Chapter 8: Gender Roles

Chapter 8: Gender Roles

In this chapter, I learned a lot about the difference between being a male and female and what that means in the aspect of the physical sex you were born, and what you may identify with even though you were born a certain way. For myself, I was born a girl and I never questioned for a moment that I was a female. I loved playing with baby dolls and barbies. I wanted to be mother when I grew up and never thought twice about what it would be like to be a boy instead. As far as my children go, I have two sons. My oldest is very much a boy, never was interested in anything that girls liked and is analytical and masculine. For my second son, he is more compassionate, emotional and likes to watch shows that are typically geared towards girls. He has never questioned whether or not he wanted to be a boy, he has just always been comfortable in his skin and liked what he liked, he never mattered to him that it was a "girly" thing to do. He equally likes sports, guns, and rough play. For a lot of people, it bothers them when a boy plays with girls toys, even more so than when a girl plays with boy toys. I feel like this double standard really hurts the generations before them, but the up and coming generations could care less. 

When I become a teacher, I will definitely apply this knowledge to my classrooms and make sure that I am a gender neutral planner for class activities and events. There is nothing more confusing for a child than to have an adult tell them what they should or should not like when it comes so naturally to them. I would want to make sure that I was always available to talk to my students who had questions, and never put them in a spot where they felt they could not be who they wanted to be, or what comes naturally to them as a person. 

What I learned in this chapter is that it is very important to be compassionate and sensitive to the feelings of others. It is confusing enough to go against what society has always told you what you should or should not like or do or be as a male or female. That girls should not play sports or cannot play as well as boys, or that men can never be as good of a parent to a child a woman simply because they are a man. These things are just not true. Of course there are many aspects to being a man or a woman that come more naturally, but the general rule should be that all people are created different but equal and you should never try and put somebody in a box they do not belong in when their heart tells them differently. One theorists I agree with to an extent is Bem. The Gender Schema theory is something that tells how a child learns how to identify with gender through their surroundings. Bem believed we recognized gender roles and identification much earlier than other theorists and I agree. At very young ages, little girls put on their mother's lipstick and pearls, walk around in their heels. They are learning through watching us.