The dialogue of "Girl" is that of a mother
telling her daughter all the things she must be in order to be a successful
woman. There is no love behind these words. The mother is not watching out for
her or making a good woman, rather she is making her become an uncertain and
questionable girl. Her mother is confusing her. Since it is the mother who is telling her
these things, we as the reader assume that she is speaking to her daughter from
bad past experiences. Although the mother is giving her advice, the words she
speaks are harsh and bitter; we can assume that she has experienced many bad
things in her life since she speaks with such passion about not falling and
becoming an exemplary woman in life. Now,
if the narrator had been the father, our way of viewing the story if it would
be her dad to talk the same exact words and the same tone and put a man as the
narrator then it would come across as extremely abusive and manipulative. For a
mother to say that to a daughter it’s okay, but for a father it is unacceptable.
If the father would call his daughter a "slut" it would be almost the
same as him slapping her in the face. If a man calls any lady “whore” or “slut”
then it is immediately abusive language and he is viewed as oppressive. Men
have to be so much more careful with the choice of words when speaking, unlike
woman.
It's interesting that you considered the mom is confusing the daughter as she lists the several things to do when becoming proper. I feel like the mother is telling the daughter these things because she has seen fallen woman and society looks down upon them, which she doesn't want this to happen to her daughter. If her daughter becomes a fallen woman, then it's as if society will look down upon the mother, too, since the mother wouldn't have taught the daughter correctly on how to become this proper woman. I do agree about the tone becoming more of an abusive sense if it was told by a father's point of view, because it seems more harsh when a dad tells his daughter that she'll become a slut.
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