In a world inhabited by millions of people, gender has always served as a form of identification and classification for human beings. When a child is conceived, typically the child’s parents are impatient to know the sex of their prospective offspring. In societies where ultrasounds enable parents to know the offspring gender while it is unborn, those children are exposed to gender role gearing before they even exit the womb. Kurtin (2018) points out that “parents create gendered worlds by purchasing gender-appropriate toys and clothing” (p. 85). America from the moment the sex of the baby is known, people are accustomed to throwing an all pink baby shower for girls and all blue for boys. Society reciprocates the parent’s decision to gear children into either male and female gender role.
Schools serve nations a greater purpose that just being an institution where academic knowledge is attained, intact schools are essential tolls for early childhood socialization. Schools teach kids societies upheld moral values and gear children into gender roles. At an extremely young age, children are “prompted by gender role socialization of society, parents and the local (school) community” (Huyge, Van Maele, &Van Houtte, 2014, p. 4). Young boys are taught that “boys are meant to be masculine” and girls are usually taught to be “beautiful feminine and maternal”. In daycares or schools, the majority of toys available for children to use are separated based on sex and its corresponding gender role. There are typically blue, or green toys often in form of trucks, guns or working tools for the little boys; and pink or purple toys for girls often in forms of babies or makeup. In result Cherney, and London (2006) show that “rather than playing with cross-gender-typed toys, girls most often choose to play with feminine or neutral toys, whereas boys play primarily with masculine toys” (p.718).
Many people think that having gender norms serves as a purpose to allow society to thrive on however that may not be the case for everyone. Children begin to separate themselves based on their gender because they feel too unfamiliar with what children of the opposite gender have been exposed to; it comes naturally for little boys to play with other little boys because they have both grown accustomed to playing violently and with the same type of toys in contrast to where little girls have grown accustomed to playing gently with dolls. In result of these differences and lack opposite gender interactions, children may not develop adequate understanding of other who’s identify with a gender apart from theirs.
In addition to schools serving the purpose of socializing children gearing them into gender roles, the mass media has also severed the same purpose. In fact, Cherney and London (2006) state that “television viewing is a third activity that encompasses much of children’s leisure time” (p. 718). Through the media people, including children often experience identification, internalization, and even parasocial relationships. Identification occurs when the person viewing a mass media source, identifies with a character or characters within the content and sees things from their perspective. Internalization occurs when the viewer of a mass media source begins to uphold what is presented in its content is normal.
Parasocial relationships are created in result of the existing identification and internalization that the viewer experiences, parasocial relationships are onside relationships acquired by viewers. Evidence shows that “high frequency of violent television watching has also been associated with higher aggression amongst its viewers” (Cherney & London, 2006, p. 718). Many times, views develop a sense that they know the people in the mass media content yet the people in the mass media content have no clue about them or their one-sided relationship. In many case people even develop similar personality traits as the material they observe on television. Mass media helps embed social, identity and gender roles in people.
As times evolve and situations change the gender roles that were once viewed as the primary social norm begin to cause issues that could be mended by expanding the gender role spectrum. If some gender roles that were forced upon children did not suit his or her emotional needs, there is a strong chance that it will negatively impact his or her life. Currently there have been an uprising amount of gun related crimes done by men, could this be a result of boy’s priory taught to view guns as toys to play violently with? Young boys play with pellet guns which also impact injuries therefore they are familiar with the fact that guns are dangerous but still play worthy toys a “five-year-old boy presented to the casualty unit of the Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital with a history of having been shot in the neck with an air gun whilst playing with his friend” (Botchway, Singh, & Loveland, 2018). The answer to the question about whether or not toys guns cause the usage of real guns is still unclear however many schools now have placed a ban on toy guns to avoid sending young boys the wrong concept about guns.
In contrast now, many women serve society a role beyond homemaker, they often are working providers for their families. Schools now know they need to help enable girls to have goals beyond those just producing and raising their children. Conger (2015) noticed that during “the past four decades, the US has witnessed a reversal in the gender gap in college enrollment”. In the present day, “approximately 57% of US college students are women”. In addition to this change “the National Center for Education Statistics projects that enrollment increases for women will continue to outpace those for men in the coming years”. In fact, in certain community such as the African American the percentage of women a higher education has reached 67%. The number of women that strive to option higher education has risen significantly, yet it is a social problem than women are still viewed less capable than men are of fulfilling the role of an educated athletic or working individual. In sports women are viewed less capable of playing at a professional worthy level than men.
Although women may put as much effort as men, they get a lot less financial compensation and are not held at that same profession stance as men. In addition, some men are not too welcoming to the idea that a woman can do the same job as them. As Courter (2014) state that the “AAUW [American Association of University Women] research confirmed the male-female pay gap grows over the years” regardless of how educated women make themselves men still favor each other in giving job opportunities and salary compensations and raises. Often time “men are more likely than women to negotiate their salaries. In part, this difference may reflect women’s awareness that employers are likely to view negotiations by men more favorably than negotiations by women”.
The majority of the time women only get raises when all the employees get them and if their male coworkers are already making more than them the increasement in both their salaries doesn’t change the salary gap. The problems present in society may be a result in gender roles that were embedded in individuals as children. As explained in the text it is a lot easier to inflict social norm and gender roles in children because it helps construct their lifelong identify. The true challenge rests on trying to change an adult’s perception upon what is a social norm.
Human beings are evolving species, the more we learn about ourselves the more we realize we cannot be solemnly classified into two genders. Being classified into just two gender leads to leaving behind many people who fall out of the gender role identification spectrum. Gender refers to differences beyond those that are physiologically present upon people, then it seems insufficient to only base gender off of anatomical factors. Gender integrates into the society and culture therefore it needs to expand into a larger horizon of factors that make up its classifications. Mass media has played a key role in the breakthrough of gender expansion. In social media there now are many famous people who do not fit into the outdated criterion of gender. An explore of these is there are currently many men dominated the make-up artist industry. Most men that dominate the make-up artist industry do not classify themselves in the gender of male although they may have the biological anatomy of the male sex.
In conclusion the nature of gender needs to broaden its role spectrum in order for all people to fit into one or several areas. Social norms need to rely less on predesignated roles based of sex. Children are the best minds to mold into the diversity amongst genders and the roles individuals carry on. The mass media along with other sources tools can help broaden the gender spectrum.
References
- Cherney, I., & London, D. (2006). Gender-linked Differences in the Toys, Television Shows, Computer Games, and Outdoor Activities of 5- to 13-year-old Children. Sex Roles, 54(9), 717-726.
- Courter, E. (2014). Women Need to Step Up, Negotiate Pay. Credit Union Times, p. N/a.
- Conger, D. (2015). High school grades, admissions policies, and the gender gap in college enrollment. Economics of Education Review, 46, 144-147.
- Huyge, E., Van Maele, D., & Van Houtte, M. (2014). Does students’ machismo fit in school? Clarifying the implications of traditional gender role ideology for school belonging. Gender and Education, 27(1), 1-18.
- Kurtin, K. (2018). Diving Deeper into Communication: An Introduction and Beyond. Cognella Academic Publishing. 1st Edition.
- Botchway, M.T., Singh ,S., & Loveland, J. (2018). Non-powder firearms and air-pellet guns: Toys or weapons? A case of a penetrating pellet gun injury in a child. Journal of Pediatric Surgery Case Reports, 28, 45-47.
