Gender Roles

8 Pages 1883 Words

Abstract: Why do we put so much emphasis on gender? From the moment children are born they are classified as male or female, boy or girl. They are dressed in pink and blue so that others can tell them apart. One of the most noticeable characteristics between all people is the fact that some are male and some are female. How society views them is termed gender roles.











When a baby is born, the doctor looks at the proud parents and says three simple words: “It’s a boy,” or “It’s a girl!”. This is such a happy time in the parents’ life. But before a newborn child even takes his or her first breath of life outside the mother’s womb, he or she is distinguishable and characterized by gender. “We have a strong need to classify that baby as male or female so we know how it fits in, so everything will be in its place and make sense.” (http://www.io.com/~wwwave/men/roles.html) The baby is then brought home and dressed in clothes that help friends, family, and even strangers identify the sex of the child. Baby boys are dressed in blue and baby girls are dressed in pink. As the boy begins to grow, he is given cars and trucks to pay with. The girl is given dolls and Barbie’s to play with. When they get older, boys are encouraged to play sports. Girls are encouraged to join classes such as Home Economics.
This sounds pretty normal, right? But the question is: What is normal? When each of us was in our mother’s womb and shortly after we were conceived we did not have anything or anyone influencing the way we acted. After birth within a couple of months, although we do not remember but we can observe, our fathers and mothers were bearing an influence on our lives. “Our parents are the first significant others who teach us our part in this symbolic division of the world. Their own gender orientations have become so firmly embedded that they do much of this teaching without even being aware of what th...