What I learned in Boating School is…

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Recommended: Cultural construction of gender

During this semester of English 1302, I feel as if this was way more interesting than 1301. In fact, I did learn a lot of new things about gender and how it takes its role in society. I never understood why it would actually matter, but it really does matter.
The first assignment I remember having to do dealt with toys and gender. After I saw the video, I thought it over and came into realization that toy commercials really attack the specific audience it is trying to get. Growing up, I don’t recall hearing a male narrate a commercial for a girl’s toy commercial. I guess you can say as I wrote my response I had this little spark of an “aha!” moment as I typed away, keeping the quote in mind: "As a process, gender creates the social differences that define 'woman' and 'man.' In social interaction throughout their lives, individuals learn what is expected, see what is expected, act and react in expected ways, and thus simultaneously construct and maintain the gender order" (Lorber 60).
The video and the quote complete each other. Society wants to shape younger children into what th...

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