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Introduction Children develop their first sense of self at around age four, when they develop metacognition. (Berk, 2006) In pursuit of their self, they start to develop personal identities, informing their likes and dislikes as well as their disposition. Although children are born into a certain sex, they do not immediately develop a sense of gender. Their gender forms at the same time as their sense of self, by observing their outside environment. But even before the child understands their sense of self, they are already placed into gender specific play from around age 2 (Zosuls, 2007). The creation of an identity involves the child's understanding of the public disposition of the gender normalities, and the certain gender categories that …show more content…
The stuffed animal dragon, Stuffy, was blue, and he was male. The female hippo assistant, Hallie, was pink, purple and white, also displays a very heavy accent. The male snowman, Chilly, was blue and white. The lamb stuffed doll, Lambie, was pink and very feminine. Throughout Doc McStuffins, there were gender based character attributes displayed on each of the characters and the general landscape of each of the shows. In each episode, there was a toy that was broken and the toy displayed the underlying gender tropes. Doc uses her outside knowledge to diagnose the problems of the toys, and eventually fix them. In Rescue Ronda Ready for Takeoff, there was a female helicopter who was damaged due to a stick. The helicopter as a gender stereotype was given mascara and elongated eyelashes, whereas none of the other characters had this trait. In another episode, when Donny lost, Doc decided that was not right and decided to fix his racecar. In addition, all of the racecars were male and were none of the “feminine colors”. General recurring themes were friendship, help and repair. Doc believes that anything can be fixed and that children should listen to their doctors, using her ability as the lead to display this throughout the …show more content…
In Doc McStuffins, the main character, who was a female wore only pink and purple and used predominantly pink and purple things. This reinforces the stereotype that girls only seem to enjoy pink and purple. But one thing was the same, that each reinforced basic underlying stereotypes of what males and females should like. For example, in Doc McStuffins the boys were expected to like racecars, trucks and blue, whereas the girls liked pink and dolls. This supports the stereotype that girls enjoy wearing a pink frilly dress, as documented by Ruble in her examination of girls and their phenomenon with pink frilly dresses. Doc by using pink and purple items covered in glitter, reinforces the stereotype that girls only enjoy such items. In order to seem more realistic, like the outfits Emmy wears that are jeans and a blue shirt, Doc could try changing up her dress colors, if not wearing shorts depending on the weather in the show. This would imply and reinforce the ideal that girls do not only enjoy pink but can enjoy all colors, countering the
Another stereotype I saw demonstrated in the girls section was the idea that all girls are animal lovers. A large section of the girls’ side was filled with different stuffed animals or other toy animals like “Pound Puppies” or “My Little Ponies”. Mostly the girls’ toys used fine motor sk...
In today’s society, it can be argued that the choice of being male or female is up to others more than you. A child’s appearance, beliefs and emotions are controlled until they have completely understood what they were “born to be.” In the article Learning to Be Gendered, Penelope Eckert and Sally McConnell- Ginet speaks out on how we are influenced to differentiate ourselves through gender. It starts with our parents, creating our appearances, names and behaviors and distinguishing them into a male or female thing. Eventually, we grow to continue this action on our own by watching our peers. From personal experience, a child cannot freely choose the gender that suits them best unless our society approves.
Any developmental theory is based on the idea that a child has to reach a certain level of cognitive development before they can understand certain ideas or conceptions. What it means to be a girl or a boy and the full implications that follows. Kohlberg’s Cognitive-Developmental Theory of Gender proposed that all children experience three stage during the process of gender development and identity. These three stage occur at different ages such at the age of two which is the “Gender Identity” stage Kohlberg states that children can correctly label themselves as a boy or girl but may still think it is possible to change gender. The second stage occurs at the age of four and is known as the “Gender Stability” stage. In this stage children become
In the stage of gender stability children are able to indicate that a gender remains the same throughout time and therefore, children start to realise that they will be male or female for the rest of their lives. Nevertheless, their understanding of gender i...
shows. From the superheroes of the Justice League to characters like Daffy Duck, kids have always idolized these cartoon characters that they watched while eating their cereal every morning. Pollitt believes that these cartoons show signs of sexism through their characters. She goes on to make her statement, “do kids pick up on the sexism in children’s culture? You bet. Preschoolers are like medieval philosophers: the text – a book, a movie, a T.V. show – is more authoritative than the evidence of their own eyes”(n.p.). In my experience of growing up as a male, I never once noticed the diversity between male and female characters. These are issues that are noticed more as one matures. She continues, “little girls learn to split their consciousness, filtering their dreams and ambitions through boy characters while admiring the clothes of the princess”(n.p.). No girl that I grew up with admired male characters. They admired princesses such as Snow White and Cinderella. They wanted hair like Rapunzel. They didn’t filter their dreams on characters like Superman or Peter Pan. She even goes on to say that “sexism in preschool culture deforms both boys and girls”(n.p.). Deforms boys and girls? I am struggling to grasp this concept. Boys are boys, and girls are girls. There is nothing deformed about that. So the argument continues, is their sexism truly found within each of these T.V. shows? I am
When Jerry Falwell's conservative paper "outted" Tinky-Winky (the purple Teletubby) as being gay, fans of the Teletubbies television series usually fell into two camps: those who supported Tinky-Winky as a positive gay character and those who maintain Tinky-Winky has no developed sexual identity. A few unfamiliar with the BBC/PBS show asked the question, "how can you even tell if Tinky-Winky's male?" Brushed off by most fans as a naive inquiry, this concern does merit discussion. How do we, as television viewers, determine gender identities for non-human characters? How is this complicated for children's characters?
When I was a little girl, the majority of the toys I played with were dolls and Barbies, but imagine if girls were exposed to a larger assortment of toys at a young age. How would our view on gender stereotypes be different? GoldieBlox published a video in November of 2014 that advertises their children’s toy while fighting stereotypes. GoldieBlox’s purpose is to persuade people to purchase their toy. In addition, this company is motivated to inform girls that they don’t have to act on cliché gender stereotypes.
Basically, what one needs to know before proceeding to read through this analysis of gender development is that gender identity refers to “one’s sense of oneself as male, female, or transgender” (American Psychological Association, 2006). When one’s gender identity and biological sex are not congruent, the individual may identify as transsexual or as another transgender category (cf. Gainor, 2000). Example, Jennifer in the book, She's Not There: A Life in Two Genders, who brought us through the struggle of living a transgendered life from start to finish. Also, the formation of gender identity is influenced by social factors, such as family, friends, the environment, etc. For example, fathers tend to be more involved when their sons engage in gender-appropriate activities such as playing baseball or soccer rather than wanting to become a dancer or a cheerleader.
Martin, Karin A., 1998. “Becoming a Gendered body: Practices of Preschools” American Sociological Assosciation (4): 510.
In this paper I will be examining two different psychological positions on gender identity. These positions are; binary gender identity and diverse gender identity. After I have explained both positions I will analyze the two and put forth my argument that diverse gender identity captures a more accurate depiction of gender. This psychologically charged debate over gender identity and its presence in society has taken the form of intuitions over social necessity. In where one side is arguing that traditional binary gender norms are no longer relevant in today’s world, and that binary gender norms are damaging to the cultivation of a happy and healthy society. While the other side argues that traditional binary gender norms are paramount for a healthy family, for a proper social dynamics, and for the prevention of damaging individual’s lives. From both sides of the fence proponents have been using psychological analysis and statistics to bolster their claims. For the purposes of this paper I will begin with the pro binary gender identity theorists.
She pointed to herself when the teacher asked her to identify “her” and she pointed to a boy classmate when to identify “him.” So, this understanding demonstrated the girl’s development of gender awareness. Also, children only use external characteristics to identify gender (Zinsser, 2017). Therefore, when the teacher asked the girl how did she know, the girl explained that she was female because only girls have long hair. Additionally, Brown and Jewell (2014) mentioned that “between 3 and 6 years of age, children learn that gender is constant and cannot change simply by changing external attributes, having developed gender constancy ” (p. 4-5). So, when the teacher asked the girl if she was sure about the difference between “her and him,” the girl did not change her answer and was strongly certain because she stated that gender does not change. Although the girl identifies gender by external qualities, she understood that gender is
Kohlberg defined the steps in gender role development to three steps. The first step, the kids (ages 1-3) begin learn their gender identity by their parents (adult) education. In this step also Kohlberg mentioned that the kids know their gender by observations of sex differences. As Kohlberg says “ they categorize themselves as a boy or a girl during this period” (Bergen 2008, p. 153). Teaching kids in early periods of their life makes them more receptive to their identity, even their knowing about their gender still changeable.
Society today suggest that revealing the “gender” or “sex” of a child from the moment of conception forward is a necessity. But, in all actuality to some this is an invasion of their privacy and beliefs. Many believe that raising a child gender specific is not important to their upbringing or to their growth and development. Gender is defined with several different meanings such as the behavioral, cultural or psychological traits typically associated with the one sex. The sex of an individual, male or female, based on reproductive anatomy (the category to which an individual is assigned on the basis of sex) and the personal traits or personality that we attach to being male or female. Sex is defined as the biological distinctions determined by our genitalia.
As a child grows and conforms to the world around them they go through various stages, one of the most important and detrimental stages in childhood development is gender identity. The development of the meaning of a child’s sex and gender can form the whole future of that child’s identity as a person. This decision whether accidental or genetic can effect that child’s life style views and social interactions for the rest of their lives. Ranging from making friends in school all the way to intimate relationships later on in life, gender identity can become an important aspect to ones future endeavors.
One doctor of sociological sciences defines masculinity and femininity as a “set of attitudes, roles, norms of behavior, [and] hierarchy of values typical of the male and female sex in each specific society.”(Il’inykh,S.A.(2012)) This suggests that “masculinity” and “femininity” are equivalent to gender identities but are influenced by each individual society. From a young age, even before being born, individuals are already upheld to expectations by society based on what their biological sex is. For example, when parents are informed that they are having a male, they usually decorate everything in blue with a theme of cars, dinosaurs, superheroes, or anything that is considered to be tough, and are gifted with toys that include trucks, dinosaurs, action figures, video games etc.(Brewer) Conversely, when parents find out they are having a female, they go for a more girly theme when decorating which includes the color pink, soft decor, flowers, butterflies or ballerinas, and most toys girls receive are tea sets, dolls, items to play house with, etc.(Brewer). With these early exposures, boys and girls are already presented with their masculine or feminine expectations formed by society which convey the idea that men must be strong and dominant while the