Gender Identity: A Child's Identity

As a child grows and conforms to the world around them they go through various stages, one of the most important and detrimental stages in childhood development is gender identity. The development of the meaning of a child’s sex and gender can form the whole future of that child’s identity as a person. This decision whether accidental or genetic can effect that child’s life style views and social interactions for the rest of their lives. Ranging from making friends in school all the way to intimate relationships later on in life, gender identity can become an important aspect to ones future endeavors.

It is always said that boys and girls are complete opposites as they grow. Girls are seen to be more timid and laid back in physical natures

According to research by Marissa McClure Volrath, an elementary art teacher, her findings allowed us to realize and understand that gender identity can been seen through a child’s artwork and how it is presented. “Although many young girls’ drawings do seem to adults’ perception to convey the sweetness, innocence, and themes of girlhood, they are also the kinds of drawings often hung up and ignored or referred to as “sweet” or “cute.” They are unlikely to solicit the attention of a young boys’ drawing of a gun or a superhero fist fight. They seem pleasant and innocent. However, these drawings reveal and conceal girls’ desires to see themselves not how they are but how they wish they might be or think they should be—a complicated matter operating on multiple levels of pleasure, desire, and sociality oppressed (McClure-Vollrath, 2006, p. 68).” Socially the world expects girls to be interested in princesses and the color pink, that’s the social norma and looked to as socially acceptable. The study performed by McClure Volrath allows a way to see beyond the social norms and understand that through a child’s art we are able to see a difference in a child’s gender identity. The media often has an influence on a child’s gender identity. Drawings a boy may draw of a gun might be seen in a cartoon that they religiously watch, and this is looked to as being a social norm. Boys often watch violent or action packed cartoons or television shows, whereas girls might draw a pony seen in their favorite cartoon. Girls are often expected as a norm to watch cartoons and shows that might involve drama and romance. “Again, identity is a social concept. When we engage any media, no matter what form it may take, we are in essence receiving the ideas from those authors. Simply, it is a different format by which we now exchange ideas (Worsham, 2011).” As we grow we take in information we see, as stated before, our surroundings mold us.