As mentioned, individuals are engendered at a very early age. While girls are expected to be quiet, submissive beings at an early age, this transfers to their adult life. When women get older, however, this conditioning is perpetuated in their personal as well as professional lives. Studies have shown that women fare far worse in face-to-face negotiation than men do. In sales, for example, women are more often than not offered a higher price than a man would receive in the same negotiation [3]. Women are taken advantage of merely because they are women. It is quickly assumed that because an individual is a woman, she is docile, easy to influence or take advantage of. This submissivness is transferred to their personal lives as well. Women are often the more docile partner in relationships, while men assume the dominant role. Tragically, it is women who are raped at a much higher rate than men are. Perhaps it is because women are taught to be soft spoken, gentle, and violence free; so much that they do not have the strength to fight for themselves, physically or verbally.

As a high school student, I often babysat my next-door neighbor's children. There were three boys and one girl, the youngest. All the boys' rooms were painted bold colors, decorated with sports icons, littered with trucks. The young girl's room was decorated in Raggedy Anne. She had dolls and stuffed animals on her bed. It was not, however, their rooms that really struck me as overwhelmingly engendered. I once overheard their mother console her youngest son when he bumped his head. He happened to be jumping on the couch, and hit his head on the hard arm of the couch. After his sniffles were quickly silenced, his mother told him, "Hit it, honey! Hit that couch!" She then demonstrated, punching the couch with her fist, and encouraged him to do the same. In this instant, she was encouraging this act of violence in her son. She was encouraging bravery in the face of pain, and further, physical strength and violence conquering over his fears. She didn't want him to cry, but rather, to be angry.

One day, I saw two beautiful families walking together. There were two sets of parents, three young boys, and two young girls. As I continued to watch them pass by, I observed their sons running around them, rolling on the ground, playing tag, yelling and screaming. It seemed like such a fun afternoon for these boys. However, I noticed that the two girls were behaving very well. They walked quietly with their mothers. They held hands while walking slowly, obediently. They were the docile creatures, while their brothers were allowed to run free. I vaguely wondered if they would be reprimanded if they followed their brothers lead.

In the face of such gender expectations and guidelines, who wouldn't want liberation? To be free of restraints, pressures and prejudices would be a relief. While the woman is expected to always be docile, and the man to always be dominant, what of the woman who finds herself eloquent? or the young man who would rather be a docile follower than a leader? To find a place of refuge, of freedom, such a Utopia, is highly longed for. As we turn to virtual realities, is this what we find? Is this what we long for?