The Promotion Of Gender Specific Clothing

Jean Piaget investigated how children think. According to Piaget, children’s thought processes change as they mature physically and interact with the world around them. Piaget believed children develop schema, or mental models, to represent the world. As children learn, they expand and modify their schema through the processes of assimilation and

The quality of American television has become a national disgrace. Young women in America who are displeased with their appearance more likely then not can trace those feelings directly back to images from the mass media on television. The unrealistic representations of women that the mass media bombards young women with indicates that the television has become a source for a distorted understanding of gender roles among adolescent women. These images warp young women’s views of their own gender identity. The mass media on television should in an attempt to provide more positive gender identities for adolescent women depict women on television in more realistic ways, should stop

Today, more children are somehow connected to the media. Having computers, television, and phones, there always is a way to access it. The media being this accessible can cause problems, because in almost every show that airs on television has some type of gender bias. From how they portray a character from it’s behavior, role or appearance. This has set bad examples for children watching since the children copy what they see on TV. The cartoons, Charlie Brown, Phineas and Ferb, and SpongeBob SquarePants all have a gender bias. Each cartoon is aired on televisions at different times, so it show’s how throughout time gender bias is still an issue.

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.

Children television programs have been around for decades, designed to entertain and educate the targeted audience. These programs are extremely popular among children, typically last twenty to thirty minutes, are scheduled between the hours of 7:00 a.m. – 10: 00 p.m., and are aired daily on a weekly basis. The commercials that air in-between the breaks of each program are also marketed towards and specifically made for children. Even though the main purpose of children television programs is to entertain, inform, and educate, there are a variety of stereotypes that can be found within some of these children shows. Some of these stereotypes have to do with ethnicity and gender. After carefully watching and analyzing a few of these children

Gender stereotypes are everywhere. Even before we can understand what this means, people are constantly exposed to them through advertisements, toys, clothes, and the media including television shows and movies. To evaluate the prevalence of gender stereotypes in television programs targeted towards young children, I chose to watch four different shows called Phineas and Ferb, Little Einsteins, Horrid Henry, and Sofia the First. When picking what shows to watch, I intentionally selected at least one that looked targeted towards boys, another that appeared to be targeted towards girls, and finally one that seemed gender neutral. I also made sure to watch at least two episodes of each program to determine whether the themes I observed were

It is no lie when it’s said that media influences human decisions. For adults, it could be the newest fashion trends. Perhaps which restaurant has the highest rating and seems to be the most luxurious. For children, it’s the same. Nobody is spared from society and the media’s norms.

Gender roles influence every characteristic and aspect of our life, from how we feel about ourselves to the degree of our contribution in social life. From a ripe young age, children become exposed to this type of gender bias right away, which can negatively affect and shape their whole outlook on life. Consequently, as these young boys and girls mature both physically and emotionally and move on into adulthood, they are, in essence, shoved into a world that impacts their attitudes and behaviors towards gender roles and stereotypes. These specific attitudes and behaviors first cultivate in the private doors of their parent’s house. Afterwards, these same biases become reinforced by the child’s peers, school experience (education), television viewing, and, of course, advertisements in the realm of print and television media. From the looks of it, it is near impossible, for children to not become subject to some degree of gender bias at an early age. As a child grows and develops, the stereotypes follow them into the next phases of their lives (i.e. adolescence) and then on into adulthood. Not only are these gender stereotypes destroying girls, they are also killing boys. The components of this essay will attempt to illustrate how advertising in print and television helps to perpetuate gender stereotypes in our world. Along with that, one must ask the question of how much harm these negative biases in gender roles truly affects the minds of men, women, and young children.

Piaget believe that children are active thinkers. He recognized that the mind develops through a series of irreversible stages. He also acknowledged that a child’s maturing brain builds schemas that are constantly assimilating and accommodating to the world around them. Piaget’s theory of cognitive development is split into four stages: sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational, and formal operational. The sensorimotor stage occurs from birth to nearly two years of age. At this stage, infants learn about the world around them by sensing it and interacting within it. It is also in this stage that the idea of object permanence develops, that is, the awareness that things continue to exist even when they are not being observed. In my personal life, I am certain that in this stage of development I would have enjoyed peek-a-boo, because if I didn’t see it, to my developing mind, it wasn’t there at all. The second stage, preoperational, lasts from two years of age to seven years of

If this continues, girls self-confidences will continue spiraling downward. Young girls ambitions will be diminished, and will force themselves into being housewives or working at jobs society deems “appropriate” for them. Women have made many influential changes in America the last century, why let it all stop? As Katha Pollitt said, “our preschoolers don't have time. My funny, clever, bold, adventurous daughter is forming her gender ideas right now” (Pollitt 3). It's possible that children could try and monitor their own television usage, or that parents could monitor it more for them. However, whether it be a minute or an hour, turning on the television to a children's program will display harsh stereotypes and gender roles. That is why I suggest a change in entertainment. It's almost 2016, television and books should be gender neutral and help kids aspire to be more, not

Children first begin to learn their gender identities between the ages of two and six. With this, they also begin to recognize activites, traits, skills, and other stereotypes associated with each gender. During this period of time, children are vulnerable and impressionable, imitating the actions they see happening around them. Children begin to act according to how their gender is portrayed in society, and the media is playing a larger role in daily life now than ever before. Binary gender stereotypes are continually advertised in the media through movies, television shows, advertisements, music, etc. Unfortunately, a message seen far too often within

Piaget and Vygotsky both believed that young children actively learn from their hands-on, day-to-day experiences. Jean Piaget portrayed children as "little scientists" who go about actively constructing their understanding of the world. His theories hold the essence of developmentally appropriate curriculum since Piaget believed that children undergo cognitive development in a stage-based manner, such that a very young child would not think about things the same way that an adult might. He referred to the knowledge and the manner in which the knowledge is gained as a schema. In order to build on the cognitive stages that children experience, informal learning opportunities, formal instructional sessions, and the utilized curriculum must all dovetail with a child's current cognitive stage so that assimilation of the new knowledge may occur. Working with what the child knows and experiences, parents and teachers create bridges to the next cognitive stage that are characterized by the child's accommodation. Piaget argued that optimal learning took place in this manner and that adults should avoid thinking that they can accelerate a child's development through the age-based, maturity-referenced stages. This is because a child works toward establishing an equilibrium between the assimilation and application of new knowledge and changing their behavior to accommodate their newly adopted schemas.

Gender roles in society, throughout history, has been the leading cause of social expectations, and gender stereotypes, which has influenced children’s social identity. Notably, in the early eighteen century, society did not represent infants as a separate gender, but as an equal individual. Although, in the 1920s, the classification of sex identity started to emerge because of social changes occurring in the labor force. As a result, gender colors such as, pink and blue were highly used to provide variety in children’s clothing. Consequently, the symbol of pink and blue created an identity and the social expectation of gender representation. The media then used social associations to promote gender separation on children’s toys.

Since the invention of the television, America has become a captive audience, with children taking the brunt of it. Hands-on parenting has taken a backburner for it is much easier to give children a device or set them in front of a television and let them plug in and tune out. Children, especially young girls are impressionable and they want to imitate and become what they see and idolize. Sexualized female characters are especially alluring models to young girls. Initially choosing these “role models”

Cognitive developmental theory is founded on the idea that children gain knowledge by exploring and influencing the world that is all around them. According to Mossler (2014) “After many years of observing the mental limitations of children, including his own, Piaget came to the conclusion that children of