My Final Post!

Well... here it is. My last post! My survey has officially been completed by all 10 children who I asked to fill it out. For the most part, they fell right into the gender socialization trap. The boys liked cars and trucks, the girls liked dolls. The boys liked blue and green, the girls liked pink and purple. However, there were notable exceptions (such as the one I wrote about last week) and there were plenty of gender neutral answers. Three of the children - two boys and one girl - said their favorite color was red. Another big surprise was my ten year old neighbor, Ben, who said that his best friend was Isabelle. At that in-between age, it is assumed that your best friend is the same gender as you, but Ben broke that stereotype with his girl best friend.

Overall, I wasn't surprised by my results. I had hoped to see some gender neutralization, and some answers that stood out to me as different. This did happen, along with the usual gender socialized answers one would expect. Who knows what could happen 20 years from now though. There were some gender-neutral answers here... maybe by then there will be even more.

Almost There...

After handing out the full survey to 10 children (6 boys and 4 girls), I have received 5 back, all from boys. These boys have answered, for the most part, true to what I expected. Their favorite toys were either Legos or Thomas the Tank Engine. Meanwhile, their favorite shows seemed to be gender-neutral shows on Disney Channel, which was nice to see, since it was better than being strictly male. One shocking answer came from my 7 year old neighbor, Christopher, who said that his favorite singer was Taylor Swift, which seemed to me to be a more feminine response than I would expect from him. I can't fully analyze my results until I have all of my surveys back, however, so by next week I'll be able to analyze them a little better.

The Details

The survey on childhood gender socialization has been completed! Some questions include "What's your favorite television show?" and "What's your favorite color?" I plan to administer the full survey to my neighbors and the children my sister Maggie babysits, in total 12 children - 7 boys and 5 girls between the ages of 4 and 12. I'm going to print out hard copies to give to them, and they'll return them the next day since we all live in the same town.

I'm predicting that boys will choose stereotypical "boy" answers... like for the favorite toys they'll choose trucks and for favorite color they'll choose blue. Likewise, I hypothesize that girls will choose "girl" answers... they'll say dolls and pink. Hopefully I will see some sort of crossover, though, because I would like to think that children are breaking stereotypes. After this survey, maybe I'll see some of that.

Socialization Survey

In keeping with my previous post, I'd like to now administer a survey to see if my observations were true. Are children in today's era becoming less gender aware?? Or is gender socialization still a huge part of our culture??

In order to explore these ideas, I will create a survey with subtle gender questions to give to children I know (both boys and girls) to test their gender positions.

Breaking the Stereotypes

This short documentary, made by fifth graders in Brooklyn, is focused on breaking gender stereotypes using clothing and sports as their examples. The boy in the video wears a bright pink scarf and hat and shows the reactions of his fifth grade peers, adults, and teenagers. His view and the view of his friends making the video is that there should be no issue with boys wearing pink. They touch on topics like being gay and assumptions made based on gender stereotyping, which can be seen throughout the video. The fact of the matter is, though, that there is a group of fifth graders out there willing to challenge the stereotype. Who knows? Maybe this could mean that the stereotype will someday disappear?

This video made me really happy, honestly. Watching a group kids have the bravery to make a video about breaking away from the traditional views they were brought up made me smile a lot because it shows that there are people who understand the negative effects of gender socialization and who want these effects to disappear and change. This is a good last post for my blog because it offers hope --- hope that maybe someday, gender socialization won't be as potent as it is today. Males and females will be treated as equals, and boys will be allowed to wear as much pink as they want.

HEN

"The country also proposed a new single gender-neutral pronoun – 'hen' – to replace 'he' and 'she' in order to minimize gender stereotyping."

Sweden is taking gender socialization to a whole new level. The article about gender neutral toys  I was originally reading surprised me at the end with this huge statement. It first is talking about a toy magazine released in 2012 featuring boys playing with dolls and girls shooting toy guns. Classic gender neutrality. Then, at the end, the article goes on to talk about this new proposed word that would replace he and she to make a gender neutral word for people. In fact, a Swedish child author, Jesper Lundqvist, released a book titled 'Kivi and Monster Dog' featuring the word "hen." This debate, some have argued, has gone too far and this word is unnecessary... but who knows if this is going to become a social norm?

In my opinion, this is taking the argument to an extreme, but I do see the points of those advocating for the new word and total gender neutrality. There are obvious negatives to separating boys from girls. Is it really necessary though to get rid of gender entirely? I don't know about others, but I'm definitely proud to be a girl. I'd be offended if someone called me "he." Even if gender-neutral advocators don't want to admit it, gender is a part of who we are. And if this argument about "HEN" is continued... who knows what other debates it could spark? If babies are born not knowing the difference between boys and girls, homosexuality may become more prominent since children have no concept of gender. There are so many issues surrounding the idea of getting rid of gender completely. It's interesting to consider them.

The Negatives for Females

Childhood socialization into gender roles can definitely be viewed as a negative. Many studies have been conducted and opinions have been voiced about the bad parts that come with separating children into their specific gender roles. A 2009 Yahoo! Voices article speaks to all of the downsides of gender socialization, mapping out the path from birth until parenthood and how being socialized into gender affects the typical boy and the typical girl. The language the author uses is extremely harsh, as she says that a "baby girl generally brought home to a pink room" and "a boy... given a blue room" is "worse" than putting pink and blue hats on babies at the hospital. It then goes on to say how girls throughout their lives are expected to be submissive and family-oriented while boys are encouraged to explore and focus on their careers. Of course, since the author is a woman, the article is biased to show how boys benefit from gender socialization and women are at a disadvantage.

To me, this article seemed very outdated and wrong, but after further consideration, I realized that maybe it wasn't so far off-base for perhaps other socioeconomic settings. In the area where we live, northern New Jersey, and in the school we come from, all-girls IHA, we are encouraged as women to pursue careers and break through gender stereotypes. In many other parts of the country, though, there are places where women are still expected to be below men on the social ladder, and this starts with the pink hats, dolls, and being called "sweetie" until the age of 8, just as the article describes. Gender socialization definitely has its negatives for females.

Gender Neutral?

So, since many argue that gender socialization is negative and that genders shouldn't be separated into certain roles, why not raise our children to be gender neutral? A couple in Canada has decided to do just this... to a really extreme level.

This couple has chosen to keep the gender of their third child a secret to everybody - the public, friends, even the child's grandparents. They have decided to not tell their child his or her sex, to see how the child would group up as a gender neutral individual. The parents already encourage their other two sons to break stereotypes - one of their sons has long hair that he sometimes likes to wear in pigtail braids. This type of raising in a gender neutral setting is more extreme than other cases, and it has caused a lot of controversy as the parents are "using the child as a lab experiment." Whether this is true or not, it is an interesting approach to how much gender development really affects the development of a child.

In my opinion, the parents have gone a little far in shaping the life of this gender-less child. On the other hand, it is an interesting social experiment that will answer the questions of many sociologists and psychologists. It is just sad to see that the life of this child is already commercialized and shared with the public, simply based on the radical decisions of his or her parents. I am interested in how the baby turns out, but I don't agree morally with the choice of the parents to do this.

How can the Stereotypes of Females and Males be Broken?

Why is it that even now, in the 21st century, there seem to be male and female stereotypes based on where each gender is supposed to be working and how they should be acting in society? Why is it that even when we say we are a progressive era, there are still certain expectations for women that are different for men? The answer to these questions comes from children and how they are raised. All children, many from even before they are born, are classified as either "boy" or "girl." These children know their gender, without question, and know the social expectations of their respective sexes. However, as the end of the video (below) shows, these children are also learning, from a young age, that women and men have certain "roles" in society - with men as breadwinners and women as mothers and housekeepers. These specific gender roles are taught to impressionable children, which prevents society from breaking the stereotypes. Until the next generation is raised differently, the stereotypes will remain.

My first reaction to this video was one of shock and of anger. Why should the male always be the one going to work?? It reminded me of the time when LeMoyne College (the alma mater of both my parents) called our house looking for my dad. When my mom answered, they asked for Tom or his housewife. Although my mother is a stay-at-home mom, she was SO offended that her alma mater could refer to one of their past students as a "housewife," especially in the era in which we are living today. These strong stereotypes of both men and women are going to continue until we teach our children that sometimes dads can be stay-at-home dads and moms can go to work. Actually, and unconventionally, I kind of want to marry a man who is willing to be a stay-at-home dad someday. As crazy as that sounds, I'd love to work but I'd also love to have a parent home for my children. But until we teach children to break out of their gender based states of mind, this possibility is not so likely.

LEGO FRIENDS: The Controversy Sparking Interest

When I chose Gender Development as my topic, this was the first issue that came to mind. In the past few months, popular children's toys "LEGO" has started a new line of play geared specifically for girls called "LEGO Friends." These pink, purple, and and powder blue blocks come with small LEGO dolls that scarily resemble Polly Pockets. The release of this "girls-only" line of the toy sparked serious debate among customers. It poses questions such as "Why can't girls play with the old line of LEGOs? Can't boys enjoy playing with pink and purple blocks? Is it really necessary to split this once gender neutral toy into two separate spheres?" So angry parents have formed the LEGO Friends Petition in order to put an end to their rage. All parents want is for both boys and girls to be treated equally under LEGO.

While I can understand LEGO's motives for creating the LEGO Friends line of toys - to compete in such an competitive market - I must agree with some outraged parents on their view. I remember growing up playing with my LEGO's, and never once thinking that it was a "boys" activity. Since I have two sisters, we were a house that was flooded with girl games. And while there was definitely nothing wrong with playing the "Beauty Salon Monopoly" or "Pretty, Pretty Princess," there was something appealing about having LEGOs and Lincoln Logs always available in the house. When my boy neighbors or boy cousins came for play-dates, we could share the fun of these games since they were geared for either gender. By creating LEGO Friends, I feel like the LEGO company is telling girls that the old LEGOs aren't for them, that they have to make shopping malls and beauty parlors instead of buildings and bridges now. The separation isn't healthy, as it is putting certain labels on certain activities, making girls and boys more distinctly different at a young age, and labeling girls and boys.

Introduction to my Blog

Hi guys! I'm Emily, and my blog is basically going to cover how Gender Development has an effect on Childhood Socialization. This is a topic that's really interesting to me (and probably a lot of people) because we have grown up in a society where PINK is always a girl color, BLUE is always a boy color, and girls and boys are treated differently as they grow up. Who knows what kind of effect this could have on a child? Well that's what I'm looking to explore over the next few weeks.