Macho Man Little Princess: How Gender Norms Can Harm Kids

Boys are usually strong or athletic, they like sports, cars, and fighting. In the early Gender stereotyping begins in an early age as children accept “the rigid formulation of what is acceptable for men and women. “ (Brannon, 2004). Children start believing that these roles assigned to women and man are something that is real, and they apply those roles in their adolescence and even adult life. Boys and girls tend to have psychological problems if they do not fit in the role that media prescribes them.

In her essay titled “Toxic Masculinity is Killing Men: The Roots of Male Trauma,” Kali Holloway uses scientific data to and evidence to state that gender stereotypes and roles are killing men. Holloway’s essay is a wake up call to today’s society that says we as parents, siblings, teachers, and anyone else who comes into contact to children who are young and impressionable, need to raise boys and girls the same way to prevent and eliminate gender roles and stereotypes.

The role of gender roles/stereotypes in our society has greatly diminished. Only those who cling to the past and who benefit from the oppression of one group believe it is still an important factor in our society. These stereotypes are harmful and create a rift between two groups of people from an early age. Children should grow up without the label a gender chosen for them and away from the toxicity of gender stereotypes and conformities in toys and activities. When kids are treated differently from a young age they grow up under the impression that they are drastically unalike and that one group shouldn’t be like the other.

Tara Culp-Ressler claims that raising children to adhere to strict gender roles is harmful to their health. In her article, she refers to a three month long study that was conducted on a group of young teenagers. The study observed their behaviors based on gender and the findings concluded that both genders exhibited potentially harmful behavior patterns; a large number of the boys in this experiment were violent with one another in an attempt to demonstrate their masculinity and they would often bury their emotional struggles. The girls felt pressure to live up to standards that had been set for them to be feminine, some even taking to restricting calories to stay thin because “real women are skinny.” Adding onto the stress already felt by adolescence, the teenagers in this study denied themselves of simple rights and pleasures; the girls didn’t want to participate in sports they liked because they were afraid of looking unattractive, and the boys refused to acknowledge most emotions if not seen as “manly,” also turning down any psychological help or a shoulder to lean on. Once the study ended, the teenagers were mostly on the same page when some said that they thought sticking to these gender roles was what they were supposed to do, even if they weren’t happy about it.

By now, you've probably heard there's a "war against boys" in America. The latest heavily-hyped right-wing fusillade against feminism, led by Christina Hoff Sommers's new book of that title, claims that men are now the second sex and that boys--not girls--are the ones who are in serious trouble, the "victims" of "misguided" feminist efforts to protect and promote girls' development. At the same time, best-selling books by therapists, like William Pollack's Real Boys and Dan Kindlon and Michael Thompson's Raising Cain, also sound the same tocsin, warning of alarming levels of depression and suicide among boys, and describing boys' interior lives as an emotionally barren

The gender based expectations are taught and the sometimes subtle, often overt lessons begin at a very young age. It starts with the color of the blanket a baby is wrapped up in, the toys bought for them to play with, and extends to the pretend play they engage in. So from the earliest ages of social awareness, society reinforces the ideals of masculine and feminine throughout life. Consequently, it is perfectly acceptable for a girl to put on a purple tutu and twirl about granting wishes to her stuffed animals, while it would be discouraged for a boy. He should be outside in the sandbox setting up his toy soldiers in a mock battle. In spite of the entrenched idea of gender, some mothers and fathers aspire to a more gender-neutral parenting style, that doesn’t restrict their child to specific societal ideals. However, the pressure to conform to the gender binary is ever-present and difficult to deconstruct. The boy that cries when he gets hit by a baseball is called a “sissy” and told to “man up” by his coach. The girl who tells her high school counselor, she wants to take auto

Gender role expectations are inescapable in our society as we naturally tend to sort humans into categories, the easiest one being gender. Upon first meeting a person, most people automatically classify the other’s gender. With this classification come the inevitable gender role expectations. Even for those who consciously try their hardest not to cloud their perceptions of others based on “traditional” gender role expectations, it is almost impossible not to subconsciously succumb to these expectations that are ingrained in our minds virtually since the day we are born. These expectations often influence how one interacts with another. This is especially important when taking into consideration the effects that gender socialization of children through gendered toys, media, and parental affects child development.

"Children are influenced by media–they learn by observing, imitating, and making behaviors their own" (APA, 2001, p.1224).

Whether the daughter or son acknowledges it or not, parents are one of the child’s biggest role models and hold the more influence over decision making and what happens in their life. From when the child is born to when they leave home, some of their parents

Gender stereotypes affect children substantially. From the baby boy in blue with trucks and action figures to the baby girl in pink with dolls and princesses, these roles and generalizations affect children’s personalities while they are still developing. Those guiltiest of stereotyping in children’s media are Disney, Nintendo and other video-game companies, and reality television. These influences are expansive, and they reach past elementary-age kids to teenagers. Stereotypes negatively impact children of all ages through these forms of media, and parents need to be aware of this.

Throughout the history of society, women and men both have faced the constricting roles forced upon them, from a young age; each gender is given specific social and cultural roles to play out throughout their lives. Little girls are given dolls and kitchen toys, little boys are given dinosaurs and power tool toys, if one was to step out of this specified role, social conflict would ensue. Contrast to popular belief, sex is a biological construct, and gender is a social construct specifying the roles men and women are to follow to be accepted into society as “normal”. The effects of gender roles have had on women have proved harmful over the decades. Although the woman’s involvement in society has improved throughout the decades,

However, people’s perception of gender due to society ignores these findings. Women who exhibit agency, or assertiveness in the workplace, are considerably less likely to be hired for a job than a man who has the same traits or a woman who is sensitive and motherly (Shibley Hyde). Gender stereotypes also affect young men in an even harsher way. Society believes that girls are more sensitive and more likely to have self-esteem issues. However, in Shibley Hyde’s meta-analysis, she found that there was almost no difference between adolescent boys’ and girls’ issues with self-worth (Shibley Hyde). This could potentially lead to boys not getting the help they need because society expects them to “take it like a man”.

As I read the article on Boys’ anti-school culture, I learned that boys perform worse in school. Boys may try to incorporate their social status as risk-takers. I also learned that there are some stereotypes among boys and girls. It doesn’t matter where you live, it starts early in age. Preteen kids tend to believe that males and females should think a certain way. To understand the meaning of stereotype, it is any thought about specific types of individuals or certain ways of behaving which represents the entire group as a whole. Studies were made about how stereotype inspect what people think of others, rather than the reasons and methods involved in stereotyping. Just as (Griffin, 2000), stated that debates on boys and their schooling are

* Television viewing creates the concept of gender-role and racial stereotypes in children, as they start considering it as very natural phenomena. Heroic acts are expected out of males, while women are displayed as objects and less powerful.

Gender coding is not a natural or biological characteristic. People are born with different physical and biological characteristics, but make sense of their gender roles through cultural influences. “Stereotypes are amazingly powerful, and we may not realize the degree to which our thoughts, beliefs, and actions are shaped by them” (Silverman, Rader, 2010). Boys and girls are labeled as masculine or feminine, which is considered the “norm” for society. Children are not born masculine or feminine, they learn these roles from parents, peers, media, and even religion. Concepts of gender identity are sometimes placed on children even before their birth, such as with the selection of paint colors for the nursery.” Children begin to form concepts of gender beginning around the age of 2, and most children know if they are a boy or girl by age of 3” (Martin & Ruble, 2004). From an early age, children are encouraged to identify with gender coding. Gender is formed at birth, but self-identification as being male or female is imbedded into their minds by parents and society. A child learns to understand their gender role and their identity by what is taught and expressed to them by others. Yet as a child grows, gender coding can cause cultural confusion, and insecurity issues throughout the course of their life.