Playgrounds and Gender Stereotyping Essay

The men and the women of A Tale of Two Cites are violent, loving, cowardly, brave, and ruthless.  Some people are weak and spoiled, while others are badly treated and vindictive.  Many contrasts between men and women can be found within this story.  

In “Sunday in the Park”, by Bel Kaufman, the reader is being taught that pressurized gender stereotypes can lead to unwise decisions, because of the feeling to need to follow societal expectations. This can be shown through multiple forms of imagery. In the story, imagery is used to show the type of situation a character is in. It is used so the reader understands how she (Morton’s wife) feels and understand why she makes certain decisions. When she is at the park with her family, she notices that there is a small conflict between Larry and another child. She decides to let Larry handle it as she wants him to know how to be able to stand up for himself, and so she does not help him. It can be inferred that she did this because he is a boy, and when he grows up, he can support his

Quicksand describes the struggle of an African American woman’s live. The woman, Helga Crane throughout the whole book never stops moving from one place to another in order to seek her identity and her niche in a “fit” community in which she can become autonomous in sex and free from racial discrimination.

The problem begins back in early childhood. Children are so innocently blind that they do not realize that occupational sex segregation appears in their every day life. An example of this is shown in Nemerowicz’s book, Children’s Perception of Gender and Work Roles. Nemerowicz asked fourth grade children to draw a man at work and a woman at work. Eighty-six percent of the pictures showed men in jobs associated with power and labour of some kind (Mackie, 1990). Men were drawn as construction workers, policemen, firemen, doctors and businessmen. On the other hand, women were shown as housekeepers, nurses, cashiers and secretaries. Using Nemerowicz’s results it is safe to say that children had to have learned occupational sex segregation somewhere. Was it their parents, their teachers or their toys that had this stereotypical affect on them? Since early sex segregation like this occurs, differences between men and women in a child’s future work environment are imminent.

But now some of the places that they would walk by, it is a little embarrassing.

Sociologist Dalton Conley wrote his book, You May Ask Yourself, addressing how “gender is a social construction” that is so normal for society to think how a man or woman should act towards the public. Society often categorizes roles that females and males are suppose to play in, but not only are they categorized they are also being taught what their gender role is suppose to do. The beginning of gender socialization can start with a child who is not born yet by simply having the parents purchase items that are all pink if its expected to be a girl, but if its expected to be a boy then everything they purchase will be blue. Conley states that gender roles are “sets of behavioral norms assumed to accompany ones’ status as male or female” (Conley [2008] 2013:134). So even when a child is growing into their infant years, toys are made specifically for their gender. By examining how social construction places gender in categories it becomes apparent that males and females get differentiated a lot which emphasizes inequality between them.

Envision yourself entering a toy department and noticing numerous diverse aisles. In one aisle, you encounter toys packaged in complementary and color triads colors that include building sets (such as “LEGO”, “LEGO Super Heroes”, and “Angry Birds”) and a wide selection of action figures—Spider Man, Transformers, The Dark Knight, Power Rangers, etc. In the next aisle, adjacent to the aisle with complementary and color triads colors, you find toys packaged in shades of pink and purple. These toys range from “Hello Kitty” dolls to “Barbie Dream” house play sets. Inside a toy department, such as Toys R Us, it is extremely difficult to retrieve a toy that is not marketed explicitly or subtly by gender. If toys were marketed only according to

When you walk into the toy section of any store, you do not need a sign to indicate which section is the girls’ side and which section is the boys’ side. Aside from all the pink, purple, and other pastel colors that fill the shelves on the girls’ side, the glitter sticks out a lot as well. The boys’ toys however are mostly dark colors – blue, black, red, gray, or dark green. The colors typically used on either side are very stereotypical in themselves.

"Hey look at the little sissy! Does the baby want his bottle!" One of the children taunted. "L-leave me a-alone." The little wolf tried to fight back the tears, but his fear was not that easily masked. "Aww, Fluff butt is going to cry!" Another teased. "Please...s-stop." The pup tears began to run down his face, whimpering as he kneeled to the ground. "Hey! Leave him alone!" A voice shouted out from the distance with a distinct accent. The wolf angled his ear to the voice's direction and heard footsteps coming closer. "Shoot. Scatter!" The leader of the bullies commanded. Meanwhile the pup was still on the ground covering his eyes. "...Are you okay?" A kind voice pierced through his withdrawn shell and looked up at the mountain gorilla child

Often when a couple becomes pregnant and finds out the sex of the infant, stereotypes begin to form. If the child is female, their room will often be painted pink with cutesy borders. The crib will have pink blankets with ruffles on them. The baby girl will be presented with soft toys and cute stuffed animals, as well as perhaps a baby doll or two. At the baby shower, the mother will typically be presented with pink and purple clothing, the colors of choice for a female child. When the baby finally comes along, she will typically be treated as a gentle princess. When it comes to girls, adults are often more careful, as if the baby girl will break.

Throughout history, humans have always been expected to act a certain way depending on their sex. These societal expectations are called gender roles. (Rathus, 2010, p.447). These roles begin to develop even before a child is even out of the womb. A mother may decorate their nursery pink if they are having a daughter because “girls like pink,” and “boys like blue.” Gender roles should not be confused with gender stereotypes. A gender stereotype is a narrow way of thinking about how men and woman are obligated to behave. For example, men have always been considered to be the breadwinners of the family. Females, on the other hand, are seen more as the gentle homemakers that stay home to clean and take care of the children. (Rathus, 2010, p.447). These types of stereotypes have caused certain out-of-the-home jobs to be mainly categorized for either women or men, causing an even more distinct line between the genders.

At a young age, we are taught to adhere to norms and are restricted to conform to society’s given rules. We are taught that straying away from stereotypes is anything but good and encouraged to build our lives upon only these social rules. Recently, stereotypes based on genders have been put into the limelight and have become of high interest to a generation that is infamously known for deviating from the established way of life. Millennials have put gender roles under fire, deeming it a form of segregation and discrimination by gender. Researchers have followed suit. Mimicking millennial interests, numerous studies have been published that detail the relationship between gender, stereotypes, and the effects of the relationship between the two. Furthermore, gender roles have been used as a lens to study socialization; tremendous amounts of interest have prompted studies on the inheritance and dissemination of norms, culture, and ideologies based on the stereotypes that cloud gender. For sociologists, determining the extent of the impact of gender stereotypes on socializing our population has become a paramount discussion. Amidst many articles, the work of Karniol, Freeman, and Adler & Kless were standouts and between the three pieces, childhood served as a common thread; more specifically, these researchers studied how gender roles impact socialization from such a young age.

"For most of history, anonymous was a woman", quotes Virginia Woolf. (1) Throughout history, women’s lives were restricted to domesticity and family, and they were left oppressed and without political voice. Over the decades the roles of women have dramatically changed from chattels belonging to their husbands to gaining independence. Women became famous activists, thinkers, writers, and artists, like Frida Kahlo who was an important figure for women’s independence. The price women paid in their fight for equality was to die or be imprisoned along with men, and they were largely forgotten in written history. However, the roles they took on were wide-ranging which included working in factories, tending the troops, taking care of children

As I walked out of my nine-story apartment complex, I saw an interesting array of faces. Mixed genders, some male, some female, all very different deep down inside. I study their faces, wondering what it'd be like to walk a day in their shoes. Some people are like open books, you can look at their facial expression and instantly guess what their emotions are, yet others are like locked diaries. You can't tell what they're thinking and you'll probably never know. I shake the thought out of my head as I rummage through my pathetic excuse of a handbag, pulling out my most recent bank statement. Thirty-two cents to my name. How do I live like this? My train of thought is lost as my mind ponders elsewhere. Do you think people can tell I'm a broke

Gender affects every aspect of our life, from how we feel about ourselves and set our goals in educational, recreational and work opportunities as well as the the nature and extent of our participation in social and civic life. It has a strong impact on the way we practice our religion, the way we dress, the way we express our feelings and the nature of all of our relationships with others.