You May Ask Yourself, By Sociologist Dalton Conley

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 world of toy marketing, choices are made with direction put in place for both genders (girl and boy). For example, as I walked down each toy aisle, I felt the gender conformity among the parents as they were with their children. With multiple aisles and two dominant colors (pink and purple) designated for girls, the message (in my perspective) marketed on the toy package yelled: “Your ambition is to be stylish, while a nurturing mother who partakes in domestic works!” In addition to the toy packages being in pink, the words (on the toy) were predominately frivolous and amusing. On the contrary, the boys’ aisle contained wide varieties of colors, although the color blue caught my eye the most. The boys’ toys entailed sports, building sets, as well as action figures. Conversely, the message in my perspective, marketed on the toy package screamed: “You have the power to do whatever you want; however, it is imperative that you build yourself physically, as well as train yourself in order to properly excel.” This type of act, referred to as the social role theory—“a gender difference that mainly results from the contrasting roles of females and males” (p.165),—gives a great cause of difference in gender regarding power, nurture, and

Conry-Murray, Clare, and Elliot Turiel. "Jimmy's Baby Doll And Jenny's Truck: Young Children's Reasoning About Gender Norms." Child Development 83.1 (2012): 146-158. Education Research Complete. Web. 5 Oct. 2015. Clare Conry-Murray and Elliot Turiel write in this article about the reasoning behind gender, and whether or not it’s a fixed or changeable concept. Children ages 4 through 8 years of age were asked questions about gender norms, and most of the participants believed that non-traditional gender norms would be acceptable in a different cultural context. They also said they believed that gender norms should be a personal choice, and they didn’t believe that forcing gender norms on children in school should be allowed. Children

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.

However another huge exposure occurs through religion and workplaces, repeating this exposures from this agent’s, lead to people to create a false sense in their self, acknowledging that everything depends on their gender and not on a socially constructed role. Studies have also shown that a young age parents supply their male children with toys such as toy guns, cars and superhero, which are obviously a meaning of aggression. Although female children are given mostly dolls such as barbies dealing with dressing them up or playing with kitchen tools. Racing your children this way are most likely to play with appropriate gender toys even if a toy is available for all genders. “As life goes on, men try to overpass women in professions such as

Walmart’s toy section is much like any other toy store. There are distinct toys meant for boys and distinct toys for girls. The toys meant for boys usually have guns with them, or you can buy fake guns for your children. These would be examples of how masculine toys could emphasize aggression and high activity. These toys allow children to engage in violent play, such as shooting. Shooting games mostly involve running around and chasing each other. According to HubPage’s article, How Toys Impact Children's Development, “masculine toys were rated as more aggressive, competitive, violent, sustaining of

It all starts from the moment a child is born. The doctor happily shouts “It’s a boy!” or “It’s a girl!”, a pink or blue hat is slapped on the kid, and a celebration of the new life begins. It is not only the beginning of a new life, but the beginning a childhood of the pressure to conform to gender norms. The general understanding of what it means to be male or female is very cut and dry, and to challenge the norm is often met with ridicule. Growing up with the pressure to conform and restrain yourself from being who you truly are is an unnecessary struggle that children do not need. The effects of societal gender roles enforces negative stereotypes and does more harm than good to children.

When I was young I was told I should not like the color blue because it was a “boy” color and that I should prefer pink instead. I was told I should not like pokemon because only boys should play it. Growing up I was always given dolls to play with while my brother received legos. It is scientifically proven that giving dolls to children allow them to have more nurturing skills and giving legos allows to kids develop problem-solving skills. However, parents are more reluctant to give dolls to boys even though it can benefit them greatly. Young boys and girls are separated so much that they aren't even allowed to play with the same toys or like the same colors. What children experience in their childhood subconsciously

Bryant Harland (n.d.) suggests that gender norms are what society considers male and female behaviour, leading to the formation of standards and expected gender roles that males and females are expected to take in society. A gender norm is anything society attributes a particular gender too. For example, people think the colour pink is associated with girls and the colour blue is associated with boys. This gender norm can be noticed when parents have their daughter’s bedroom walls painted pink and their son’s bedroom walls painted blue; and when “toys being promoted for girls include a rabbit family complete with a kitchen unit and a range of Barbie dolls and the boys’ toys includes car kits and Action Man figures” (Brannock, 1999, p. 32).

I believe the construction of gender norms begins during the childhood ages. There have always been specifications on “girl toys” and “boy toys”. I told a story during my presentation to show how early these gendered toys are being presented through advertisements and media. Just to reiterate the story, I work in an early learning center so I have a lot

Throughout history, we have seen that gender classifications, on gender roles have resulted in gender stereotypes. Despite that children were not initially classified by their gender, but by their age. Such as in the late nineteenth-century gender classification only existed for men, and women. Whereas in the early twentieth century, occurring social progression caused a demand for gender associations towards the identity of children. Gender stereotypes on children created a gender coalition with colors such as pink, and blue. The social personification on pink and blue established a pseudo-perception in children’s perspective on genders. In fact, the media also advertised classified gender toys for children to form expected gender stereotypes.

Society has this unknown expectation for genders to have a type of distinction toward one another, attitudes and behaviors that males and females are required to have. Gender socialization is society’s way to categorize the propensity for males and females to be socialized differently. Media, violence, even politics has a large contribution to the division among genders in the 21st century creating by creating a new culture of independents. Media has been promoted very selectively and carefully, subconsciously teaching us the proper ways of conforming to the “ideal contemporary society” throughout one’s life, “gender roles” (a more simplistic term “sex roles”) including the set of socially defined roles and behaviors are assigned to the specific sex at birth. This can and in fact does vary from certain cultures. Our society has the identification skills to provide (some would say “biased”) criticisms to differ the two distinct gender roles. One includes the “masculine,” having the qualities and characteristics attributed to males, and the other, the “feminine,” having the qualities and characteristics attributed to females. Media creates subliminal meanings about gender, and plays a role in which we understand as part of ones’ identity.

From the time a baby is born, their parents dress him/her into pink or blue clothing, immediately enclosing by their gender. While growing up, that baby will be taught how to behave, play and speak like a boy or girl. Girls do not play with action figures; boys do not grow long hair. Gender plays a vast role in today’s society. The gender language learned will confine men and women into socially oppressive roles. Each gender uses language to maintain their “status quo”. A status quo is the existing state of the affairs, especially regarding social or political issues. It is expected of the gender to speak a certain way or tone so if a person does not abide by these standards, they are viewed in a negative viewpoint.

A major question in social science is the difference between sex and gender. Contrary to popular belief, sex and gender are not the same. Sex is defined as biological differences that make someone a male or female. On the other hand, gender is a social arrangement that defines how to act according to sex categories (Conley 2013). According to the writer and sociology professor, Dalton Conley, gender is so deeply rooted in social construction that it may seem as a natural structure of humans’ lives. In addition, Judith Lorber, a former chair of the Sex and Gender Section of the American Sociological Association, states that gender ‘establishes patterns of expectation for individuals’ (Conley 2013). “Doing Gender,” according to Candace West and Don H. Zimmerman, is a production of our interactions and is something we are exposed to since birth (Watts 2002). The social construction of gender has created gender stratification, which refers to the distribution of socioeconomic resources and power on the basis of one’s gender (Risman 1998). For this study, I have taken two of my cousins to a Toy-R-Us store to see their reactions and note their gender socialization or lack of it.

Gender is a socially constructed differentiation and a key explanation of the different social roles of men and women; a fixed binary opposition: masculinity or femininity. Socialisation creates 'learned ' ‘Gender appropriate’, behaviour from birth e.g. the