Why Don 't Boys Play With Dolls Essay

While reading “Gender,” an essay by Jack Halberstam, the topic of sexism was brought to the forefront of my mind. It has been brought up more often in conversation in the modern era, issues such as how a few cruel insults pertain to female reproductive anatomy and, in a sense, degrade females and ultimately identify them, as well as femininity, as inherently “bad”. Such a thought stemmed from how Halberstam touches on the “problematic stabilization of the meaning of ‘women’ and ‘female’”: meaning there is no room for argument when it comes to your gender—you’re either a girl or not. You either fit into a strict mold, or you do not.

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.

Gender roles are categories that characterize what it means to be feminine and masculine in society, on how people think about gender as they relate to one another (Adams et al., 2013). For example, women are expected to be accommodating and emotional, while men are usually expected to be self-confident and aggressive, this shows how men and women are to behave in society. However, these sayings were taught to individuals based on norms, or standards created by a society which is called Gender Socialization (p. 318). Growing up as a child, we were taught as girls to play with dollhouses, pretend kitchen sets, cleaning supplies and play dress up. Whereas boys are taught to play with cars, sports equipment’s, action figures, and weapons. However, if a boy was playing with dollhouses, or playing dress up, he would be considered gay, or not masculine and looked down upon by society, and families. The same goes for girls who play with boy toys, or dresses as a tomboy, this is what we are taught to play with at a young age. Our families tell us how to behave, our schools tell us what

Both Deborah Blum’s The Gender Blur: Where Does Biology End and Society Take Over? and Aaron Devor’s “Gender Role Behaviors and Attitudes” challenges the concept of how gender behavior is socially constructed. Blum resides on the idea that gender behavior is developed mainly through adolescence and societal expectations of a gender. Based on reference from personal experiences to back her argument up, Blum explains that each individual develops their expected traits as they grow up, while she also claims that genes and testosterones also play a role into establishing the differentiation of gender behavior. Whereas, Devor focuses mainly on the idea that gender behavior is portrayed mainly among two different categories: masculinity and

In “Why Boys Don’t Play With Dolls,” Pollitt writes about the differences between growing up as a boy growing up as a girl. She brings up the stereotypes that society naturally creates between genders in early ages, which leads to the lifestyle and path that boys and girls are raised in. Parents and feminist alike play a big part in establishing these sex roles. They raise their kids wanting them to be successful at what they are expected to be good at based on their gender and the trend that has been set before them.

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,

In the article “Parental Influence on Children’s Socialization to Gender Roles” by Susan D. Witt states that parents expose their children at an early age of what it means to be a boy and a girl. Witt argues that parents do play a role in gender stereotypes to their children as early on as infants. Witt explains how parents decorate a child’s room. Witt states that children grow and develop gender stereotypes at home. She explains how parents encourage their children to participate in sex-typed activities, sports, and role play. Witt reveals that both parents contribute to the gender stereotyping but fathers have been found to reinforce gender stereotypes more often that mothers. Witt’s audience is

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.

Abundant individuals don’t know the difference between sex and gender roles. Sex is the biological characteristics in a person. Gender roles are the expectations of how a person should dress and act based on their sex. The majority of individuals accommodate to those roles early on, because of the influences their parents have on them. Such ideas of gender roles are exhibited at length in the two short essays, “Why boys don 't play with dolls” by Katha Pollitt and “The Gender Blur: Where Does Biology End and Society take over?” by Deborah Blum, in which gender roles are shown to be sociological rather than biological. Pollitt is an award-winning poet also well known as a liberal essayist and critic. Pollitt 's essay ventures to persuade her readers that not only will sexual roles always exist in society, but also, they have always been and will always continue to be hidden in controversy over the source of their origin that is nature or nurture. Pollitt also highlights some of the causes with gender stereotypes, especially in children. Pollitt says that the the blame for gender stereotypes and differences is based on the environment and how the child is raised. Blum 's essay discusses the differences between nature and nurture when it comes to raising her children. She also talks about how certain biological factors shape the pieces of an individual 's personality that nurturing doesn 't do. Pollitt 's essay is persuasive primarily because she utilizes strategies such as

“The emotional, sexual, and psychological stereotyping of a women begins when the doctor says, ‘It's a girl!’” Women are forced to conform to a set place in society, and the pressure they feel to conform starts when they are born.

In today’s society, there are many guidelines of how one should act and be. Gender socialization is the process where people take on notions of gender roles, gender ideas and gender behaviours. At an early age, boys and girls are told how to behave and act according to societal norms of gender behaviours and roles. The comparison of Jane Smiley’s article “You Can Never Have too Many” and John McMurty’s , “Kill ‘Em! Crush ‘Em! Eat ‘Em Raw!” provides an insight about how gender socialization is conditioned through toys and sports at an early age. Also teaching and reinforcing stereotypical gender roles through traits, appearances and occupation. (this is an incomplete sentence and it doesn’t flow

Donna Laframboise and Stevie Cameron have written two very different articles on the topic of gender. Laframboise argues that today’s society treats boys worse than girls. Cameron argues that the poor treatment of women and the relatively high risk of physical danger has shown no improvement from when she was growing up to now. Both Laframboise and Cameron’s articles discuss gender, and the implications that it can have on a person’s life. Cameron displays the strength of her article by exclusively arguing her own point. Laframboise opts to utilize and disprove other’s statements about girls as her proof. Negating other arguments is only an effective tactic when an opposition exists. Arguing ‘who has it worse?’ does not help anyone, and in fact can be detrimental in cases like this. Both articles have their own strengths and weaknesses, but Laframboise hinders her article by prioritizing denying female struggle over substance.

In today’s society, there are many common stereotypes inflicted upon women. The gender roles that we often face should be taken more seriously. The way that women are obliged to dress, act, and their expected appearance are all concerns that shouldn’t be taken lightly. We are taught growing up not to be exclusive or close-minded to people and their ideas. Why is that the subject of feminism and gender equality isn’t talked about frequently? We should teach young children the same thing we value in others, the belief in equal rights for all.

In our society, there are norms of what is considered to be feminine and what is to be considered masculine, but how are these norms constructed? Through the use of toys, books, and clothing, children are socialized into their “appropriate” gender. These objects provide influence over behavior and appearance, showing boys and girls what is appropriate for each gender. After some investigation it was found that the toys, books, and clothing that children use not only foster the norms of gender behavior and appearance, but also construct gender roles in their young minds.

Ever since the dawn of time, women and men have been associated with specific gender roles that can be seen controversial in the eyes of many. Traits and roles associated with a specific gender can be either innate or learned over time. Looking into the deeper concept of gender roles and stereotypes, it is clear that these fixed gender roles are not naturally born with, but rather taught, learned, or influenced by external forces.