, in “Leviathan,” dreams about joining the British Air Service. However, it is illegal for girls to join the Service, preventing her from following her passion. “Leviathan” describes how it was unfair to Deryn, where other, less qualified boys are able to join the Service. She comments on how “the tallest hardly came up to Deryn’s shoulder. They couldn’t be so much stronger, and she didn’t credit that they were as smart or as brave. So why should they be let into the king’s service and not her?” Since girls aren’t allowed become ‘midshipmen’, Deryn disguises herself as a boy and is recruited into the Service. Although this does not affect anybody drastically, her resilience signifies rebellion in order to allow girls to follow their passions. Likewise, in “I am Malala,” Malala finds it hard to go to school and receive an education because girls in her culture aren’t supposed to go to school. A man who is part of the Taliban, a Muslim movement, voices his opinions, saying that “[he is] representing good Muslims and [they] all think that [Malala’s father’s] school is a blasphemy.” The Taliban believe that “girls should not be going to school.” In Pakistan, girls are “expected to cook and serve [their] brothers and fathers.” Malala protests against this by standing up for girl’s rights to education. Both “Leviathan” and “I am Malala” show how girls object to following unreasonable restrictions and insist on change, just in different ways.

Although both texts express the theme of gender limitations and girls protesting against this, there are differences in the consequences that they face. In “Leviathan,” Deryn wants to join the Service because it’s her passion. If she doesn’t join the Service, there are no extreme effects. The most that would happen to her is that she would simply be forced to wear skirts and corsets. “No more dreams of flying, no more studying.” Despite the fact that this would still affect the way that she lives her life, there are no serious, life-threatening outcomes. In addition, Deryn’s protest is small and secretive. The results mainly had an effect on Deryn alone. Furthermore, Deryn’s act of defiance didn’t lead to many consequences except for the fact that the Service would be humiliated if anybody reveals her secret profile. Deryn took action on a small scale, which simply resulted in the possibility of embarrassment.

"I am Malala" shows how Malala openly protested for girl’s rights to education, which provoked life-threatening consequences. Malala is prevented from going to school. This means that she doesn’t get an education. This is a serious issue. Education should be a basic right for everyone because everybody deserves to be able to learn things about their world. Malala is being restricted from something that should be a basic human right. If she doesn’t go to school, she would “be ignorant” to the world around her. School is an important part of children’s lives. If a girl has no education, she wouldn’t be able to work to earn money. Without money, the girl would have to “be dependent on a man.” Malala stands up to this openly, publicly voicing her opinions, unlike Deryn in "Leviathan". This results in a Taliban shooting Malala, showing how her protest leads to a large, life-threatening consequence, dissimilar to "Leviathan". Malala took public action on an important issue, which caused a huge effect.

In both of the texts "Leviathan" and "I am Malala," the authors bring up the important theme of gender inequality. Readers would conclude that sometimes, having expectations and restrictions for people have large consequences, on their health and their lifestyle, for girls especially. "I am Malala" is a true story about Malala Yousafzai. It shows what girls really go through in real life, specifically in Pakistan. "Leviathan" also truly shows how girls are restricted as well, in a different situation. Either way, gender inequality is a real issue that should be solved, or large consequences to girls may be unavoidable.

Girls Can’t But Boys Can

She stands alone, nobody passes to her. She’s not good enough because she’s a girl.

People always seem to say that girls are weaker than boys. That they're not as good in sports and are mostly inferior to boys. This has created a stereotype that girls everywhere have to fight against. It isn’t correct. Girls can be as strong as boys. Almost always, girls prove the theories wrong.

Take for example this situation that happened a few years ago to a female fourth-grade student in India who had joined an after school football activity. She was the only girl. When she arrived at the field, the boys started talking amongst themselves. She could hear snatches of the conversation; somethings she heard were: “I hope she’s not in my team… All girls are really bad at football.” Also, things like: “Ugh, girls can’t do sports. Why do they even try?”

The activity went on and the students were put into teams. When the girl was sent to a team, the boys there groaned loudly and whispered to each other: “Don’t pass to her.” The game commenced and the boys kept their word; they never passed to her, even if she was the only one without a defender. Eventually, people stopped defending her. Once, somebody accidentally kicked the ball in her direction. They shouted out in frustration but she leaped into action, dribbling down the field and scored a goal. The boys were silent after that and started passing to her. The student is now in eight-grade, and that wasn’t the only time something like that had happened to her.

Something similar happened to another girl just last year when she was in seventh grade. There was a lunchtime basketball tournament among the classes. One rule was that at least one girl had to be playing on court at a time for each team. This rule was met by many protests from the boys. Nevertheless, the rule stood, as it had many years before. The boys always put one girl, nothing other than one girl and four boys. When the games started, they never passed to the girl that was playing. Finally, one of the four girls that were rotating on and off managed to intercept the ball from the opposing team and score a goal, all in less than fifteen seconds. After that, the boys passed to that girl, but still not to the other girls.

Both of the stories suggest that it was as if the girls had to prove themselves to the boys. As if they had to prove that they could play. However, the boys never even gave them a chance.

Every 13 to 14 year old girl who was interviewed said that at least once in her life, someone said that she couldn’t do something well because she was a girl. Most of the girls even had more than three experiences. Just think about it. If a 14 year old girl has been through more than three experiences where people have thought that they were restricted because she was a girl, how many times would that happen to a 20 year old? To a 30 year old? These things, these discriminative thoughts that people do or think can really restrict activities for girls. Another grade 8 student agrees. “People generally think that because you are a girl, you can’t be sporty or good at certain sports.” She says. This is true; but it doesn’t just happen in sports, it also happens in things like engineering, computer sciences and web designing.

This idea that ‘girls can’t’ doesn’t just appear in schools. It’s apparent in real life, too; like when you’re an adult. Gretchen Cawthorn is a lady who knows what it’s like to be told that she can’t do something because she’s a girl. When working in an internet-orientated company, Gretchen was told that girls can’t do web design by a business partner. In 2005, she proved him wrong by setting up ‘Girls Can’t What’ (girlscantwhat.com) all by herself. ‘Girls Can’t What’ is a website that provides girls with the opportunity to share their stories and receive inspiration from others. “The world is not against you, they just don’t know you.” Gretchen says. What she means to say by this is that although people may think that you can’t do something just because you’re a girl, it doesn’t mean that they are preventing you from doing anything. It might be hard, but you just have to step up and make them realise that you can. Make them know the real you, not some stereotype about girls.

So what else can you do about this issue that has been going on for decades, maybe even centuries? Everything comes down to the younger generations. Teach the young to have respect. From a young age, being exposed to an open mindset about girls can shape the future, especially the future of females.

But what about now, you might ask. What can you do now? Well, for boys, change your mindset! Don’t ever think that girls can’t do something just because they’re girls. Don’t separate the females from the males. Give both of them equal chance to prove themselves. If you’ve never thought girls couldn’t do something, keep it up.

And girls, to all the girls. Don’t let boys get you down, show them that you can do it. If somebody says that you can’t, use their comments as motivation to show them that you can; you need to prove them wrong. If you prove them wrong, you can prove the rest of the world wrong, too. Ignore any criticism you get from anybody. Just focus on doing what you love. It might take some time, so be patient. The world will need some time to change people’s ways of thinking, but they can change, and they will.

Sources:
Girls Can’t What by Gretchen Cawthorn
http://www.girlscantwhat.com/about/