A Reflection on Genders
From the first breath a newborn takes as it enters this world, every movement thereafter is monitored. As children grow and mature their actions are reflective upon the gender in which they were bestowed. Believed to be natural behavioral patterns, the treatment of young children does in fact affect their development. The article, “Learning to Be Gendered,” by Penelope Eckert and Sally McConnell-Ginet highlights the effects gender specific names, colors, and even toys relay on young developing children. Eckert and McConnell-Ginet correctly state that the gender specific behaviors parents place on children are more powerful than they had originally thought.
Coauthoring their book, Language and Gender, these two Stanford
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The infant is unaware of its gender and possesses no knowledge of the expectations it is to meet in the upcoming years. Eckert and McConnell-Ginnet outline this statement, “In the beginning, adults will do the child’s gender work, treating it as a boy or girl, and interpreting its every move as that of a boy or girl. Then over the years the child will learn to take over its part of the process” (Eckert & McConnell-Ginet par 3). Adding to this argument, I would point out that while it does impose on the inborn traits
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and unique characteristics of each child, parental direction is a necessary contribution to a child’s life. It is important for children to have a sense of guidance as they grow. As they mature, they will become more independent and begin to individualize.
Each individual is born with different traits and features. Authors Eckert & McConnell-Ginet, shed light on the different generalizations made on young, developing children. “Learning to Be Gendered” urges readers to recognize the stereotypes placed on each gender. In a society that yearns for gender equality, parents are unknowingly promoting a separate gender line. There is a difference between guidance and conformation. As tiny individuals, it is important for children to play an active role in their
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).
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.
How do children learn to be men or women? Penelope Eckert is a professor of linguistics and anthropology at Stanford University and Sally McConnell-Ginet is a professor of linguistics at Cornell University. They wrote an article “Learning to Be Gendered,” published in 2013 in the book “Language and Gender.” The authors argue that society has many ways to shape children's gender by children’s behaviors since their birth. Eckert and Ginet show to the readers that the parent teaches their child’s behavior. The author is using ethos, logos, and pathos to support the thesis statement.
In order to fully comprehend the how gender stereotypes perpetuate children’s toys, one must understand gender socialization. According to Santrock, the term gender refers to the, “characteristics of people as males and females” (p.163). An individual is certainly not brought into the world with pre-existing knowledge of the world. However, what is certain is the belief that the individual has regarding him- or herself and life stems from socialization—the development of gender through social mechanisms. For instance, when a baby is brought into this world, his or her first encounter to gender socialization arises when the nurse places a blue or pink cap on the baby’s head. This act symbolizes the gender of the baby, whether it is a boy (blue cap) or a girl (pink cap). At the age of four, the child becomes acquai...
Francis’s study analyzes three to five-year-old preschool students as well as their parents about their views about toys and viewing materials based on gender. The study showed that parental beliefs shaped their child 's opinions of gender roles based on the toys they played with. The parent 's idea of what is female and what is male is transferred onto the toys their child plays with which in terms developed their child 's stereotype of what is male and female based on their toy selection and color. In the article “How do today 's children play and with which toys?”, by Klemenovic reference that a child 's view on gender stereotypes is developed by their parents who train them on how to use the toys. Klemenovic (2014) states "Adults start training in the first months of a child 's life because knowledge of objects is the outcome of other people 's behavior towards us" (Klemenovic, 2014, p. 184). Young children’s development of gender stereotypes is largely influenced by his or her parent’s actions and view on what they consider male or female. A parent’s color preference and toy selection can influence a child’s gender bias or association to a specific
Society cements certain roles for children based on gender, and these roles, recognized during infancy with the assistance of consumerism, rarely allow for openness of definition. A study conducted by Witt (1997) observed that parents often expect certain behaviors based on gender as soon as twenty-four hours after the birth of a child. The gender socialization of infants appears most noticeably by the age of eighteen months, when children display sex-stereotyped toy preferences (Caldera, Huston, & O’Brian 1989). This socialization proves extremely influential on later notions and conceptions of gender. Children understand gender in very simple ways, one way being the notion of gender permanence—if one is born a girl or a boy, they will stay that way for life (Kohlberg 1966). “According to theories of gender constancy, until they’re about 6 or 7, children don’t realize that the sex they were born with is immutable” (Orenstein 2006). The Walt Disney Corporation creates childhood for children worldwide. “Because Disney are such a large media corporation and their products are so ubiquitous and wide spread globally, Disney’s stories, the stories that Disney tell, will be the stories that will form and help form a child’s imaginary world, all over the world, and that’s an incredible amount of power, enormous amount of power” (Sun). Because of the portrayal of women in Disney films, specifically the Disney Princess films, associations of homemaker, innocence, and dependence are emphasized as feminine qualities for young children. Thus, children begin to consider such qualities normal and proceed to form conceptions of gender identity based off of the movies that portray the very specific and limiting views of women (...
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...
Young children are typically raised around specific sex-types objects and activities. This includes the toys that that are given, activities that they are encouraged to participate in, and the gender-based roles that they are subjected to from a young age. Parents are more likely to introduce their daughters into the world of femininity through an abundance of pink colored clothes and objects, Barbie dolls, and domestic chores such as cooking and doing laundry (Witt par. 9). Contrarily, boys are typically exposed to the male world through action figures, sports, the color blue, and maintenance-based chores such as mowing the lawn and repairing various things around the house (Witt par. 9). As a result, young children begin to link different occupations with a certain gender thus narrowing their decisions relating to their career goals in the future. This separation of options also creates a suppresses the child from doing something that is viewed as ‘different’ from what they were exposed to. Gender socialization stemming from early childhood shapes the child and progressively shoves them into a small box of opportunities and choices relating to how they should live their
From this research of examining how gender socialization is projection through toys to children, have led to conclusion that in order to prevent children from living by these stereotypes portrayed through toys, parents should encourage gender-neutral and cross-gender play in children at an early age. Just for the mere that their brain is so receptive to knowledge into creating to become the person they are to be in life. Give children a chance to not only have fun while playing with their toys and that there aren’t any pressures on them that this what they should be and that there a mind full options that they can choose from.
Children start to define their gender identity in early preschool (Zhumkhawala 47). This means that the toys children are given go a long way to further (or help change) gender stereotypes and inequality. In general, boys are given trucks, blocks and doctor’s kits, encouraging them to build, explore how things work and be a...
Girls are supposed to play with dolls, wear pink, and grow up to become princesses. Boys are suppose to play with cars, wear blue, and become firefighters and policemen. These are just some of the common gender stereotypes that children grow up to hear. Interactions with toys are one of the entryway to different aspects of cognitive development and socialism in early childhood. As children move through development they begin to develop different gender roles and gender stereotypes that are influenced by their peers and caregivers. (Chick, Heilman-Houser, & Hunter, 2002; Freeman, 2007; Leaper, 2000)
From the time their children are babies, parents treat sons and daughters differently, dressing infants in gender-specific colors, giving gender-differentiated toys, and expecting differe...
Family is the first influence to the children’s gender socialization. The interaction of children with their parents is the first exposure of the gender differences idea to them. Since the babies is born, parents start to treat sons and daughters differently with their gender stereotype by dressing infants with different colors’ clothes, giving them gender differentiated toys. One study indicates that parents have differential exp...
Gender tends to be one of the major ways that human beings organize their lives” (Lorber 2). Throughout the article Judith Lorber talked about how gender construction starts right at birth and we decide how the infant should dress based on their genitalia. The authors ideas relates to my life because my friend is about to have a baby girl in a couple of weeks from now and when she is born we are buying her all girly stuff so that everyone else knows she is a girl. My family has already bought her bows for her hair, dresses, and everything was pink and girly. Since society tells us that infants should wear pink and boys should wear blue we went with it. I never thought about this until reading this article and I noticed that gender construction does in fact start right at birth.
Gender-neutral parenting is a method for raising children, used by parents who have a passion to teach non-sexism and social justice to their children (Dumas 2014). It is rooted in a desire to maintain a child’s individuality and offer more outlets for self-exploration. For example, parents do not restrict their child, regardless of a boy or girl, to wear pink or blue, play with Barbie dolls or fire engines. Parents allow their child to freely explore what they are passionate about without attaching any labels. The concept of raising children with gender-neutral identities is considered feminist and extremely radical. Butler (1990) argues that gender is performative, arguing that the naturalness of gender is something that we do rather than something we are. Parents have the most influence on the gendering of children during infancy, foremost in handling expectations for behavior. They are also responsible for their own behavior as it related to the treatment of