"Girl" by Jamaica Kincaid

When I first began to read this piece, I immediately thought of the lessons my grandmother taught me as a child on how to be ladylike.  However, as I really began to get into the meat of the selection, I was shocked at the reference, "To prevent yourself from looking like the slut I know you are so bent on becoming."  This reoccurring phrase was something that would have never been said to me as a child, which is why I found it so interesting and alarming.  

I was also intrigued by some of what the writer was telling the girl.  She was taught how to "spit up in the air if you feel like it" and "move quick so it doesn't fall on you."  Both of these are quite the opposite of being the lady I was taught to be, and the lady I though the author was molding at the very beginning of the selection.

I feel as though this is almost an intentional stab at how women are suppose to act.  It seems to me as though the author is trying to get the point across that women are not expected to act as they once were with the changing times.