Blue Gender Roles

Although, gender typing might be considered an external factor, gender schema theory suggests that children are pre-programmed to construct or establish beliefs about the sexes. The child will formulate gender-stereotyped preferences and demeanors from others. One example could be picture day at school and the child formulates that girls wear dresses and boys wear slacks by observing those around them. Another example can be when children are on the playground where girls are more likely to be seen playing house and boys playing war. Since gender schema theory is an information processing approach, it further explains that environmental strains and a child’s cognitions work together to pattern gender-role evolution.

Children learn as early as age two what it means to be a “boy” or a “girl” (Aina & Cameron). This is described as gender identity, a person’s sense of self as male or female. Gender stereotyping emerges hand in hand with the development of gender identity in Early Childhood (Halim). Gender roles are society’s expectations of the proper behavior, attitudes and activities of males and females. When babies are born they are either put in pink or blue, as they grow up they still maintain the same “gender” colors. As young children start to socialize, they are playing with either “girl” toys or “boy” toys. When they get older they

“Gender is an imitation for which there is no original” (Butler, 68). That is the strange part about gender—how it has positioned itself so highly in society, yet falsely exists. Rather than being born as just humans and left to find our true identities and expression, we are automatically assigned a gender at birth based exclusively on genitalia and expected to grow and live through social gender norms that declare out thoughts, actions and feeling as appropriate/inappropriate. Almost everything in humanity is sectioned by gender from the way we walk, talk and think to simpler concepts like the foods we eat and the colors we like. Colors, interestingly enough, originated without being gendered, however with the help of our culture and society, colors have become one of the most iconic representations of gender construction.

This article describes the experiment performed by aspiring scientists along with the results of the experiment. In their experiment, the aspiring scientists questioned children of varying ages on how they felt about the sex they were assigned at birth, and the stereotypes that come with it. By asking such questions, the aspiring scientists discovered that children play a large role in their gender identity, which opposed the general belief that our genders pick us, not us picking our gender.

Growing up, there were various sources where I received messages about gender roles and expectations. In terms of the stereotypical messages, the community I grew up in expressed these expectations on girls and boys. For instance, the boys were always encouraged to play sports and be active, while the girls would spend their time playing with dolls and coloring. In school however, these roles were sometimes challenged. For example, there was a time when my third grade teacher spoke to us about women the military,

Gender socialization begins the moment we are born, from the simple question “is it a boy or a girl?” (Gleitman, Fridlund, & Resiberg, 2000) We learn our gender roles by agencies of socialization, which are the “teachers” of society. The main agencies in Western society are the family, peer groups, schools and the media. In respect with gender socialization, each of the agencies could reinforce the gender stereotypes. Gender differences result from the socialization process, especially during our childhood and adolescence. In American society, the color pink is associated with girls and the color blue with boys. Even as babies, boys and girls are dressed differently, according to what is considered “appropriate” for their respective sexes. Because I was born a biological female, my family automatically decorated my room with every pink or purple item imaginable, and I was

Mention is made that the reason for this challenge is natural, as girls normally experience social transitions and physical maturity earlier than boys making them feel pressured to conform to gender-role stereotypes. Given the fact that girls experience early maturity than boys, it can be refuted that much is

Children before they are even born are put into two categories, male or female. If they are male they are automatically chosen to wear “boy” colors such as blue, whereas a female is chosen to wear “girl” colors such as pink. Boys should like cars, trucks, and planes, and girls should like sparkles, princesses and butterflies. Without even realizing it, parents gender stereotype their child. Boys are raised to be fathers and become doctors or

Boys and girls are taught to conform to the established gendered norms, even before they can walk. New born girls are tightly wrapped in soft pink blankets while their male counterparts are wrapped in blue. This separation of the sexes from birth paves the way for a society laced with sexism. As we grow, seemingly harmless acts such as having your baby wrapped in one color or another, lead to more extreme forms of discrimination, such as the idea that femininity is something that should be frowned upon or that masculinity is equivalent to aggressiveness.

Even before we’re born w e are impacted by gender societal expectations, but no one is more greatly affected than those who do not fit into “typical” gender norms. Kids before they are born are already judged on what color they like and what toys they would enjoy. The things

According to Dr. Mark Hager, children usually identify themselves with the gender they are constantly exposed to. For example, if a female child is only surrounded by her six brothers and one father, she will more than likely be termed as a “tomboy” as the result of acting and believing she is the same as her father and brothers through social comparisons. The ability of the child to identify themselves with a gender entails a stronger sense of self, efficacy, and concept as to who they are. Identification of their gender results in their new sense of gender roles. The basis of conformity to gender roles is often debated in the ever famous “nature vs. nurture” controversy, whereas many attempt to determine whether genetics (nature) or environment (nurture) is more responsible for determining development (LeFrancois, 2012).

No pink for girls or blue for boys, nor pink for boys and blue for girls, nor any colour on the spectrum for anyone; only colours for everyone. Humans have been programmed, since Adam, Eve an the Garden of Eden to apply gender to themselves and the world around them. The large majority of history has been categorized into the binary genders – male and female. However, since the second wave of feminism in the 1960s and the increased awareness of gender studies and equality, more people identify as a non-binary gender. The question is when do gender and equality intertwine and negatively affect society. Sweden is currently investigating the effect of a potentially genderless society in a preschool by using the neuter pronoun hen and by reading

When I was young I was told I should not like the color blue because it was a “boy” color and that I should prefer pink instead. I was told I should not like pokemon because only boys should play it. Growing up I was always given dolls to play with while my brother received legos. It is scientifically proven that giving dolls to children allow them to have more nurturing skills and giving legos allows to kids develop problem-solving skills. However, parents are more reluctant to give dolls to boys even though it can benefit them greatly. Young boys and girls are separated so much that they aren't even allowed to play with the same toys or like the same colors. What children experience in their childhood subconsciously

For decades, researchers have been studying how children develop gender-stereotyped behaviour, such as preferences for pink or blue. Some have suggested, for example, that since gender-stereotyped colour dressing is so common in infancy, infants develop a preference for these familiar colours as they grow older (Chiu et al., 2006; Cohen,

This is where the idea of blue and pink comes in. From the moment they are born, children are labeled as one gender or the other in a clearly visible sign to the entire world. It is not only the use of blue and pink, but also the style of clothing we put our children in. If someone dressed their son in a dress, it would be considered socially unacceptable and that parent would probably be looked down upon as a bad parent who was forcing their son to dress like a girl. This was not true in Franklin Delano Roosevelts time when a dress was a neutral outfit. When doing the reading, I was astonished that the blue and pink trend was so recent and that it could have so easily gone the other way and been blue for girls and pink for boys. This truly reinforced that that this is a societal construct with no scientific basis. Yet, this construct communicates to our children that they must grow up to be a certain way. Plus, it communicates to the rest of the world that they should treat children a different way bases on the gender indicated by their clothes. I also find it interesting that a man wearing pink or wearing a dress would cause more of a commotion than a women wearing blue or pants. We have impressed on our sons that it is