Gender Socialization: For A Boy Or A Girl?

          Building gender socialization starts at birth and grows with us throughout are lives. We all learn by watching and because a lot of what children see helps them shape their identities about who they are we, as parents, need to know what we teach them will benefit them in the future. Children not only learn from the people that surround them in their life but also learn and get ideas from something as simple as a commercial that happens to pop up right before their favorite show is about to come on. They are witnessing gender socialization and they don’t even realize it. I was even unaware of how something as simple as a commercial could influence the thought process of a child.

          While looking at a Christmas magazine with my child we came across a toy that she noticed that she would like to have the chance to play with but don’t me she couldn’t because it was for boys. I had asked her why she thought that and she told me that on the commercial it showed a girl being “grossed out” by the toy so girls wouldn’t want to play with it. So I asked her if it bothered her or grossed her out and she told me it didn’t. I told her as long as it didn’t bother her and that she would enjoy using it, then it wasn’t just for boys.

          That short conversation was a real eye opener as a parent as in how, toys especially, are marketed to children. My daughter has grown up around going camping, fishing, getting dirty, and 4-wheelers. All of which are stereotyped as boys activities. What we teach our children is so important for their futures. We need to teach them that as long as we try hard enough and dream big enough, whether or not it says it is just for girls or just for boys, you can accomplish anything.

 

http://voices.yahoo.com/gender-socialization-children-2632765.html?cat=25

http://www.unc.edu/~dcderosa/STUDENTPAPERS/childrenbattles/toysrusdenise.htm

http://gozips.uakron.edu/~susan8/parinf.htm

3 thoughts on “Gender Socialization: For A Boy Or A Girl?

  1. There are so many factors that are a part of the gender socialization of a child. It is an even more complex process with mass media surrounding children. I remember watching the same cartoons as my brothers, such as the Roadrunner, with their particular version of violence (the coyote was always getting hurt, but would miraculously bounce back). I never felt the impetus to act in violent or aggressive manners, but my brothers did. I perceived the characters as male, and did not relate to them. Perhaps my brothers saw their gender as I did and got the impression that it’s ok for boys to be aggressive, but not girls. Such subtle things can set the stage for a life of bad choices, just from a cartoon.

  2. I can see where they could relate to them as males and possibly take that into consideration for why they were aggressive but there are so many other factors that can relate to that process as simply as seeing other boys in school act that way. I am not defending all cartoons but children learn what is real and not real from their parents and people around them so I wouldn’t say that watching that cartoon was the reason they were agressive . I would hope they weren’t dropping things on peoples’ heads. We know that is not real and we teach them that they really could get hurt or killed if we were to do that to a real person. I have to say I pay attention to what my children watch a little more closely now but if I have a concern I do sit and talk with my child to make sure she realizes what she is seeing.

  3. It is said that family is crucial to socialization with non-material culture like communicating and basic beliefs, as well as material culture like tying their shoes and is the main source for the child’s ascribed status. The mass media though does influence children’s behaviors too and seeing the commercials or tv shows will possibly have their perceptions of social reality reflect what they see on tv if it is a girl getting grossed out at a toy that a boy is enjoying or a girl enjoying playing with a doll and caring for it like a mother.

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