Thursday, May 28, 2009

Kristen's Week #2 "Becoming Gendered from Birth"

This week my Eureka Moment came to me in the 7th chapter of our reading. I could not believe how gendered we really are from babies on up. I always new we wore pink of we were a girl and blue for boy BUT I never though about only being able to play with "girl" toys or not being able to do certain things like get dirty because I am a girl. When I was little my father did so much with me. i went fishing and baited my own line, went bowling, also my dad is a mechanic so I always wanted to pretend I was fixing cars. So maybe I was one of the few children who was allowed to do "boy" things. Really, what was my Eureka Moment was the fact that parents went so over board to make sure their girls were girly and their boys were boyish. Is it really that big of a deal if your son likes dolls at the age of 2 or 3. My brother is going on 5 and when he was about 2 he use to take my purse and walk around with it. i thought my dad and boyfriend were going to pass out!! It was ok when I was little to want to fish and play with cars BUT my brother canNOT touch my purse!! I am interested in if any parents read this what they think since I am not a parent?!?!
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  1. Mario DMay 28, 2009 at 10:10 PM

    I am a parent and I wish it was that easy to give you a simple answer. But let me at least give you my experience. When your children are 2 or 3, they don’t know anything and you are just imparting your values on them to keep them safe and protected. So at least early in your children’s life you try to make sure you teach them their role in society, based on your experience. This is the one area where I actually feel that inequality is towards the males and not the females. A girl in 1st grade who is great at kickball may not necessarily get picked in a boy’s pick-up game, but she would not be ridiculed for wanting to play. Now take a little boy who comes to school with Barbie dolls, a purse and makeup, and wants to play house during recess. In today’s society, he would get abused unmercifully, probably by both genders. So what is my obligation as parent? At least in the early years is to make sure they fit-in. The trick is to accept who they become, especially if they were to start rebelling against standard gender roles.

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