The Gender Trap Analysis

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Recommended: Ethical views on homosexuality

Emily Kane begins her book, The Gender Trap, with a flash back on her attempt at gender-neutral parenting in the midst of “traps” that make this effort frightening: our societal world is arranged to focus on the differences amongst girls and boys, as Kane saw in such ordinary experiences as the narrow selection of “princess” or “cowboy” themes when shopping for children's apparel. Kane also observed some of the everyday consequences of gender-unbiased parenting in, for example, the social rejection her son faced as a result of not having the toys unofficially necessary for playing with the other boys at his preschool. The rest of Emily Kane's book explores this “gender trap”—“a set of expectations and structures that inhibit social change and stall many parents' best intentions for loosening the limits that gender can impose on us”, in a social scientific manner. The Gender Trap reports the conclusions Kane reaches after talking to 42 moms and dads, mostly people living in the central and southern parts of the state of Maine, I imagine she chose this area because she is a Professor of Sociology, and a member of the Program in Women and Gender Studies, at Bates College in Lewiston, Maine. Of all of the 42 parents all of them had at least one preschool-age child at this stage of the study. The book classifies and analyzes all of the conference information, using a very good sized amount of academic research to place the conversations in larger settings. Kane's illustrations include mothers and fathers who were from various racial and ethnic groups, as well as same sex, mixed sex, and single parents. Some of these parents voluntarily gave socially acceptable ideas of gender as they raised their children, while other parents were t... ... middle of paper ... ...“natualizers” and “cultivators”. Biased to these two categories in particular because for one that is the way I was raised and after almost 20 years of life I agree with it. Religiously I am against same sex marriage and homosexuals in general. However I cannot control them or what they do so I have come to my own personal resolution of ‘if they do not mess with or bother me with what I strongly disagree with I will keep my mouth shut to their opinions and views’. However this class does not allow me really to bring my personal views to light so thinking with an unbiased mind I would recommend this book to really anyone debating the topic of gender or debating on how they want to raise their kids. I think it would really help to smooth things out and help people like myself understand the other side of the fence besides just knowing what I believe and nothing else.

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