Women

In previous generations, women had to live with certain expectations. They performed the daily housekeeping duties, had the children, and raised them.   In certain times, women would only be allowed to perform these functions. Some of the people in society today still think women should live up to the stereotypes that were revolved around their careers, about being a mother, and how women portrayed themselves. Women’s liberation revolves around women being able to support themselves and having a job. Women choose not to be tied down to the stereotypes that used to constrict women in the past.   In the story, A&P by John Updike we see that even in the 1960’s women were objectified by men and are supposed to dress and act a certain way.
In A&P, we see how men who judge them for everything objectify women: for the way they look and how they dress.   In the story the one of the workers, who staring with his mouth open, was sizing them up based on the way they looked? You see this in everyday life, not just in the story. Women are always being sized up on how they dress like they’re a “piece of meat” to men.   The manager scolds the girls because they were dressed inappropriately in his eyes.   Even though it was the store rules, they weren’t going to the store to turn heads they were going for some snacks. When women dress scantily like the girls were supposedly dressed, it makes men distracted. This story brings up a bigger discussion topic that the world's rules are there for men to get ahead in life. That’s why in some schools the policies are so hard on females because the males won't be able to concentrate. If the situation was reversed in A&P I don’t think it would have been a big of a deal if a male came in with his shirt off and was buying food.
The main stereotype that was surrounding women before the time of A&P was they were supposed to be seen strictly as housewives.   They were supposed to clean the house, take care of the children, and cook....