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The cultural and social expectations used in the construction and definition of gender constitute a form of production which propels the maturity of children into gendered adults. This form of production is highly influenced by societal forces which ascribe certain roles and characteristics to individuals based on biological distinctions. Prominent beliefs in the society are highly influential in shaping the personalities of boys and girls on the basis of their differences in personal attributes. This essay provides a summary of an article by Goldman, 1990 on the construction of gendered subjects. The author of the article highlights different forms of enclosures that contribute to shaping the male and female genders. The development of gendered roles is considered a system of production, in this case, comparable to farming. While gender inequalities and societal gender construction are important in shaping boys and girls lives to adulthood, they may also hinder certain personalities in children as they are coerced to assume specific gender roles. (Goldman, 1990).
The article Penning in the bodies: The construction of gendered subjects in Alice Munro’s Boys and Girls by Goldman, 1990 explores the role and behavioral attributes given to males and females based on certain beliefs and societal forces. The article cites a short story Boys and Girls by Alice Munro. Based on this article, the transition that children make to gendered adults is not natural but rather a form of production propelled by the division of space for males and females in the society.

The author suggests that there is a correspondence between the construction of gendered adults and the process of farming. For example, the raising of foxes inside pens is related to the control of space which threatens to enclose women in the home and specifically in the kitchen. The tendency to give women limited access to the outdoors is likened to the restriction of foxes inside the pens, where man controls these restrictions.
The author discusses the desire by men to exercise power within the home as illustrated by the tendency by the father in Boys and girls to work in a cellar, a white-washed room illuminated by a bright bulb. The nature of the cellar is set to reflect the father’s desire to manipulate others’ expression of his desire to control. There is a clear disconnection between the children and the male domain as illustrated by the unfinished and poorly-lit bedroom for the children compared to the delineated territory for men. This shows that the children have an undifferentiated consciousness which changes as they grow up and assume specific gender roles. There is a sheer inequality in the male and female power. For example, men are entitled to shooting and slaughtering of the enclosed horses. Even after the girl helps one of the horses to escape the shooting, she seems convinced that there was no place to run to as the men would still catch up with the horse in the truck as if to suggest that there is no way to run away from the prescribed gender roles. Due to this, the girl resigns from her attempts to decipher her prescribed gender roles. (Goldman, 1990).
Reference
Goldman, M. (1990). Penning in the Bodies: The Construction of Gendered Subjects In Alice Munro’s Boys and Girls. Studies in Canadian Literature/Études en littérature canadienne, 15(1).