Professor of psychology Karen Prager defines gender stereotype as “a shared set of beliefs about purported qualities of females and males.” Such a set of appropriate gender characteristics is virtually ubiquitous in our culture. Whereas some people believe that gender stereotypes are natural and are based on the true differences between men and women, others think that men and women are inherently equal. Still another theory stated on the Women’s Issues website is that “gender stereotypes are very real gender characteristics that are amplified and exaggerated to the extreme ends with no gray areas.” Many studies have been conducted to test all three of these hypotheses, yielding mutually contradicting results. It is doubtless, however, that from the earliest age people are bombarded with the information about gender stereotypes. While it is not certain whether the children would develop differently in the absence of gender stereotypes, their omnipresence rigidifies the conceptions of the gender-appropriate behaviors, oftentimes leading to detrimental results psychologically, sexually, and socially.
Gender stereotypes surround us from the early childhood and on, making it impossible to separate their effects from those of nature. Although parents often argue that they do not encourage their kids to develop gender-specific characteristics, that encouragement is often unconscious and hence goes unnoticed. Apart from the early differentiation of cloth color on pink for girls and blue for boys, as Elena Belotti notes in What Are Little Girls Made Of?, there are countless other influences. For example, women generally take care of children more than men do, thus encouraging girls, who identify themselves as women, to be nurturing and play dolls. Fathers, on the other hand, often (though certainly not always) participate in child-caring by reading and playing games with the kids, thus encouraging more intellectual and active personalities in boys, who identify with them. Such identification is very real since by the age of one, according to Belotti, children can clearly differentiate between people on the basis of gender while by the age of three, they can verbally state their own gender and its appropriate characteristics. Moreover, even the most gender-conscious parents would not dress a boy in the traditionally female clothes, such as a dress, even though traditionally male clothes worn by girls (i.e. pants) are generally accepted nowadays in our culture.
Gender stereotypes persist in the toy business as well. Although later on kids have an opportunity to choose the toys they want to play with for themselves, parents make choices for them earlier on in life. While not necessarily selecting the gender-appropriate toys, parents, as Belotti observes, rarely buy for their child something that is traditionally associated with the opposite gender. Later on, moreover, the parents’, the peers’ and/or the media’s portrayal of gender stereotypes can also influence children’s own choice of toys. As Dyanne Tracy’s study concludes, 21.6% of females and 39.9% of males feel the pressure to play with toys stereotypical for their respective genders. These statistics, moreover, only include the actually overt pressure, neglecting the subconscious, covert messages of gender stereotypes. Furthermore, the toys played in childhood actually affect gender differences later on in life. For example, the same study shows that three-dimensional toys (such as Legos and Tinker Toys), which are more popular with boys, increase children’s science scores regardless of gender. The role-playing toys (including Barbies and G.I. Joes), moreover, regardless of gender, are more popular among the individuals who later go into humanitarian rather that technological professions. Although in the latter case the cause-effect relationship cannot be established, it certainly seems probable in light of the former example.
The media consistently promote gender stereotypes. As Deborah Rhodes asserts in her book Speaking of Sex,
| http://www.apa.org/monitor/dec98/gender.html
Belotti, Elena G. What Are Little Girls Made Of?. Schocken Books: New York. 1976. Cantu, Ethel. Gender Stereotypes. University of Texas at Brownsville. 2002. http://ntmain.utb.edu/ecantu/Psyc%204312/Notes/NotesBrannon7.htm Eick, Kelly. Gender Stereotypes in Children’s Television Cartoons. California Polytechnic State University. May 1998. http://cla.calpoly.edu/~jrubba/495/papersS98/paper1.html Fleming-Davies, Arietta. Gender-Specific Toys: Increasing the Gender Gap?. Stanford University. Dec 1. 2000. http://www.stanford.edu/~zozo/gap/childhood/toys.html Henwood, Doug. Women Working. Left Business Observer #65. August 1994. http://www.panix.com/~dhenwood/Sex-and-money.html Kamm, Katherine. Gender Inequality in Education. May 4. 1999. http://hometown.aol.com/talulalady/gender.html Katz, Nikki. Gender Stereotypes. Women’s Issues. About Inc. 2003. http://womensissues.about.com/cs/genderstereotypes Lips, Hilary M. Public Lecture Presented at New Zealand Universities. Radford University. 10 October. 2000. http://www.radford.edu/~gstudies/sources/uz/powraddr.htm Marriot, A., Townsend, C. Challenging Stereotypes of Men. Eldis. 2002. http://www.eldis.org/gender/dossiers/responses-stereotypes-men.htm Marriot, A., Townsend, C. Stereotypes of Women and Girls. Eldis. 2002. http://www.eldis.org/gender/dossiers/responses-stereotypes.htm Prager, Karen J. Lecture Notes: Gender Role Stereotypes & the Self. The University of Texas at Dallas. 2002. http://www.utdallas.edu/~kprager/stereoty.htm Rhode, Deborah L. Speaking of Sex: The Denial of Gender Inequality. Harvard University Press: Cambridge, London. 1999. Ross, Kelley L. Gender Stereotypes and Sexual Archetypes. 2003. http://www.friesiean.com/gender.htm Shears, Kathleen H. Gender Stereotypes Compromise Sexual Health. Family Health International. Network Vol. 21 No. 4. 2002. http://www.reproline.jhu.edu/english/6read/6issues/6network/v21-4/nt2142.htm Wilchins, Rikki. Homophobia’s Gender Roots. The Advocate. 19 March. 2002. http://www.gpac.org/other/articles/advocate-mar1903.html
|
