gender...
A baby is born and the doctor looks at the proud parents or parent and says three simple words: Its a boy, or Its a girl! Before a newborn child even takes his or her first breath of life outside the mothers womb, he or she is distinguishable and characterized by gender. The baby is brought home and dressed in clothes that help friends, family and even strangers identify the sex of the child. Baby boys are dressed in blue and baby girls are dressed in pink. The baby boy may be dressed in a blue jumpsuit with a football or a baseball glove on it. The baby girl may wear a bow in their hair and flowered pajamas. As the boy begins to grow, he is given a miniature basketball and a hoop to play with. The girl is given dolls an d doll clothes to dress them up in. Even going further, eventually the boy may play with Legos and Lincoln Logs and the girl gets a PlaySchool oven and a plastic tea set with which to play house. Sounds pretty normal right? Why? As illustrated in the not-so-fi!ctional scenario above, gender socialization begins very early in life. Society has accepted such stereotypical things as baby boy blue and baby girl pink to help identify the sex of a child. Heaven forbid the little Joey looks like a girl or b aby Michell
But we live in an imperfect world that is currently making a turn towards becoming more ÒPCÓ (politically correct). Though you might disagree with the morality of this statement, you have to admit that it is socially accepted that household chores are feminine duties. Recently in my womanÕs studies class we were involved in a student panel discussion regarding this topic. In a perfect world, there would be no gender differentiation, no racial tension and no Òpolitical incorrectness Ó. There are two sexes, male and female and you must be one or the other. Now we are starting to use a mo re socially acceptable language and replacing such terms with fire fi!ghter, flight attendant, domestic partner or significant other, police officer and administrative assistant. Toby made a decision to stay androgynous and it has caused some very interesting results. The women in the videos were all sex objects; beautiful, buxom, sexy, promiscu ous and lacked any moral values whatsoever. Everything from lingerie to Coca-Cola utilized a female image to attract attention to their ad. It is this societal ignorance that clouds the mind and allows the images to continue to influence what we believe to be socially acceptable. Why are the girls expected to do four times as much work around the house than the boys are? Chodorow writes that a young boy is usually unable to identify with his masculinity through his father. The presenters literally filled a wall with images taken from magazines and ne wspapers and each of the photographs were of beautiful women endorsing some product. Removed from the context of how they were originally intended to be shown, the images in the videos were very disturbing to both men and women.
Common topics in this essay:
Ron Parker,
Everyw Toby,
Lincoln Logs,
,
Jesse Raphael,
Feminine Personality,
socially acceptable,
male female,
Nancy Chodorow's,
gender identity,
identify sex child,
blue baby,
sex organs,
gender socialization,
baby girl,
identify sex,
sex child,
hundred fourth grade,
dressed blue,
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Acceptance Essays
