I think when we think about the kinds of activities we enjoy doing in our free time, we ask people of the same or opposite sex depending on the activity. If I wanted to go shopping for the day, I wouldn't ask my boyfriend to go, but if I wanted to watch the world series games, he would be the first on my list. I wouldn't even need to think about these decisions they would just come automatically because girls are more inclined to shop and boys are more inclined to watch sports. This is not always the case, but when thinking about how I think of gender activities in my free time, they normally fall into categories like that.
I think that young children see their environment and cement their surroundings into their belief systems. They soak up how opposite sexes interact: parents, siblings, teachers, coaches, etc. and internalize those actions to make them their own.
The problem is that sometimes these ingrained gendered positions creep up when we least expect them and despite our best efforts are able to show through to the young ones.
As we've been reading the articles for this section of the course I've been noticing some things about myself that I do that pertain to gender. They are little things that I never noticed before because I just did them naturally.
For example, the other day I was grabbing a ruler for a male student out of a container that had multiple rulers of different colors. I automatically avoided that pink and purple rulers and grabbed a blue one to give to him. This seems so insignificant, but it plays right into the binary categories we have set up for boys and girls. Boys use boy colors and girls use girl colors.
I've also noticed that I approach boys and girls different. I do this more with the older students than the younger students. I find that with the girls I take on a more motherly attitude, smiling at them and being more gentle with them. With the boys, I find that I am a little more withdrawn, stern, and to the point.
Funny how I like to think of myself as unbiased, but really gender changes the way I act unconsciously.
I totally agree with the things that have been stated in this discussion already. I definately think that we all unconsiously group people into different gender roles. I think that as large as our society to as small as our family, we mold ourselves into the roles that are expected of us. I think that as children we definately watch how our parents roles in our family differ. There are even differences in the ways that I was treated than how my brother was treated. There were always certain things that my parents wouldn't let me do that my brother could do at the same age.
I completely agree with what you have all said about gender. I too think that I do some things naturally without realizing it. As Lynn said, I think I talk differently to boys than I do to girls in school. Also when I am picking out treats or prizes for classrooms, I tend to think to myself what the boys would like and what the girls would like, or that boys wont like something because of the color or that it is too girly.
Also, as Darcie said, my parents let my brother do some things that they would not let me do. For example, our elementary school is just a couple blocks away. Once my brother was in 5th grade, my parents let him ride his bike to school. However, when I was in 5th grade, my parents would not let me ride my bike. When I asked why, they said "Because he is a boy."
When thinking about the gender roles that are shaped in our society, I was able to pick out a few during the Halloween weekend. Both boys and girls, men and women, like to dress up for certain reasons. The costumes they pick reflect their gender and the stereotypes. Women tend to go for the sexier, more revealing outfit. The men like to be macho, heroes. Little girls want to be princesses, and the boys want to be cartoon figures. When someone notices a boy in a sexy, princess costume they start to wonder. It would be different if these stereotypes were not formed right from birth. These are interests, but normally we fall into these certain categories.
While reading the comments posted above, it made me realize that I can relate to what each person said. When talking to male students, I do notice I am more stern than I am with female students. When Lynne stated her ruler situation, it got me thinking of how often I probably do that during a school day. While teaching over summer school I used a prize rewards system for my students. While shopping for their prizes I made sure I had equal "Boy prizes" and "Girl prizes". While I realize that girls and boys do have common interests, I still turn to the boy vs. girl interests in certain situations.
In response to Darcie's comment, I agree about the fact that parents treat their children differently based on sex. I was speaking to my husband the other day about when we have kids and whether or not they will be allowed to do what we were allowed to do as kids. We were both pretty bad teenagers and are worried that our kids will be too. As we started discussing the issue, we were both much more worried about having daughters than having sons. I never realized that I felt this way and I can even remember arguing with my parents about why I was not allowed to do certain things that my brother was.
I guess we are all a little biased, even if we don't realize it.
I've also noticed in my own classroom that the kids pick up the typical gender roles within the classroon. The other day I let my students choose partners for an activity and when the groups were formed, I looked around to find that their were no pairs consisting of a girl and boy.
As I have continued these readings, I have started to notice that I unconsciously associate certain things with different genders like colors, interests, activity choices, etc.
When thinking about gendered positions I related it a lot to my little brother. Growing up he was always involved in sports and I was always involved in academics. Today he is one of the top cross counrty runners at Albany. I go to the same school, but my focus is academics. When we are both home my family always asks me, "How is school?" first. They ask him, "How is running going?" first. Its funny how I can pick up on these things. Looking at sports its interesting to see when you are younger team sports like soccer and little league have females and males together, but as soon as you become older the seperation of gender in sports begins. It makes me wonder how this seperation affects younger children with friendships and with an outlook towards life when it comes to sperated genders. One of the main sports I think of in high school where people made a big deal over was cheerleading. We had a boy join the squad at our high school and there were many comments made about this because it was known to be an all girls activity. I imagine this happens in all schools. We make assumptions about sports and gender. When people break the mold that we have set we make a big deal over it. Making the big deal is only hurting others. In general I think that sports in school is a big gender based issue.
In response to Kerilee's comment about Halloween costumes I wanted to offer the following food for thought. We always see those guys dressing up as girls or very girly things and the girls dressing up as manly things on Halloween. It's funny how this is accepted and seen as humorous just on this holiday, but in the real world when we see this happen it gets a very different respose.
I was reminded of a time when I set up a doctors office in the dramatic play area of my classroom. The children had a variety of clothing and props available to them including name tags stating their role, such as doctor,nurse, patient..etc. Although the boys and girls were equally sharing the roles of the doctor, no boys wanted to be the nurse. I heard one boy saying that he didn't want to be the girl. After realizing that we probably need to discuss that boys and girls could be all of these roles, I saw one boy tell a girl to sit at a desk. I watched, wondering what he was planning to do. I saw him hand her a play phone and a piece of paper and said "you're going to be the lady that sits at the front desk and answers the phone."
After the first day of the doctors office, as a class we discussed that girls and boys can do the same jobs. It was very interesting to hear their comments. Boys were telling me that girls could not build houses, and some girls were telling me that boys could not be teachers. It made me realize how even children who are only 3 and 4 years old take up these gendered positions.
I just wanted to add another comment about how such young children take up gendered positions. Aside from barbie's and bratz dolls that young girls are exposed to, other toys are so ridiculous when you look at them from an outside perspective. One thing in particular that I personally find ridiculous is this new toy 'house' called the rose petal cottage. It consists of a pink house area that has a washer/dryer, an oven, a place for the baby, and some furniture. When I first saw the commercial I honestly thought it was an SNL skit.
The commercial shows a young girl doing laundry, making muffins, taking care of the baby and rearranging her furniture. It states that "its giving her a place to let her imagination grow"-as she's putting the clothes into the dryer.
I'm not saying that having young children play in a house area is a bad thing- I actually think it's important, but I wish that some of these toys had more to offer.
p.s. it's worth it to watch the commercial on you tube- apparently it has a pretty big following of people who are creeped out by the commercial.
Lynne.. I do the same thing all the time! I constantly want to give the boys the blue, green, black colors and the girls the pink, yellow, purple colors. The other day we were making Halloween placemats and one boy picked a pink peice of construction paper and the other boys made fun of him.
And Kim.. of course we are bias!! Girls can't do that, only boys! Or, boys can't do that, only girls! We see it everywhere in life, no matter where we live or what our profession might be.
When choosing protractors for my male GED class I picked only the pink ones. I knew that if I chose a mix of colors the pink would never be used...so I picked pink so that they would be forced to use them YET not think its a big deal bc there are only pink to choose from. My students aren't the only sneaky ones. ;-)
I think that girls sports are increasing in popularity and it won't be disproportionate any longer. When I was younger my sister was in the marching/performing band and I played soccer year 'round. My Dad went to 90% of my soccer games and 1 of my sisters band performances in the 4 yrs she did it. How do we analyze this? :)
Going off the comment about treating male and female students differently as teachers, I think that students also respond differently to male and female teachers. When I student taught in a 5th grade classroom, my cooperating teacher was a male teacher. I noticed that when he taught he had some minor problems with a group of girls chatting during his lessons. But when I taught I didn't have any problems with these girls, but I did have a problem with a few boys who were goofing off. I've always wondered if it had to do with our different styles of teaching or if the students had some how learned to treat people of the same or opposite sex differently. It's probably a combination of both, but how can you prevent it from happening?
Mary, I agree completely!! I actually just posted a comment about the Rose Petal Cottage on another prompt a few minutes before reading yours. Although I also included a note wondering about how many of those will sell this holiday season. I would love to know.
17 comments:
I think when we think about the kinds of activities we enjoy doing in our free time, we ask people of the same or opposite sex depending on the activity. If I wanted to go shopping for the day, I wouldn't ask my boyfriend to go, but if I wanted to watch the world series games, he would be the first on my list. I wouldn't even need to think about these decisions they would just come automatically because girls are more inclined to shop and boys are more inclined to watch sports. This is not always the case, but when thinking about how I think of gender activities in my free time, they normally fall into categories like that.
Meghan had some great ideas, I agree with you.
I think that young children see their environment and cement their surroundings into their belief systems. They soak up how opposite sexes interact: parents, siblings, teachers, coaches, etc. and internalize those actions to make them their own.
The problem is that sometimes these ingrained gendered positions creep up when we least expect them and despite our best efforts are able to show through to the young ones.
As we've been reading the articles for this section of the course I've been noticing some things about myself that I do that pertain to gender. They are little things that I never noticed before because I just did them naturally.
For example, the other day I was grabbing a ruler for a male student out of a container that had multiple rulers of different colors. I automatically avoided that pink and purple rulers and grabbed a blue one to give to him. This seems so insignificant, but it plays right into the binary categories we have set up for boys and girls. Boys use boy colors and girls use girl colors.
I've also noticed that I approach boys and girls different. I do this more with the older students than the younger students. I find that with the girls I take on a more motherly attitude, smiling at them and being more gentle with them. With the boys, I find that I am a little more withdrawn, stern, and to the point.
Funny how I like to think of myself as unbiased, but really gender changes the way I act unconsciously.
I totally agree with the things that have been stated in this discussion already. I definately think that we all unconsiously group people into different gender roles. I think that as large as our society to as small as our family, we mold ourselves into the roles that are expected of us. I think that as children we definately watch how our parents roles in our family differ. There are even differences in the ways that I was treated than how my brother was treated. There were always certain things that my parents wouldn't let me do that my brother could do at the same age.
I completely agree with what you have all said about gender. I too think that I do some things naturally without realizing it. As Lynn said, I think I talk differently to boys than I do to girls in school. Also when I am picking out treats or prizes for classrooms, I tend to think to myself what the boys would like and what the girls would like, or that boys wont like something because of the color or that it is too girly.
Also, as Darcie said, my parents let my brother do some things that they would not let me do. For example, our elementary school is just a couple blocks away. Once my brother was in 5th grade, my parents let him ride his bike to school. However, when I was in 5th grade, my parents would not let me ride my bike. When I asked why, they said "Because he is a boy."
When thinking about the gender roles that are shaped in our society, I was able to pick out a few during the Halloween weekend. Both boys and girls, men and women, like to dress up for certain reasons. The costumes they pick reflect their gender and the stereotypes. Women tend to go for the sexier, more revealing outfit. The men like to be macho, heroes. Little girls want to be princesses, and the boys want to be cartoon figures. When someone notices a boy in a sexy, princess costume they start to wonder. It would be different if these stereotypes were not formed right from birth. These are interests, but normally we fall into these certain categories.
While reading the comments posted above, it made me realize that I can relate to what each person said. When talking to male students, I do notice I am more stern than I am with female students. When Lynne stated her ruler situation, it got me thinking of how often I probably do that during a school day. While teaching over summer school I used a prize rewards system for my students. While shopping for their prizes I made sure I had equal "Boy prizes" and "Girl prizes". While I realize that girls and boys do have common interests, I still turn to the boy vs. girl interests in certain situations.
In response to Darcie's comment, I agree about the fact that parents treat their children differently based on sex. I was speaking to my husband the other day about when we have kids and whether or not they will be allowed to do what we were allowed to do as kids. We were both pretty bad teenagers and are worried that our kids will be too. As we started discussing the issue, we were both much more worried about having daughters than having sons. I never realized that I felt this way and I can even remember arguing with my parents about why I was not allowed to do certain things that my brother was.
I guess we are all a little biased, even if we don't realize it.
I've also noticed in my own classroom that the kids pick up the typical gender roles within the classroon. The other day I let my students choose partners for an activity and when the groups were formed, I looked around to find that their were no pairs consisting of a girl and boy.
As I have continued these readings, I have started to notice that I unconsciously associate certain things with different genders like colors, interests, activity choices, etc.
When thinking about gendered positions I related it a lot to my little brother. Growing up he was always involved in sports and I was always involved in academics. Today he is one of the top cross counrty runners at Albany. I go to the same school, but my focus is academics. When we are both home my family always asks me, "How is school?" first. They ask him, "How is running going?" first. Its funny how I can pick up on these things.
Looking at sports its interesting to see when you are younger team sports like soccer and little league have females and males together, but as soon as you become older the seperation of gender in sports begins. It makes me wonder how this seperation affects younger children with friendships and with an outlook towards life when it comes to sperated genders.
One of the main sports I think of in high school where people made a big deal over was cheerleading. We had a boy join the squad at our high school and there were many comments made about this because it was known to be an all girls activity. I imagine this happens in all schools. We make assumptions about sports and gender. When people break the mold that we have set we make a big deal over it. Making the big deal is only hurting others. In general I think that sports in school is a big gender based issue.
In response to Kerilee's comment about Halloween costumes I wanted to offer the following food for thought. We always see those guys dressing up as girls or very girly things and the girls dressing up as manly things on Halloween. It's funny how this is accepted and seen as humorous just on this holiday, but in the real world when we see this happen it gets a very different respose.
I was reminded of a time when I set up a doctors office in the dramatic play area of my classroom. The children had a variety of clothing and props available to them including name tags stating their role, such as doctor,nurse, patient..etc. Although the boys and girls were equally sharing the roles of the doctor, no boys wanted to be the nurse. I heard one boy saying that he didn't want to be the girl. After realizing that we probably need to discuss that boys and girls could be all of these roles, I saw one boy tell a girl to sit at a desk. I watched, wondering what he was planning to do. I saw him hand her a play phone and a piece of paper and said "you're going to be the lady that sits at the front desk and answers the phone."
After the first day of the doctors office, as a class we discussed that girls and boys can do the same jobs. It was very interesting to hear their comments. Boys were telling me that girls could not build houses, and some girls were telling me that boys could not be teachers. It made me realize how even children who are only 3 and 4 years old take up these gendered positions.
I just wanted to add another comment about how such young children take up gendered positions. Aside from barbie's and bratz dolls that young girls are exposed to, other toys are so ridiculous when you look at them from an outside perspective. One thing in particular that I personally find ridiculous is this new toy 'house' called the rose petal cottage. It consists of a pink house area that has a washer/dryer, an oven, a place for the baby, and some furniture. When I first saw the commercial I honestly thought it was an SNL skit.
The commercial shows a young girl doing laundry, making muffins, taking care of the baby and rearranging her furniture. It states that "its giving her a place to let her imagination grow"-as she's putting the clothes into the dryer.
I'm not saying that having young children play in a house area is a bad thing- I actually think it's important, but I wish that some of these toys had more to offer.
p.s. it's worth it to watch the commercial on you tube- apparently it has a pretty big following of people who are creeped out by the commercial.
Lynne.. I do the same thing all the time! I constantly want to give the boys the blue, green, black colors and the girls the pink, yellow, purple colors. The other day we were making Halloween placemats and one boy picked a pink peice of construction paper and the other boys made fun of him.
And Kim.. of course we are bias!! Girls can't do that, only boys! Or, boys can't do that, only girls! We see it everywhere in life, no matter where we live or what our profession might be.
When choosing protractors for my male GED class I picked only the pink ones. I knew that if I chose a mix of colors the pink would never be used...so I picked pink so that they would be forced to use them YET not think its a big deal bc there are only pink to choose from. My students aren't the only sneaky ones. ;-)
I think that girls sports are increasing in popularity and it won't be disproportionate any longer.
When I was younger my sister was in the marching/performing band and I played soccer year 'round. My Dad went to 90% of my soccer games and 1 of my sisters band performances in the 4 yrs she did it. How do we analyze this? :)
Going off the comment about treating male and female students differently as teachers, I think that students also respond differently to male and female teachers. When I student taught in a 5th grade classroom, my cooperating teacher was a male teacher. I noticed that when he taught he had some minor problems with a group of girls chatting during his lessons. But when I taught I didn't have any problems with these girls, but I did have a problem with a few boys who were goofing off. I've always wondered if it had to do with our different styles of teaching or if the students had some how learned to treat people of the same or opposite sex differently. It's probably a combination of both, but how can you prevent it from happening?
Mary, I agree completely!! I actually just posted a comment about the Rose Petal Cottage on another prompt a few minutes before reading yours. Although I also included a note wondering about how many of those will sell this holiday season. I would love to know.
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