What is male? What is female? This answer depends on the gender roles you were exposed to as a child. Gender roles are behaviors and attitudes expected of males and females by society. As a child gender roles come from a variety of social influences our lives. Gender roles are influenced mostly at home, media, and school.
This video shows kids being interviewed on gender role expectations and gender role stereotypes.
One influence comes from our parents and how they treat the boy and girl differently. Girls are treated more gentle then boys. Boys are expected to be more active and rough when playing then girls. Girls look at their mothers for examples on how they dress and act. Children look at their parents and see the mother cooking, cleaning and taking care of the kids. A father will work and come home with the family income. Parents go out and also by clothing for their children and is always seen that boys wear blue and girls wear pink.
Another influence on gender roles comes from the toys children play with. Parents would give their little girl a doll and a boy gets a toy truck. Giving theses kind of gifts gives off an early expectation on what kind of roles they play. The kinds of toys that little girls receive give messages about feminine traits like dress up and make up. The kinds of toys that little boys receive give messages about masculinity for example cars and building blocks. Even their bedrooms are specific colors.
Television also influences their choice of toys. Children see remote controlled vehicles being advertised by a little boy playing. Girls see advertisement of dolls being played with by little girls. The sexual stereotypes they give off on television and media are also influencing gender roles.
Gender roles are influenced at a young age and the children are repeating what they observed by their parents and media. This video shows that society determines what it means to be a male or female. Gender is taught to you through parents, school and media. The kids are only 4 in this video and they already have stereotypes on how males and females should be looked at by society. If you want children to change their aspect of gender roles you have to show them by being role models in their life.
Hey Jessica awesome post. love how you used kids as a prime example and how in the early ages kids know there gender role. When being shown dolls and being questioned they automatically knew that the female Barbie did the cleaning and the male was the one responsible for bringing home the money.It was cute how the boy said that there better than girls because they were stronger which is just a stereotype.
ReplyDelete