Should We Assign Gender Roles On Children? When you think of the word gender it is usually confused with sex: being male or female. Gender, however, can be loosely defined as the way we perform our sex. Therefore gender is considered something we “do” rather than “have”. Often times at a young age we learn how to perform the appropriate behaviors related to our sex. These behaviors enforce roles on children. Boys are taught what behaviors are associated with masculine. Comparatively, woman are taught what behaviors are considered feminine. As parents we place these roles on our children without any realization of doing so. Our society is what shapes us into these traditional gender specific roles. Of course, as parents we want our children …show more content…
From the time we are born we are assigned male or female based on our genetic makeup, or sex. When we express ourselves we are declaring our gender identity, or performing our sex. Most people consider themselves to be either male (masculine) or female (feminine). To be masculine is to be considered tough, rigid, emotionless, aggressive, independent, and competitive. To be feminine is to be considered dependent, passive, nurturing, emotional, and weak. Usually we think of this performance as natural and biological, but it’s not. There are many aspects in which these gender roles are shaped and then placed on children at a very young age. We can take toys for example. In general the toy options for girls versus that of boys pushes the idea of taking on a certain gender role. Girl’s toys are mostly indoor toys and would be considered passive. The vomiting color of pink which is most, if not all, of the color scheme associated with girls, is displaying the idea of femininity that society wants females to associate themselves with. Furthermore, these toys are trying to influence girls to do more domestic stuff such as cleaning, cooking, and to be nurturing. Also, training them and giving them the idea of traditional values that society expects them to be when they grow up. For example, baby dolls give your …show more content…
Observations by Ressler showed that both boys and girls behaviors are regulated in ways that may be potentially harmful to them by adhering to certain gender roles. In her studies she says, “girls who enjoyed sports often avoided physical activity at school because they assumed it wouldn’t be a feminine thing to do, they worried they might look unattractive while running, or they were by their male peers for not being good enough. Meanwhile, the male participants in the study all faced intense pressure to demonstrate the extent of their manliness, which led to every day low-level violence”. From her studies we can conclude that there’s a lot of pressure put on children to conform to gender norms which may be detrimental to their self-image and societal-image. However, as a society we don’t notice gender differences until we see a disruption of it. For example, we would consider a young boy abnormal if he expressed interest in anything considered feminine such as playing with Barbie dolls. Because of stereotypes a lot people would be quick to assume that your child may be interested in homosexuality. HealthyChildren.org argues that while your child may not excel in one area or have interest that may seem unordinary, there will still be many other opportunities where they will succeed. Thus, rather than force your child into the mold of current or