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The influence of media on views of gender
Effects of media on child development
Impact of media on gender
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Recommended: The influence of media on views of gender
Starting at a young age girls and boys are given a specific category to fit in without giving them a choice to choose what kind of toys they want to play with. Right when the doctor tells the parents about the gender of their child, they immediately start planning a baby shower themed in blue for a boy and pink for a girl. Girls are taught to play with dolls while boys are given cars. The way media separates responsibilities determined by gender is wrong. In today's society there has been many changes that have taken place. Kids feel more comfortable expressing who they want to be. Boys can play with dolls and girls can play with cars or action figures. Letting a child choose their own identity is the first step to help them
"Learning to Be Gendered" is an article written by authors Penelope Eckert and Sally McConnell-Ginet, where they examine the reasons behind why children are assigned gender roles in society. In the text, they explore how behavior and language are used to identify a child's gender and the unnecessary stereotypes and sexism perpetuated by this. The authors also address the pressures and expectations that are placed on children to fulfill various gender roles. They attack the theory that children fall into their gender roles due to behaviors and biological reasons. Their article outlines the difficulty to escape the gender stereotypes that have overtaken society and also demonstrate a clear presentation of problems and solutions to this issue. I also think that the article bases its arguments on
The topic of over-generalizing characteristics of a man or woman has become a controversial debate. While both sides have valid points, Monika Bartyzel, a freelance writer who created Girls in Film, a weekly feature on “femme-centric film news and concerns” at theweek.com, argues in her gender stereotype article “Girls on Film: The Real Problem with the Disney Princess Brand” Disney has gone against their own perception of a princess, leaving young girls to believe they are only worth value if they are pink, sparkling and dependent on a man.
Even though our country supports equality in gender, differences still exist. This issue of gender and sexuality of our society has had one of the biggest impacts in my life since I was raised with five brothers. Since birth, I was immediately perceived by my parents as my gender role of girl and daughter. My brothers were given action figures, cars, and guns to play with. I was given the traditional girl toys Barbies, baby dolls and kitchen sets. Of course, I enjoyed my traditional girl toys but it might have been nice to have a choice and be able to have the same toys as my brothers to play with. I eventually concluded that I should be satisfied with whatever toys were given to me by my parents.
Sure, the rooms that children grow up in are a start, but the color of a room can’t determine how they will act their entire lives. Gender roles are learned in various places, such as school, church, from parents, and on television. As a child, a common game to play is, “House.” It is easy to see that even early on, a little girl knows that she is the mother and stays home to take care of the baby while her husband goes off to work (“List of Gender Stereotypes”). It is believed that these behaviors are majorly learned from parents, but can also be taught through television. Many common t.v. shows highlight typical gender roles within the home, allowing children to believe that it is “normal.” This is not even the extent of where these behaviors are learned- many come from school as well. From an early age kids learn in school what famous men in history are famous for, and what famous women are famous for. Children also learn the typical occupations of men and women in history. Most women that are nurses or teachers, while the men are lumberjacks or politicians. These are just a few examples of how many places children are drowned with information about gender stereotypes, and the pressure there is to follow
Something that also impacts how society perceives feminine and masculine traits is the media. The media can be anything from news channels like Fox 4 News and CNN to Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, etc and it has a major impact on gender roles. Power discusses how kids are constantly bombarded with different TV shows, toy commercials, and programs that depict only gender stereotypical examples (2). Blackstone further explains that children perceive these “messages as “real life” which shapes their reality, behavior, and expectations of their gender role” (2). The social construction of gender does not just happen once, nor does it stop with children.
All around the world society has created an ideological perspective for the basis of gender roles. Gender and sex are often times misused and believed to be interchangeable. This is not the case. There are two broad generalization of sexes; female and male, yet there is a vast number of gender roles that each sex should more or less abide by. The routinely cycle of socially acceptable behaviors and practices is what forms the framework of femininity and masculinity. The assigned sex categories given at birth have little to do with the roles that a person takes on. Biological differences within females and males should not be used to construe stereotypes or discriminate within different groups. Social variables such as playing with dolls or
Gender role conflicts constantly place a role in our everyday life. For many years we have been living in a society where depending on our sexuality, we are judged and expected to behave and act certain way to fulfill the society’s gender stereotypes. The day we are born we are labeled as either a girl or boy and society identifies kids by what color they wear, pink is for girls and blue is for boys. Frequently, we heard the nurses in the Maternity facility saying things like, “Oh is a strong boy or is beautiful fragile princess.” Yet, not only in hospitals we heard this types of comments but we also see it on the media…
Girls are supposed to play with dolls, wear pink, and grow up to become princesses. Boys are suppose to play with cars, wear blue, and become firefighters and policemen. These are just some of the common gender stereotypes that children grow up to hear. Interactions with toys are one of the entryway to different aspects of cognitive development and socialism in early childhood. As children move through development they begin to develop different gender roles and gender stereotypes that are influenced by their peers and caregivers.
The image of a daycare center exemplifies an area of play and education in one's mind. Here, a child can learn, interact, and revel solely by themselves or with others such as their peers or authority figures. Although child development at a young age is key, subliminal messages are hidden within developmental actions; in a site of early childhood education, indirect and involuntary messages about gender are heard and witnessed on a day-to-day basis that all children, especially infants and toddlers, are susceptible to. Toddlers and infants will recognize what defines girls and boys because of their exposure to gender as seen through the uses of gendered words, like “he” and “she”, or their toys, like dolls for girls and trucks for boys.
Within western culture, gender is assigned through sex assessment which dictates everything individuals should and should not do. Gendered interaction is enforced from birth. Messages of gender and its expectations guide children as they grow, drawing influences from the media, religion, and community. Failure to follow the expectations of an assigned designation can result in children being forced to play with toys and engage in occupations that they do not enjoy to avoid social ridicule and neglect. Some believe that gender is innate while others encourage reformation of gender in hope of a more accepting society. Despite the insistence of the necessity of gender roles for an efficiently run society, traditional gender roles are dangerous
Changes in society have brought issues regarding gender stereotype. Gender roles are shifting in the US. Influences of women’s movement (Firestone, Firestone, & Catlett, 2006) and gender equality movement (e.g., Obergefell v. Hodges (2015)) have contributed to expanding social roles for both genders. Nevertheless, gender stereotypes, thus gender stereotype roles continue to exist in the society (Skelly & Johnson, 2011; Wood & Eagly, 2010). With changes in gender roles, pervasiveness of gender stereotype results in a sense of guilt, resentment, and anger when people are not living up to traditional social expectations (Firestone, Firestone, & Catlett, 2006). Furthermore, people can hold gender stereotype in pre-reflective level that they may
Sex role stereotyping and gender bias permeate everyday life. Children learn about sex roles very early in their lives, probably before they are 18 months old, certainly long before they enter school.(Howe, 1). The behaviors that form these sex roles often go unnoticed but their effect is immeasurable. Simple behaviors like: the color coding of infants (blue & pink), the toys children are given, the adjectives used to describe infants (boys: handsome, big, strong; girls: sweet, pretty, precious), and the way we speak to and hold them are but a few of the ways the sex roles are introduced. These behaviors provide the basis for the sex roles and future encouragement from parents and teachers only reinforce the sex roles.
Gender issues start from an early age, such as with toys and colours. We use blue for a boy and pink for a girl, and we do this to differentiate that blue is commonly associated with being masculine and strong while pink is a soft and feminine colour. Girls are not given action figures, tanks and guns, and boys are not given cooking sets and dolls to play with. These roles are engrained from a young age and are pushed on children so that they support it.
...s can become star athletes, boys can become gourmet chefs and the world will continue to turn. A large amount of emphasis is being placed on superficial worries instead of real issues that face the differences between genders. Let children play with the toys that they want, banning a type of toy based on color or gender will most likely result in making the toy even more desirable in the long run. Children will surprise you, when given several female dolls and a single male doll, instead of forming a happy family oriented play, the child instead draws patterns on all of the dolls with Sharpie and turns them into a nudist tribe living their lives out in the bedroom closet. Children follow the examples set for them in life, ‘a woman who gave her daughter tools, in place of dolls, discovered the child undressing a hammer and singing it to sleep’ (Bennett C. , 2014).
The most common way to communicate the existing cultural gender stereotypes to children is through explicit gender labeling of their toys and games (e.g., “boys should play with cars”). In a word, playing with toys can be seen as a repetition of children’s future lives. Children intuitively prefer the toys that fit their gender needs – boys prefer to play with toy weapons while girls prefer to play with dolls. If a child is deprived of an opportunity to play with toys, he or she ends up with a significant gap in his or her mental development and socialization skills.