“Women are not born, they are made”, says French philosopher Simone de Beauvoir.
Beauvoir states that the making of an individual begins not at birth, but at the initial planting of the human life (Eckert and McConnel-Ginet 2013, p. 736). Before knowing the sex of a baby it is normal to refer to the growing fetus as an “it”. When finding out the actual sex of the baby and classifying it as “he” or “she” it is easy to begin assigning it to a life of being male or female. We expect that boys will grow up to act a certain way and girls will do the same based on their gender. As they grow, society continues to reinforce these expectations.
Gender expectations begin as early as naming the child. People will immediately ask a pregnant woman if her
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They say that determining gender is a collaborative affair at first, especially in the newborn stage. Interaction between male and female infants varies as well.
What’s Gender Got to Do With It?
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Experiments show that male and female cries are interpreted differently. In their book, Language and Gender, Eckert and McConnell-Ginet reference a study by John and Sandra Condry in which adults listened to crying babies (Eckert and McConnell-Ginet 2013, p. 739-740). When they listened to these crying babies they would identify the baby boys’ cry as angry, and the baby girls’ cry as fearful. This is also evident as children get older. When you see toddlers playing on the playground and a little boy falls to the ground you are more likely to feel as though he will get right back up and brush the dirt off. With girls it is different, if a little girl falls to the ground you may run over to comfort her and make sure she is okay. These studies show how much our treatment of children differs based on their gender. This even appears in the way we discipline.
A young boy will hear the words “no, no, no” in a stern voice more than a young girl (Eckert and
McConnel-Ginet 2013, p. 740). While some may believe that this is because boys are more
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One of the reasons they think this way is because most of the research is done in controlled settings, rather than in their daily lives. In addition, the research is focusing on how outside people influence children into forming their gender identity but does not take into account how the children themselves play a role in this. Eleanor Maccoby says that from the age of three children already have a strong sense of their gender (Eckert and McConnell-Ginet 2013, p. 742). Eckert and McConnell-
Ginet say that children are focused on “growing up”, not as much on fulfilling gender expectations, but on not being viewed as a baby (Eckert and McConnell-Ginet 2013, p. 742).
I Say
I believe that the research discussed in this portion of Eckert and McConnell-Ginet’s book, Language and Gender, is true in everyday life. I have seen the way that people react differently to boys and girls based on their gender even from a young age. I have been to many baby showers and I always know that a boy’s shower will have blue or green and a girls’ shower will have pink or purple. Gifts are easy to predict to, boys get cars or blocks but girls would
In this article, “Boys will be Boys,” Barbara Kantrowitz and Claudia Kalb are exploring the difference of psychological and sociological developments in girls and boys during their different age periods. In the beginning of the article, Kantrowitz and Claudia points out that both girls and boys are coming from two different planets and they have two different turning points in their economic and social development. Both the authors provides with an example that boys are emotionally weaker than girls. A study that took place in Children’s Hospital in Boston found that when the baby boys are unhappy they use to cry loud, whereas the girls will suck their thumbs when they are unhappy. From this study, the researchers found that girls are able
This methodology in child raring is where gender distinctions start. Males are raised to be superior to females and females are raised to complement male not to compete with them. With this in mind it is clear that male children have been given an advantage over women, an unfair advantage but and advantage non-the-less. Women have been deprived of opportunity for millennia without realising it until today.
The adults in the story expect the children to grow into the gender role that their sex has assigned to them. This is seen in several places throughout the story, such as when the narrator hears her mother
Parents of these children are not supporting their decisions of who they desire to be, leaning towards the sex of being more feminine (regarding female) or masculine (regarding male). As young as pre-school, children begin to show their common interests such as; playing with dolls, trucks, dressing up as princesses, building sky scrapers, playing with action figures, etc. This article mentions, depending on what they child plays with or how the child acts shows the risk of gender assessment. For example, this article is trying to say that if a young boy plays with a doll or dresses like a princess he
*. By the end of early childhood, compared to each other, boys have muscle tissue, whereas girls have fatty tissue.
The first source is title Observed Classroom Behavior of Children with Relationship to Gender and Comorbidity. Something this study suggests is that boys display more outer conduct than girls do. Boys appear to act out more through high levels of energy, squirming, or being too loud in inappropriate situations. Girls seem to show symptoms of ADHD with things like losing things, being
Environmentally, a child’s experiences impact gender identity. Depending on family values or morals, a child could be confused by their gender. When a baby is born, there is much control on colors (if boy or girl) and ideas of the parents on how they would want to raise their daughter or son. For an example, a father would treat his son in a rough or unemotional way, while a girl would be protected and nurtured. Known as traditional roles, a boy doesn’t cry or play with dolls, but he can roll
The stereotypical labeling of genders can determine one person’s outlook on life. The judgment can make one feel like there is a set rubric to follow in order to remain in the lines regarding which gender they belong to. Such influences from peers or partners can alter
This is called gender socialization, which exaggerates sexual differences physically, experimentally, academically, and psychologically. Most parents are unaware that they play such a large role in creating a male or female child. But they are the first and one of the largest influences on their child. When parents have a female child she is viewed as sweet and gentle. The parents will even hold their daughter closer than they would a son. As they grow older boys are encouraged to explore while girls are kept closer to their parents. They are taught different approaches to many different problems in life. They may not realize it but through their interactions with their children they are encouraging their children to grow into a certain type of person based on their gender. The toys they are introduced to are even gender-based. Toys for males encourage them to develop such abilities of spatial perception, creativity, competition, aggression, and constructiveness. Toys for girls encouraged creativity, nurturance, and attractiveness. Children’s rooms and clothing are specific color: girls are pink and boys are blue. Girls often wear dresses and skirts that limit their physical activity. These types of influences at such an early age lay a foundation for the child’s personality. By the time they reach school age they already have a sense of being male or female. In school peers and teachers enforce these differences even further. (Lips, 1979,
They found that parents think that boy children cry, more upset, and get anger faster than female babies. Parents believe that female toddlers need more attention than male toddlers. Female toddlers are more socially equipped for helping people cause parents talk to them about sad things and learn how to be more equipped with the helping other people from listening to others their parents and other people at a young age. Boys are more taught to become angry and assert dominance over others. Parents only interact with their kids in ways to help them be better for their lives ahead and do what is needed of them of their own gender roles.
Some believe parents need to be more accepting of what gender their child chooses to be. In Linda DiProperzio’s article, she quoted an associate professor of Women 's Studies at the University of California named Jane Ward, who stated, “Raising a child under these strict gender guidelines is denying them an entire world of colors--they become tracked into the characteristics of their biological sex.” (Par. 7) Moreover, it is stated that limiting the views of a child can, and will, drastically change them and their future self. Not allowing children to be creative in what they choose limits their mindset. It is even worse that these narrow-minded ideas are thought up and enforced by the
The interviews were simple in nature, just one boy talking to the other, the same went for the girls as well. What they were able to find from this study though was that boys and girls really do live in two different worlds. Even from as early as the second grade their mannerisms are night and day when compared to one another. The little girl's follow orders and sit facing each other, talking about relevant
Gender should not be intertwined with the term sex, which refers to the physical differences in individuals. Instead, gender is the idea of being male or female, and it is well understood by the time children reach the preschool years. Differences in gender become more pronounced as children age, and societal expectations are reinforced by parents and peers. Behavioral differences may be evident since parents may treat their child differently according to gender. A big example of this is how parents may react to a child’s first
Let me give you a scenario; It’s 3:00am. Rushing down the halls of a hospital you are on your way to support a person who is doing one of the most beautiful and complex things in life. Giving birth. You are the doctor in the room. Cutting the umbilical cord you hand the mother her child. She smiles up at you with tear rimmed eyes and you wrap the child up in a blanket and hold out to her a beautiful baby _____. Boy or girl? It doesn’t really matter which you say so long as you say one or the other, right? Within a few moments after birth and a quick scan between the legs of the child will enable you to develop a gender label for the child that they will carry for the rest of their life relevant to their sex.
"However, boys crawl away from their caretaker earlier than girls. Male infants startle more readily than female infants" (Eisenmen par 22).