Boys are lead to believe they need to be stronger and more emotionless then girls. Children learn from their adult surroundings (Cervantes & Callanan, 1998 pg.96). "These findings suggest that children, early on, are learning to converse and think about emotions in gender-specific ways" (Cervantes & Callanan, 1998 pg.89), Boys and girls show emotional differences in problem solving, facial decoding, and emotion management. Children deal with social situations in concordance to the expectations society has set for them. These expectations allow them hide negative emotions and express positive emotions.
Through these parent-children interactions as they develop, they learn gender stereotype behaviors. As a result, they entrench these stereotypes firmly as they grow thus, become part of the children self-concept. Parents usually tend to treat their children differently depending on their gender, regardless of inclination of one gender over the other. Although these inclinations are found to have little effect on the child’s sexual development, the results of gender typing are realized during adulthood. Environments do not only influence children’s gender role behavior, but to a large extent it is affected by the gender stereotyping.
Society has this expectation of girls to grow up being feminine and boys to be masculine. Parents help to create an emphasis on gender roles by regulating behaviors and things their children interact with. For example, one role that is commonly depicted today is a daddy’s little girl. A daddy’s little girl gets what she wants and is expected to be sweet, pretty, and obedient. All things nice are what apparently seem to be represented by girls.
Rachel Rosenfeld Intro to Sociology Professor Miller Children should have the opportunity to play with a large variety of toys of all types. Although, there are different characteristics between boys and girls and it is important for their parents to treat them as individuals, they should provide equal options and choices for them. From the day babies are brought home and cradled in their pink or blue blankets, implications have been made of how they are suppose to behave, either feminine or masculine . However, why does color preference draw generalizations about identity? Young children are interested in playing with many of the same things and not just gender specific toys.
Gender, a social construct, is predominant from the moment a child is born, whether it is from parental influence, the media, clothing, or even children’s toys. These influences can affect the way a child learns how to “do gender”. The various toys, such as Barbie dolls and G.I. Joe action figures, My Little Pony, Strawberry Shortcake, Bratz Dolls, Power Rangers and most action figures that companies market to children of different genders reinforce stereotypical gender norms and perpetuate conventional gender roles. Parents should be conscientious when choosing their children’s toys because some toys can shape the overall learned gender norms of those children.
This is in contrast to the William Corsaro study, which is directed more towards looking at how children communicate with each other within their own social circle. He also studied children’s personal feelings towards friendships. In an interview with William Corsaro he said that his aim was to understand what the experience of childhood and friendship was like from a child’s point of view (Interview with William Corsaro 2010). From reading this it is clear that although the researchers were all interested in studying children’s friendships, they were looking at it from completely different angles. The Bigelow and La Gaipa (1975) study is a more general look at the subject in contrast to the Corsaro study which seems to be a more personal and individual based study.
Commercials are about promoting and selling to one kind of audience, children. Their product must be appealing and often lie about the product but it gets it sold and children continue to want them. Article 4 (miller) Qualitative Differences among Gender Stereotyped Toys: Implications for Cognitive and Social Development in Girls and Boys According to what the article stated it was suggested that the early play experiences of girls and boys may contribute to gender differences in cognitive and social development, empirical support for this hypothesis is limited. (Miller, 1987) Such as girls or boys knowing the gender differences of toys and classifying them in a
Little girls learn that they are supposed to like dolls and pink, while little boys learn that they are supposed to like trucks and the color blue. Through various forms of guidance and direction from external influences, children experience gender role socialization they quickly learn what behaviors are encouraged by their parents and peers, and which ones are not. These ideas are further reinforced by the media's portrayal of traditional gender roles. As a result, children internalize these beliefs pertaining to gender roles and their behavior is modified accordingly. The child's first influence in regards to gender roles is the family.
From early childhood all the way to late adulthood, Americans are taught the differences between a woman and a man by these small gestures. The theory and concepts surrounding gender vary by culture, but as Americans, most experience some of the same influences. Because of these continuous influences and expectations from society, the idea of schema theory imprisons young minds and prevents them from moving beyond the beliefs established by others. In a collection of essays titled “Perspectives on Gender”, two authors identified gendered schema theory as “a theory which proposes that people have implicit cognitive structures that provide them with expectancies when processing information. Gender schema theory argues that people are socialized (e.g., through parents, teachers, peers, toys, and the popular media) into believing that gender differences are significant and worth maintaining” (Knight & Giuliano 332).
In the essay “Why Boys Don’t Play With Dolls’ by Katha Pollit she takes a dismissive attitude towards any kind of study or theory which suggests that there are innate differences in behavior between boys and girls. The blame for children’s gender differences and their personalities is put on their upbringing and the culture in which they grew up. There is no doubt that our society encourages and exaggerates gender stereotypes through things like the messages put out by the media and the toys we play with as kids, but boys and girls would probably still act differently if they were brought up in a neutral environment. In the article “The Gender Blurr” by Deborah Blum she says “Do the ways we amplify physical and behavioral differences in childhood shape who we become as adults?’ The answer is yes it does influence the way children are raised and the way they deal with their lives as they grow older. Gender roles vary.