Socialization effects gender role stereotyping and career choices. We act the way we have observed. Families, teachers, the media and many others play a major role on the way its members acts. When we think little girl we automatically picture pink, Barbie’s, dolls and princesses. When we think little boys we think blue, dirt, tractors and trucks. From the moment a child is born they start to become gender socialized. However, the boy in blue and the girl in pink scenarios are ideal. What would happen to a girl if she was born and was put in all blue, was give trucks to play with and was encouraged to play in the dirt? Would this child become a lesbian later in life because she was taught how boys act and generally boys attract to girls? Or would she realize she was a girl and start doing girly things? Many people get worried when they see little boys playing with dolls or other girl oriented toys. It is common to hear, "don't let him play with that doll, I don't want him to grow up to be gay".
McDonald’s is a great example of how gender is socialized. When you order a happy meal for a child they ask who the meal is for, a boy or girl. McDonald’s is promoting gender socialization by letting children believe which kind of toys a boy or a girl should be playing with.
McDonald’s is a great example of how gender is socialized. When you order a happy meal for a child they ask who the meal is for, a boy or girl. McDonald’s is promoting gender socialization by letting children believe which kind of toys a boy or a girl should be playing with.
That’s when biological socialization comes into play. When children get to a mature enough age to realize how they are different to other people, they start observing who they are. Once a child realizes who they are, they start to attract to girly things or boyish things. This eventually can lead into the career path they choose. Kids start to observe what kind of occupations are male and female oriented. Before children realize all of this, they will find nothing wrong with a boy playing with a doll or a girl playing with a truck. An appealing toy is a toy no matter what!
I like how you brought up the fact of McDonalds offering either girl or boy toys in Happy Meals. This is a practice in socialization. Is it necessarily stereotyping when you look at a girl and think of girly things? Or boys and boyish things?
ReplyDeleteWhen I was younger people would say "but you're a girl" when I wanted to go play with the boys in the woods, I was a tomboy. I still am, sort of, but when I reached a certain age I wanted to act more like a girl and do girly things. I think that this is a natural process, for most. It is deciding what you're personally more naturally comfortable with.
I also like the graph that you put together. It shows very straight forwardly how our gender socialization can effect our ultimate lifestyle and choices.
After doing a little research on the "Happy Meal" I find it very interesting that the toys are not gender neutral. The original toys in 1977 found in a Happy Meal kids got either a McDonald's stencil, a wallet, an ID bracelet, a puzzle lock, a spinning top or a McDonald character eraser. All in my opinion are gender neutral.
ReplyDeleteI couldn't find when McDonald's started to offer "boy" and "girl" toys but in the late eighties Disney characters were introduced to the happy meal and although some characters can be viewed as gender neutral Mickey and Goofy for example others appeal to certain genders such as the Minne Mouse or the famous Disney Princess.
I remember that growing up my favorite toys from McDonald's were the Beanie babies or the 101 Dalmatian series which appealed to any gender as well. So it depends on the week what is offered either gender neutral or not.
(All info from)
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1986073,00.html
Gender socialization does play a huge role in our society. Like you said in your post, even McDonald's is promoting gender socialization.
ReplyDeleteOur society does start gender socializing children from the time they are born to like the appropriate things according to their gender. My dad is a perfect candidate for this. He freaks out if my son picks up a doll. However, my son will go straight for the boys toys if we enter a toy store and pay no attention to the girls toys. Is this because of gender socialization? Or are children born with a sense of what they are supposed to like?
While researching gender socialization focusing specifically on choices in toys, I came across an interesting blog on psychologytoday.com speculating that there may be more of a biological factor in why boys and girls prefer different toys.
ReplyDeleteIn summary of the blog, Gerianne M. Alexander and Melissa Hines used male and female monkeys to observe toy preference and to compare that to toy preference in humans. They used toys for girls, toys for boys and neutral toys. They found that male monkeys were more intrigued to 'boy toys' and girl monkeys to 'girl toys'. They also stated that there was no significant difference in the preference to the gender neutral toys. These results are interesting because monkeys do not go through human socialization and it states in the blog that they were never exposed to these toys either.
Here is the web address for the blog:
http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-scientific-fundamentalist/200804/why-do-boys-and-girls-prefer-different-toys
That is very interesting about the monkey research. You would think since they have not gone through socialization that there would not be a distinct difference between the boy monkeys going for the boys toys and the girl monkeys going for the girls toys.
ReplyDeleteAs others have said gender socialization starts at a young age. What I find very interesting (as we talked about in our discussion) is that it's more acceptable for girls to play with boy toys then boys to play with girls toys. As previously stated some people are mortified if a boy is playing with a doll. The fear is that he will grow up to be gay. But if the girls are playing with the boys toys why isn't there just as much fear for them to grow up to be a lesbian. Is it more acceptable so to speak for a woman to be a lesbian than a male to be gay? As gender socialization starts so young are we teaching our children which one is "better"?