Did it break?

        

By Anna Petrovsky 

         A female: expected to play with dolls as a child, wear make-up and dress girly in the early life (teenager), and as she becomes older be the main caretaker of the household.

A male: expected to play with trucks and soldiers as a child, dress like a boy and play manly sports, and when hitting the adult hood work to support his family.

 

Shouldn’t sex define the whole female or male objective? We all know with what body parts we are born with, so why do we have to be categorized into a gender.  Is there really a right and wrong way of doing gender?

 When people see a female or male they expect for them to be dressed in their own clothing (male= suit, female=feminine clothing). What will people start to think if they see someone breaking the norm of the gender code (a male in make-up, a female with sweats on)?

 

Someone will get the mixed messages because it all seems wrong.

This isn’t a way to define someone’s gender.  Gender is based on a person’s behavior, or look on life. If you have a girl raised by male, and a boy raised by female; what are the chances that it won’t affect their thinking. The girl could come out to be more tough and rugged, as for the boy he could be gentler.

Is this really a mores, the girl grew up with male figures and they only know one aspect, same goes for the boy.

Just because society for many generations has categorized the males and the females, does it mean we really have to be that way?

I don’t see nothing wrong with being a female and wanting to do other things then clean or play with some dolls.

So….

What is gender? Define it as you define yourself. 

The Lolita Effect

By:  Melissa K. Duffy (guest post)

So, I was walking through the isles in a Target store, looking for dish detergent, and I stumbled upon an opportunity for a blog post for class that seemed to be screaming to me from the shelf. I had so many opinions about it, that I felt I just had to take a picture of it with my phone for my post.

This Barbie doll reminded me of class discussions we had about the Lolita Effect (media's sexualization of young girls) and about pressure that the media puts on females to fit a one-size-fits-all definition of beauty. As you can see, like most Barbie dolls, this doll looks thin and tall, which is what the media presents as the definition of beauty. Moreover, this Barbie doll's main consumer is little girls (or the parents of little girls), which makes this Barbie doll a huge influence on the development of most girls. This is because these dolls are some of the first types of media exposure that many girls are exposed to. Young girls see commercials for these dolls that, like any format for an advertisement, do two things: 1) create a problem, and then 2) offer a solution for it. More specifically, an ad for these dolls might state something along the lines of "no one wants to play with an ugly doll", and then "we have a solution, this pretty, perfect doll". The message these girls receive is: "This doll is the definition of beauty". This process is what leads young girls to feel insecure and to believe that they are only worth as much as they are "beautiful".

Another issue I have with this Barbie doll, which stood out to me the most, was the way this Barbie doll is dressed. The outfit is not necessarily an issue, but the fact that this doll is dressed like this and is intended to be marketed to young girls is. What makes it a bigger issue is that it only accentuates the doll's "ideal" body and seems to be the main focus of the doll. That is, this Barbie has no theme to market (she is not "teacher Barbie" or "doctor Barbie" or even "actress Barbie"- which, one could argue, could be the reason for the dress if she was supposed to be at an award ceremony). It seems that this Barbie is nothing but "Barbie in a revealing dress". This operates under the assumption that it is in fact a positive thing to look "ideal" and to wear revealing clothing to accentuate it, and, therefore, no need be for a female to offer any other qualities (e.g.: personality, intelligence..).

Overall, I was surprised to see this doll so casually displayed in the isle in Target. I was aware that most Barbie dolls often reinforce the one-size-fits-all definition of beauty, but I was surprised to see it so obviously displayed and highlighted by the dolls revealing dress.

Doing Gender

By: Dominique Kidd

Doing gender is in our everyday life, we grew up learning on how to do gender. Gender is the behavior, and the culture typically that have to do with ones sex. Most people do gender without even realizing it; for example women do gender everyday by putting a bra on when getting dress, and men always do gender when they stand up to go to the bathroom. But we learn "doing gender" from the very beginning. When babies are born parents usually get everything blue for boys and everything pink for girls. 

This photo is an example of a little girl's toy. This photo give girls the idea that they are just here to wait on their husband's every need and want. And that education is not important because there is no need to have a education to be a stay at home mother and/or wife.

This photo is an example of a toddler boy's toy. It's a fix it bench which can lead boys thinking that they only have to work and fix things around the house and nothing more,when in a relationship.









Doing gender is very easy to do and very easy to break, we all undo gender everyday. For example a man when just getting off from work comes home and put his children in the tub and put them into bed is undoing gender. And a mother who just put together a new sound system and takes out the weekly trash undo gender. Gender is very important in our everyday life and without it who would we be?  

Bad Boys, Bad Boys

By: Katherine Peralta

Gender, what is gender? It is the socially learned expectations and behaviors associated with members of each sex. So how does bad boys, bad boys connect with this? Well, in careers like law enforcement and criminal justice or movies like Mission Impossible and Live Free Die Hard, society expects men to be the main stars. Why don’t women play such a role, as a special agent? There are a few movies of women playing this role of a tough special agent like the Silence of the Lambs and Untraceable. “Why” is the question.

I never knew that in the work force women were paid differently than men. I was highly disappointed and I guess that if you’re a woman reading this, you are too. It’s something that has tried to be passed by congress that women get paid equally but it fails over and over again. Is this gender stereotyping or prejudice? Gender stereotyping is based on a person’s gender; stereotypes about women are most likely to be negative, rather than men stereotyping. The Human Capital Theory explains the gender differences. Why should women be treated unequally compared to men? According to the Dual Labor Market Theory, women gain less than men because they have low paying jobs and men work in different segments. Another thing that affects the pay is gender segregation. Women get placed in different sectors based on gender. Employers assume “She’s a women, she can’t do that; it’s a guys job!” Why should women get treated differently. YES, I do agree that some jobs can be difficult for women but as long as it’s able to be completed, I say “It’s just perfectly fine!”

                          

This is a perfect example of the hard work women go through to join the FBI; they dedicte themselves to accomplish their goal and strive for what they want.

So now to my point, in careers like in the FBI, people picture a well built male agent but they don’t count in the female agents. Now at days, women are needed in the FBI. There are about 2,000 women in the FBI who serve as agents all over the country and in overseas offices. They play a major role, contributing to the FBI with their skills and experiences. Most of the women that join the FBI, apply because they had misperceptions they had about the FBI or thought that the headquarters only hired men as agents. Let me just say they were WRONG!

                                    

Personally, I love the fact of joining the FBI; I love everything about it. I’m looking forward to pursuing this career; I know that its hard work and that maybe just maybe I do get paid differently than men but let me and women, just hope this is over and we accomplish to get equal treatment like men. Women can make a big difference in the work force.                                                                                                                    

Gender Stereotyping

By Vandola Brown

Do you realize where many of your thoughts and beliefs  may have came from? We live in a society where there is a wide spread of gender stereotype and children often learn roles that are not always fair to both sexes. As children grow and develop, the gender stereotype they are exposed to, mostly at home, are reinforced by the child’s peers, school experiences, and television viewing  and are carried over from childhood throughout adulthood. It is difficult for a child to grow to adulthood without experiencing some form of gender bias or stereotyping, whether it is the expectation that boys are better than girls in math or the idea that females can nurture children.
  

Children learn at an early age what it is to be a female or a male. This exposure comes from the parents. From the time their children are babies, parents treat sons and daughter different , dressing infants in gender specific colors, giving gender differential toys, and expecting different behavior from boys and girls. Parents encourage their boys and girls to participate in sex-type activities including playing with dolls and engaging in  housekeeping activities; while boys plays with trucks, engage in blocks and sport activities. Both mothers and fathers may contribute to the gender stereotyping of their children , but I think father tend to reinforce gender stereotyping more often than mothers.

As a preschool teacher, I experience a father who contributed to gender stereotyping.. When little Johnny’s father came to pick him up, he saw that Johnny was in the housekeeping area with best friend Amy dressing the dolls. When he approached Johnny he said,” Boy, you are not a faggot and stop playing with those girls toys. Men don’t play with dolls.” I than asked Johnny’s father if he had a moment to talk. When he answered yes, I discussed the different skills Johnny was learning and developing while in the housekeeping area. Skills such as social, one he will definitely need to grow become a man in our society. Children should  be able to make choices without being hindered by stereotyping. When the conversation was over, Johnny’s father thank me. He said ,” I never gave it a second thought that I could be hindering my child instead of helping him. Suppose his talent is to became a great chef one day. I guess my father didn’t understand it either.” Gender stereotyping can go from generation to generation.




 
  

The Changing of Gender

By: Macy Kee-Jarmon
  
    

     When most people hear the word "Gender" the first thing that often come to mind is male and female. Gender is learned expectations of social norms taught by people in our everyday lives. From very early on girls are taught to be feminine and boys masculine. Babies are dressed based on gender in pink and blue. It may even seem hard to believe but diapers can even be purchased based on the sex of the child. Toys are also marketed specifically for boys and girls showing them early what society considers to be normal behavior.Social norms based on gender teach our children that females are the ones who stay at home taking care of the children while the men go off to work as shown in the photos to follow.

     Girls in our society are taught they should always be dressed in skirts and dresses as depicted in the following picture spend lots of time baking and cooking.

    

     While these are the images taught to our children the reality is that they are also taught that women can many things that men can do and vice verse. Women are advancing in education, as well as sports, and even the workforce.

     In conclusion social norms based on gender are changing. We are seeing more male single parents, more successful business women, and role reversals in family dynamics. How will society react to new social norms based on gender?

Gender

By: Sandra Feliciano

Gender is defined as socially learned expectations and behaviors associated with members of each sex. Society uses this definition to determine the gender of someone and to judge people on how they act.

Even before a child is born, people set up expectations for that child based on its gender. We teach girls and boys how to act according to gender and what toys to play with and what clothes to wear. We look negatively on boys that want to wear girl’s clothes or play with girls toys. But girls who may be tomboys are not scrutinized. Society drills in us these gender norms all throughout our lives and it makes anyone who doesn’t follow those to be excluded and made to feel as if they are wrong and/or bad.

Canadian Family Keep Infants Gender a Secret

So how do we change these gender norms and stereotypes to allow people to feel free and comfortable to be themselves when most of us in some ways believe these norms to be appropriate? There is a family in Canada that is breaking the gender roles with their children by withholding the sex of their newborn. They are choosing to raise their children “gender neutral”. They are choosing to allow their children to discover who they are themselves and not by the labels given to them by society. Their other sons are allowed to pick their own clothes in either the girls or boys section, play with whatever toys they chooses, and wear their hair the way they want.  The children are encouraged to express themselves and discover who they are while being aware that people might not be so accepting of their choices.

Are there any consequences to allowing gender lines to be blurred? Yes. Society has been so accustomed to the “normal” roles of men and women that change will not always be looked at positively. Society will initially reject those who are different until more education and awareness is brought to them. So even though these parents in Canada are allowing their children to make their own choices about who they are, they are also setting their kids up to be hurt by others treatment.

So which is better? To instill in your child the norms and roles of a person of their sex despite what they may feel? Or to allow your child to choose who they will be despite the sex they were born? I think that there should be limits to what we teach our children and a certain amount of freedom we should give them to make their own decisions. But until people become more open minded, we have to protect our child and make them aware that people may be hurtful. We should also teach our children to be happy with whom they are and for ourselves to be happy and accepting of whom are children are.

Leave Rihanna ALONE!!!

Kachina Pindell

The recent controversy surrounding Rihanna's new music video, "Man Down" has Rihanna facing criticism for the gun violence depicted in the video. But is she only being attacked because she is female? There are many videos and movies that depict or even promote violence among males (particularly gun violence, which is the kind happening in "Man Down"). However, those male artists/movie stars are not faced with the same scrutiny as Rihanna is currently battling. In the case of male artists, violence is presented as something that is almost second nature and goes unquestioned. But when Rihanna takes the law into her own hands in the same vein as her male counterparts, violence is suddenly something to be stopped.
Interestingly, few people are talking about the violence that was committed against Rihanna in the video. Why are we ignoring the violence that was committed against Rihanna? Our own gender expectations are depicted through the reaction to the video. It was only natural that he should commit a violent act but she is punished for doing so. Rihanna is expected to have taken a more passive role in what happened to her. She is punished for being a woman who fought violence with violence. None of this is to say that any kind of violence is good. But what we are seeing here is Rihanna being punished for using the same aggression that males are almost expected to convey in their own dealings with somone who has wronged them.
For those of you who havent seen the video, the link is posted below:

As I stated above, Rihanna has been faced with a lot of attention from the media about the way she handled being raped. Here is another link to the reaction CNN had to her video:

In conclusion, I feel as though the media is treating her unfairly. I do not believe she should have killed him. However, I also believe he had no right to put his hands on her when she clearly said "no". The media should pay eqaul attention to both crimes: the rape and the shooting.

Socialization

By:NOWU KELLER

     Socialization is the process by which we learn from other interact wikth people of different cultures and learn how people think and do in their culture. You receive and get information when you socialize. It leads you to some friends that will be an eye opener in a field that you  are not aware of. Socialization is the process by wich children learn from their parents by learning what their parents do. Socialization begains at a very early age. During early stages of socialization we learn by observing how our parents and or family socialize with society.
    
     Gender Socialization In Liberia
In Liberia West  Africa, there are two traditional schools, the Sande and Poro Bush. In the Sande Bush girls learn how to take care of their husband, home, children, sing, dance, cook, and braid hair. This is also followed by female genital mutilation, usually a traditional ceremony. Elders argue the procedure is a rite of passage into womanhood. Preparing a girl for marriage, and curbing her sexual appetite and helping to socialize her, But medical studies reveal circumcision causes pain and trauma.

In the Poro Bush , boys learn how to hun, beat drums, dance, and how to be a good husband for their wife or wives. They also learn leadership.

My analysis supports my ideas that this culture is unfair to gender and the socialization of certain parties of society. For example, some kids would go to Sande School at a very young age and would then not remember the things they learned there. I am also opposed to female circumcision, it is cruel and unjust.

In conclusion, socialization of genders differ as we move from one culture to another. For instance, the United States as opposed to Liberia, such acts as circumcision would be met with severe punishments.

Baseball Just For Men....It Wasn't Always

By: Shannon Hall

          Baseball has always been an American past time. When you think of baseball you think of male players. Baseball, hockey, football and basketball teams are all made up of men. There are very few women's professional basketball teams and none of baseball, hockey or football. However that wasn't always that case. Since baseball is my favorite sport I will use it to set the record straight about baseballs history.

          Can you guess which player ended the baseball season with 117 runs scored, 201 stolen bases, 93 walks, 5 runs in a single game and a fielding percentage of 0.973? Jimmy Rollins, Chase Utley, or Shane Victorino? The answer is none of the above. These stats belong to Sophie Kurys who played for the Racine Belles. Never heard of the Racine Belles? They were just one of the teams that played in the All American Girls Professional Baseball League.

1943 Racine Belles

          The AAGPBL was created by Phillip Wrigley, owner of the Wrigley Gum Co., to fill in the gap that was left when the baseball greats such as Joe DiMaggio, Yogi Berra and Ted Williams went to fight in World War II. The league operated from 1943 until 1954 when it was shut down because the men were returning from the war and it was felt that households that had televisions would not want to watch women playing professional baseball.

          These women were dedicated to the sport and worked hard to overcome the prejudices that they faced daily to play the sport that they loved. For instance, the field that they played on was smaller than the field that men used, the pitching mound was closer to the home plate and the bases were closer together as well. They also had to use a bigger ball (a softball) and had to throw underhand. The reason given for this was it would enable the women to play a more competitive game. All the women on the teams also had to attend "charm" classes. Can you image the players on today’s teams, such as the Phillies, taking charm classes? The skirts on the uniforms seemed shorter than what a teenage girl would wear today, and to top it all off, they had to put up with team names such as Racine Belles, Rockford Peaches, Fort Wayne Daisies, and Grand Rapids Chicks.

          Over time the women proved that they were able to play just as well, if not better, than their male counterparts and eventually the field grew bigger for them and the ball decreased to the regulation size, and was pitched overhand and with curve balls and fast balls thrown in for good measure. Unfortunately, the team names did not change, nor did the uniforms.

          While I love to watch the Phillies play, even though they haven't been doing such a great job lately, I feel that it is important to remember that women can also play baseball and that we should bring back the AAGPBL. In Cooperstown's Baseball Hall of Fame there is a "Women in Baseball" exhibit which honors the women. And in 1992 their story was made known to all in the movie “A League of Their Own" with Geena Davis, Tom Hanks, Rosie O'Donnell and Madonna.



"Women In Baseball" Exhibit





"A League of Their Own" Geena Davis, Tom Hanks, Madonna

   

For more information about the players and the teams in the league visit: http://www.aagpbl.org

Gender Stereotypes and Roles

Maria Lebron

  Gender is determined socially ; it is the society meaning assigned to a male and female. Each society emphasizes particular roles that each sex should play, although there is a wide latitude in acceptable behavior.    

Gender is used to describe those characteristics of women and men, which are socially constructed, while sex refers to those which are biologically determined. People are born female or male but learn to be boys and girls who grow up into women and men. This learned behavior makes up gender identity and determines gender roles.                                                                                                                                                
     According to the text "Sociology Matters" male babies get blue blankets; females get pink ones. Boys are expected to play with trucks, blocks and toy soldiers; girls receive dolls and kitchen goods, boys must be masculine-active, aggressive, though, daring and dominant-but girls must be feminine-soft emotional,sweet, and submissive. My daughter who is seven years of age, is currently enrolled in boxing classes which would be considered masculine and for boys, but in todays society many people have the option on playing the roles they choose too. This video clip is a perfect example.

    In the old days, it was so simple: Men hunted and women raised the kids.Then we moved out of caves, invented gender studies, and learned a bit about genetics. This video from back then shows  how there was always doubts that women could not do a mans job and a man could not do a womans job.                                                                                                                                                              

These pictures shows how todays society changed. A woman is capable of being masculine and completing a mans task and a man is capable of being feminine and doing a womans job.

Gender Roles

By: Jessica Diaz

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.