that if she begins to behave like a girl, she needs to go somewhere else to play. 

In Chapter 5 Atticus again scolds Jem, whom he catches in the act of holding a fishing pole with a note on it that he plans to put on the Radley windowsill. Atticus tells Jem and the others to "stop this nonsense, every one of you." So the children halt their pursuit of communication with Boo. But on Dill's last day in Maycomb, Jem and he begin to walk down their street. Scout protests that they are not to go near the Radleys; Jem dismisses her in a "sweet" voice: "You don't have to come along, Angel May." His ridicule is a disguise for his knowing that he should not do what he is going to do. Then, when she realizes that the boys are going to approach the Radley house in the dark, Scout protests again.

"Scout, I'm tell' you for the last time, shut your trap or go home--I declare...you're gettin' more like a girl every day!" (Ch. 6)

Again, Jem excuses his behavior by accusing Scout of just being a frightened girl as he tries to delude her about what he and Dill are going to do as well as ease his own conscience.

Jem uses Scout's gender to counter-attack when he believes she challenges his manhood. For example, when Jem pushes Scout in the tire and it rolls onto the Radley's front yard, Scout comes back without it. Jem tells her to go get the tire, and because of a dare he had with Dill, she tells him to go get it himself. After he returns with the tire, he says the following:

"'See there?' Jem was scowling triumphantly. 'Nothin' to it. I swear, Scout, sometimes you act so much like a girl it's mortifyin'.'

"There was more to it than he knew, but I decided not to tell him" (38).

Jem, in an effort to save face and further prove he isn't a coward, suggests that they play Boo Radley as a game. Scout didn't buy his smokescreen for a second and says the following:

"Jem's head at times was transparent: he had thought that up to make me understand he wasn't afraid of Radleys in any shape or form, to contrast his own fearless heroism with my cowardice" (38).

If Scout is picking up on this battle of the sexes at a young age, she's sure to be influenced by it. For one thing, she threatens and beats up boys like Walter Cunningham, Jr. and Cecil Jacobs when she is challenged. She may not consciously know it, but it's what boys do, so she does it. She also runs around in coveralls in the summer rather than wearing dresses. And, if all she has are boys to play with in the neighborhood, then she will want to act like them so she isn't rejected from games.

Another time that Scout shows self-awareness for her gender is when she hears Reverend Sykes say that bootlegging was bad, but women were worse. She thinks to herself the following:

"Again, as I had often met it in my own church, I was confronted with the Impurity of Women doctrine that seemed to preoccupy all clergymen" (122).

At this point Scout must recognize that men of all races view women as something less than men. She never says she wishes she were a boy, though, which suggests that she, along with many other girls, is simply trying to find her niche in life as a girl in a boy's world.

Aunt Alexandra doesn't help by moving in with them and doing her darnedest to get Scout to act and look more like a girl. Scout resists her Aunt Alexandra mostly because she doesn't like her--not because she doesn't want to continue to be a girl. Jem eventually gets involved and tries to influence Scout by saying the following:

"You know she's not used to girls, . . .  leastways, not girls like you. She's trying to make you a lady. Can't you take up sewin' or something'?" (225).

It's bad enough to have to wear dresses, now Jem is asking her to start sewing? This is a definite gender stereotype to which Scout says, "Hell no" (225). But again, her arguments after Jem says this go along the lines of her not wanting to act like a girl simply to satisfy his or Aunt Alexandra's desires--not because she doesn't like her own gender.