My First Child As A Girl Named Charlotte, Or Charlie For Short

Launched on March 1959, the Barbie doll is a toy that was first put on display in New York. It quickly garnered a lot of attention with the target audience of the creators, young girls. This doll was different than its previous dolls because it was a doll that was an ideal representation of a woman. Thus allowing young girls to use their imagination to create and act-out what this doll’s life is like and what their future would potentially be. To successfully understand this toy, we must think like C Wright Mills, a sociologist who asks to use our sociological imagination, the intersection of one’s biography and history. This artifact reflects and perpetuates the dominant ideology of how to perform your gender the “right” way in the early 1960s. I will argue this demonstrates West and Zimmerman’s concept of “doing gender” which is clarified with Judith Butler’s concept of socialization of gender.

Every Christmas morning as a child, I would be disappointed because I would always get toys that I didn’t like. My mom scolded at me for being ungrateful as I would complain that Barbie dolls wasn’t what I wanted for Christmas. My mom replied, “Barbie dolls are what girls are supposed to have. Girls don’t play with Transformers or Power Rangers. You aren’t a boy!” As a child, I didn’t understand what she meant. Acting like a boy wasn’t my intention, as I simply expressed that I would rather have action figures instead. I was simply blinded by the fact that there was a social construct happening, and realized the social constructivism of gender roles. As the troublemaker child that I was, I disagreed with her. Instead I had these questions like,

In ‘Gals and Dolls: The Moral Value of ‘Bad’ Toys (2011), Marni Jackson argues the bizarre misconception created by some parents with respect to gender specific toys. Jackson is an award winning journalist, a co-host for the TVO book program ‘imprint’ also teaches creative writing at Ryerson Polytechnic University. Jackson has also collaborated on theatrical productions with the Clichettes. She is a mother and an author of family related books like; The Mother zone: Love, Sex and Laundry in the modern family (1992) in which she discusses the effects of some parental pedagogy. Hence, I find her well experienced and credible enough to discuss family relationships. I understand her intentions and agree with all her claims regarding this issue.

Hereby I would like to express my personal experiences of primogeniture. I am the mother of three children and I love them equally. However, I have special remembrances of Anderson, my first offspring: his first words, his first steps, his favorite toys; a real “bundle of joy” that came to my life. And time came when he went to school; always making me proud of being his mother.

In the essay “ Should the World of Toys be Gender-Free?” Peggy Orenstein believed that toys where intend to help with building roles that we would fill as we got older such as, a peer, employees, employee, romantic partner, co-parnets. She believed this because of the kits that came with the Legos such as, the beauty pallor ,beauty spa lab, or the perfume factory. Which led her to believe that the rebellion against such

To begin with, Ms. Gui got a rare opportunity to speak in front of the class of ‘83 at Mills college. She was lucky because most of the time, men get to do such things like graduate of publicly speak. Although she thought her speech wouldn’t sound right if she talked about women, she talked about them anyways. Ms. Gui continued to talk about how she hopes that all of the women in the crowd who want babies will have them. She wants their children to be lovely and blessed.

Nursery walls painted baby blue, the bedding a classic Winnie-the-Pooh print. Stroller and car seat covered in neutral plaid. Footed onesies in shades of white, yellow, and green. A long list of unisex names from which to choose. Sifting through my baby book, it is easy to see tell that my parents had no clue what gender their new baby would be. That is, until I came into the world in a flurry of activity and someone—probably the doctor—announced “It 's a girl!” My grandmother immediately went out to purchase something frilly and pink, the utmost in feminine attire, and thus my identity as girl was affixed.

Melissa is a 16-year-old, with a desire to have children, get a good education and to just be a successful individual. She had this image that one day she would have a beautiful child in a huge gorgeous home living as a modern housewife. She had just met her boyfriend Johnny in high school and they decided they would move in together. Johnny was two years older than her. She enjoyed her days with Johnny and a casual drink with him at night. Even though; she wanted children, she knew it was almost impossible for her to have children. She suffered from an overactive thyroid gland which drastically restricted her chances of conceiving. Nevertheless, the idea of a cute and chubby baby was something she just couldn’t ignore. Despite the fact she couldn’t have children, she still had hope that one day she would be capable of fulfilling her desire to create the family she had desired.

I went to Walmart to search for toys targeted towards gender typing and what I found was not too surprising. Immediately, I found the girl’s section and I was surrounded by the color pink wherever I looked. There were many baby dolls in the aisles and this reminded me of the evolutionary perspective where women evolved to nurture and care for infants. Young girls are drawn towards babies perhaps from witnessing their mothers nurture and care for infants and children. Not surprisingly, there were tons of Barbies on the shelves that ranged from princesses, dance instructor Barbies, cooking Barbies, fashionista Barbie’s, mermaid Barbies, and even a superhero Barbie. The cooking Barbie reaffirmed how marketers are trying to target gender roles on young girls by thinking

All three examples link to basic female customs that all women are expected to exhibit. The baby dolls allude to the stigma that all women are expected to have children and be the main care giver to them throughout their childhood. Stay at home mothers were extremely common during the time “Barbie Doll” was written, and second wave feminism was just a fresh idea that would soon begin to change the discrimination of gender in the work force. This idea is linked to the “GE stoves” reference, portraying how women’s only importance was to stay home and cook for the men in the family, spending their time in between tiding the house throughout the day. Andrei Cimpian, a psychology professor at New York University, states in an article by the National Science Foundation that “Not only do we see that girls just starting out in school are absorbing some of society 's stereotyped notions of brilliance, but these young girls are also choosing activities based on these stereotypes. This is heartbreaking" (Margetta). The stereotype of “brilliance” that Cimpian mentions is the fact that most young girls believe that boys will always be the smarter gender and will always outdo females in “raw brainpower” due to the negative stereotypes that float around in society (Margetta). The reputation of this fact is only shaming girls to end up as a stay at home mom, and not even give the effort to reach for their aspirations (Margetta). Piercy’s last item stated was

While the Free the Nipple symbol employs a simple design and includes an unambiguous demand to stop censoring the female nipple, the When Nurture Calls campaign utilizes a thought-provoking question accompanied by relevant information to reverse negative attitudes about breastfeeding in public. Though the two artifacts intend to promote different but related agendas, they both effectively raise awareness about female oppression in America in order to universally empower women and end the sexual objectification of women’s

If I didn’t have Carly, I wouldn’t have gotten the chance to write this. The first day Ben, my mom, and I brought Carly home I made sure to baby-proof everything for Carly and I. My mother, thankfully, locked up all of the sharp objects without telling me where they were going. Ben helped me set up a positive flowing atmosphere. Our room turned into a full jungle-themed nursery complete with stuffed elephants, The Lion King sheets for the crib, and brown and green paper lanterns hanging from the ceiling. I was no longer worried about my past

At homeI jump off the toilet in disgust then run crying to my mother, I think I’m going to die “Mummy I’m bleeding!” I scream. She chuckles then explains the whole sanitary towel process to me amongst other things I’m not listening to then puts both of her hands on my shoulders, looking directly in the eye she says “If you have sex with a boy now you’ll get pregnant.” At this moment I’m petrified since I don’t even know what sex is, but I’m certain I never want it. I recollect the adverts on T.V that speak about the twelve year old girls getting pregnant who need to be rescued. At night time I’m rolling in my bed restlessly, I wish Sapphire was here she would tell me a story which always helps me fall asleep, my favourite was when she described

The many experiences I faced throughout my childhood played a significant and defining role in the shaping of my gender identity. As a young child my favorite toys were dolls and stuffed animals, and quite often my parents found me setting up tea parties or playing house. While my parents did provide me with cars and other gender neutral toys, I was

Much like the outburst that same-sex marriage caused, we are now seeing the advent of arguments for "genderless parenting"; the idea that all a child needs is love and it's irrelevant whether the loving persons are male or female. Now we have "genderless kids." Kathy Witterick and David Stocker, the parents of Jazz (5), Kio (2) and four-month-old Baby Storm want to rear and love each of their children, not as their daughter or son, not as a girl or a boy, but as just their child.