A Thousand Voices :: Thousand Voices Essays

  A Thousand Voices   I cannot speak for the rest of the world, consisting of girly girls and virile men, but I can speak for myself. Virginia Woolf is right on target in saying that every human being has a male one-half and a female half-I believe this because I am a living example I think we either are. Julie always gives me scornful looks when I throw in to lunch from from gym with a red face, and an exhausted yet satisfied expression. Youve been playing floor hockey again, havent you? she belligerently but playfully accuses. I hence proceed to disgust her with my tales of how I almost scored a goal, got hit in the ribs by a speeding puck (and boy was it great), knocked over a guy, stopped the puck mid-air. She rolls her eyes for two reasons one, because I actually participate in gym period, and two, because floor hockey is generally a guy thing.   Now, beforehand I go any further, I want to cover myself. Im not saying that the aggression and rough an d tumble of floor hockey is an exclusively masculine trait, and that I , a girl, would be exploring my male half by partaking in the game. It is society that chooses which qualities may be dubbed male and which are female, and it is society that makes Julie and most of my another(prenominal) friends, and even the other guys down at the gym think it strange for a woman to enjoy such a brute sport. Virginia Woolf may be forced to call things either male or female in order to speak societys language. I think shes on to something in that there is a little everything residing in all of us-its just a matter of whether or not we choose to embrace it all. Im not a brute force all the time (although some would beg to differ), but I bring that side of me out whenever I go for the puck, or whenever I spar in soldierly arts. Maybe its not the man in me, its just the fighter maybe Virginia Woolf says male and female half when she really means all-encompassing human whole.   ano ther(prenominal) conflict that results from this manifestation of all human qualities within me also deals with male and female stereotypes.