Social Construction of Gender

     After going to a Target this past week and taking a glance around the toy section. It was obvious who the companies were pandering to with their products. Since the girl products were in mostly pink boxes or had fuzzy/ glittery objects attached to the toys. Their toys were mostly dolls and princess costumes. This seems to illustrate that all girls will grow up to be princesses or will have to like glittery and fuzzy objects. Then keeping those products clean so they will still appear as new. Showing the girl how to care for something and dress it. By doing that it already shows the girl as the caregiver to a child or baby.
     As I went down the boys aisle the products and packages switched quickly. The boxes were more bold, and used different shades of blue, yellow, and green. Sometimes the boxes had additional details like flames printed on them. The section had a couple rows dedicated to nerf guns and small sports objects, like mini footballs and basketballs. The boys section seems to help build and reinforce what boys are taught to enjoy. Like playing sports where there is contact with others. Then by playing with the nerf guns showing them to attack others and be competitive.  Also playing with both of the toys shows that they do not need to be clean. Unlike the toys the girls have in their section.
     With the different toys it is already showing us what boys and girls should play with and enjoy. While also making sure they know how to use what the toys are and how they will appear with a child growing up. In order to mold them in their lives. According to what society see`s as normal for that gender.

The Social Construction of Gender

While searching for the newborns clothing on Walmart’s online page, each gender had it’s own category. I clicked on on each individual gender which I noticed that boy’s color were mostly blue, some red, and very few green,with neutral colors such as, white, black or grey. Girls on the other hand had colors like pink, purple, and some yellow. Which I found very interesting, because who made it a norm for boys and girls to have different colors due to their gender? Girls would have flowers printed on their clothings, while boys would have cars, superheroes, or animals. It came to the point where even their bottles were different colors, boys were blue tinted, and girls were pink tinted.

I’ve come to the conclusion that no matter the age gender is always gilded differently. Boys will always wear “boys” color, and girls will always wear “girls” color and if switched the parents will be questioned by other parents asking why their infant i is dressed that way. I’ve seen it plenty of time, never had thought about why must boys wear blue or girls wear pink. Boys are looked to be athletic, which means their clothes are about sports. While girls are meant to be “girly” and soft, which is why most of their clothes are flowers.  

One passage that I thought generalize my summary is “From birth, children are exposed to gender messages in the form of pink or blue blankets”, the quote also talks more about how TV shows, and store aisles are gear towards specific gender. The passage talks about how children are geared to accept and understand which “color” is okay to wear.

Social Construction of Gender

Right away when I get to the Kohl's online website and search under "departments" and click on "kids", there are already separate categories for the boys and girls clothes. However, under each category labeled "boy" or girl", the items are all the same, just with the gender word in front of them. For example, "boy hoodies, girl hoodies". Just by seeing this, we have already separated what girls are suppose to wear from what boys are suppose to wear. Boys wear blue sweaters with super hero faces on them, lego patterned socks, or shirts with toy trucks printed on them. Girls wear pink, soft and fluffy sweaters, colorful leggings, and dresses with princesses on them. By doing this, this already teaches young kids that go shopping with their parent, that they can only wear what is in the "boy" or "girl" section. As these kids get older, the segregation of gender clothes become even more prominent to society. Now, stores like Old Navy, Forever 21, and American Eagle are separated right when you enter the store. Men clothes to the left, women's clothing to the right. 

For a long time gender is already given to a baby even when the baby is not even born yet. Even before we can tell the sex of the child, the father may already want a boy so he can play football, carry the last name, or be the new "man" of the house while mothers are already want a girl to dress up, go shopping with, and to cook with. By doing this, the parents have already established what their child is going to do when they find out the sex. Once they do find out the sex, the expectations for their child grows. They paint the room either blue or pink, buy blue or pink outfits, and buy toys depending on the sex. However, when the child is born, they should be able to decide what gender they want to be whether it fits their sex or not.

The qualities, activities, and characteristics emphasized for girls versus boys include what toys they're suppose to play with, what color clothes they're suppose to wear, and how they appear in public such as wearing makeup or shaving facial hair. Girls are suppose to play with dolls, play house, be "cute" and act "sweet and innocent", speak only when told, and wear makeup to look presentable for the public. Boys are suppose to act "tough" and play with action figures, play sports like football and basket ball, and have facial hair to show they reached puberty/are mature. These are not what I believe how boys or girls are suppose to act or look like, but how most of what society expects from either girls or boys.

Girly v. Boyly?

It's nine at night, and I'm exploring Wal-Mart, notepad and pencil in hand, looking through infant clothes. Jeez.

As I go down the sections of onesies, pajamas, t-shirts, winter coats, there is one thing that is obvious- the clothes directed towards girls, and the ones directed towards boys. The first thing that stuck out to me was a set of onesies. The "girl" one was pink and said "Mommies Cutie" on the front encased in a heart. The "boy" one was blue and said "Mommies Hero".

Throughout the clothes, words like: sweet, smile, princess, cute, where all over the "girl" clothes. The "boy" clothes had words like: hero, explorer, awesome, cool, champion. This makes it seem as though only boys can be heroes, and awesome explorers; and only girls are sweet smiley. These things are on clothes meant for a child who cannot even read. We are putting them in these boxes before they can talk and form their own opinions.

The "girl" clothes ranged in a variety of shades of about two main colors: pink and purple. All complete with pictures of flowers, hearts, butterflies and polka-dots. The "boy" clothes were blue, green, red, orange and yellow, with images of dogs, trucks and helicopters. Why do we associate these images with sex? How can a butterfly be girly or masculine, it's a fucking butterfly. Same goes for trucks and helicopters!

Even from an early age, we are framing gender into certain perimeters.  Girls are to be associated with light, delicate objects and colors, and boys are to be associated with more strong, heavy, tough objects and darker colors. Why do we do that? Why are we raising children who will feel forced to conform to a certain look simply because of their sex.

In chapter two, it is mentioned that one way to define masculinity is whatever is opposite femininity. With the clothes, that seems to be the case. Whatever was not found on a girls shirt- trucks, red, green, blue- was found on a boys shirt. There were footballs on the boy shirts, whereas there was not on the girls. Implying that only boys like football.

All in all, it was interesting to compare infant clothes, to see how they were identical in every other way, aside from color and words, and something so small can dictate whether a boy or a girl will wear it.

The Social Construction of Gender

I chose Target as the store to look at. When I clicked on baby, then baby clothing, there were four categories. They were shop all baby clothing, baby girl clothing, baby boy clothing, and unisex baby clothing. I found that for clothing, newborns and toddlers, the girl’s clothing were always much brighter in colors and pretty colorful. I also found that there were many designs and prints such as cheetah, floral, princesses, and rainbows. They displayed words such as sister, little sister, sweet, girl power. All the girl clothing were all cute and girly girl. For boys, the colors for clothing and shoes were either dark or neutral and very rarely, some bright colors. The designs or prints were either animals, stripes, sports, superheroes, cars or just plain. I found a shirt that had the word “strong” which is a word we associate with men/males/boys. There always was a repetition for the color, Navy Blue. For unisex, the clothing were mostly gray, black, or white. There was a little of mint/green or yellow. The clothing were mostly onesies, pants, sets, and a few shirts. There weren’t many but I felt like some were more for one of the genders. For example, there was a onesie that had a shiny gold heart was engraved with some words. I felt like this was more for baby girls since boys clothing don’t usually have any print that is shiny.

The conclusion that I can make about how gender is framed as early as infancy is that society plays a huge role in how outfits, colors, and words/phrases are created. We create these “standards” for genders that influences people to follow them. On page 25 of TC, it says, “gender is encoded and maintained through a variety of strong social cues” which is true as we can see from the examples above. One of the social cues included toys which we know that girls play with things such as babies, kitchen tools/cooking, and house while boys play with cars, action figures/superheroes, and play sports. In the book, on page 32, it talks about how children learn to consider “women’s work” and “men’s work” and I feel like toys are a good way to see this. Qualities, activities, and characters that are emphasized for girls are to dress and act cute, play with dolls or play cook, and they are to be sweet and polite. For boys, they are taught to be tough and to stand up for themselves, they play sports, and be manly.

The Social Construction of Gender

When walking through Walmart and looking at the infant clothing you can see that girls' clothes are pink or purple, or just light-colored outfits. For the socks and for the bibs, they are pink or light colored and have this lace or ribbon around the top.  Another thing that I have noticed is that girl clothes are "fancy" so they dress nice. Lots of dresses and skirts, usually have a cute animal print or cute lines/polka dot design. However, for the boys their clothing is usually a blue color sometimes with reds or greens, but it’s usually blue. Another thing I have noticed is that the boy clothing usually has like trucks, or dinosaurs or other "manly" prints. And by manly, I mean things that society says a boy should be into- trucks, dinosaurs, sports or monsters...etc.  

One thing I noticed is there is not a lot of unisex clothing, it's a choice between one sex or the other. Another conclusion is that society is trying to put infants into their "correct" category by the clothing they wear. And by that, I mean, if you wear a pink dress that has polka dots and a head band, that automatically means you are a girl. And that's not true! It goes the same way for the boys. If you wear a t-shirt and jeans you must be a boy. Again, that is not true. These stores are trying to take infants and label them as one way or the other. 

Just a side note: My mom dressed one of my sisters in a yellow and white jump suit looking thing, it was supposed to be a unisex outfit. But when most of my friends, first met her, they thought she was a boy because of that outfit. I think they thought she was a boy because of the style of clothing she was wearing- like they thought the jump suit was boyish? I am assuming it would have been better for them to know she was a girl if she was wearing a dress or a skirt. But that just shows that we use colors and styles of clothing to say she's a girl over a boy and vice versa.  

Another thing I noticed, talking about boys versus girls, is that girls have way many more accessories. For example, they have the head pieces, the hats and the booties. Yes, boys have some of these too, however girls are expected to look nice and cute even as a baby. One of the main distinguishing factor is, the girls' clothing is pink, has a lot of extra accents such as lace and sparkles, glitter, diamonds, rhinestones and ribbon. Also, I think some of the activities girls are "guided" into are ballet/dance or theater/singing things that are not rough and tough like sports or outside activities- they say those activities are not for girls. These activities can also be pictures that are printed on the girls' clothing. Example, ballet: the store puts a ballerina on the front of a pink dress.  Same for boys. Example, football: the store makes a football shirt or superhero outfit.  

Social Constrution of Gender

I went shopping with my sister today, because she needed to get some stuff for my nephew. As we walked into the baby department, right away you could see that the girls and boys section was split up. The boys section was mainly made up of clothes that were blue and green, in other words "manly colors." Some of them had footballs, soccer balls, airplanes, cars, and etc. featured on them. While the girls section, was made up of clothes that were pink and purple, with bows and frills on them. It's clear that society has assigned color to a gender and that this is the "norm."

 In a way, gender assignment begins even before birth. When parents find out the sex of their baby, they start to buy clothes, paint the nursery, and pick a name. Parents assume that since it's either going to be a girl or boy, they can start to buy things that are associated with the gender. Really not knowing if that remains to be true. As I was reading the chapter, when picking out names for babies, parents choosing girl names for their sons thought that by giving a boy a girl's name " it would be adopting the status of the less- valued gender." Which you could interpret in many ways. The way I interpret this is that females are not equal to males, that being a female is kind of an insult.
Not only that, gender reveal parties have become a popular thing to do for parents who want to wait and find out the gender. When they find out the gender of the baby, the colors blue or pink are always being revealed. Once again, we see how color is being assigned to a gender.

I guess in a way we shouldn't be assigning a gender role to babies before they're born. But at the same time, I think this makes it easier to distinguish. I'm not saying that this is right or fair to the unborn baby, but just that it helps. I really don't know how it was decided that blue means boy and pink means girl, but it's been around so long that people have just used to this to identify gender.

The Great Divide

It's never too early to force your child into the social phenomena known as "gender'. After taking a walk through our local Walmart, I was amazed to see just how gendered everything was, all the way from children's clothing to adult hygiene products. The first thing I noted was the coloring of each item. The "male" items were largely composed of "male colors" (blues, greens, reds) and the "female" items were largely "female colors" (pinks, purple, & other pastel colors). Upon looking closer I noted the different messages promoted by the different items. The male items usually had things like sports and strong animals, where as the female items usually had princesses and flowers. Immediately this instills the idea that boys are more supposed to be more athletic, and meant to be the stronger than women. The girls clothing reflects delicacy & beauty with the flowers, as well as dependence on a male partner with the princess references. These clothing items instill the idea of gender as early as infancy, and the idea carries on into the teen years and adulthood. This idea influences the gender that we take on. The "Threshold Concepts in Women's and Genders Studies" states, "gender is encoded and maintained through a variety of strong social cues (i.e., naming practices,parenting responsibilities, toys, [and clothing])" (Launus 25). These ideas of gender are framed very early on in life, and both girls and boys are expected to fall into their biologically assigned gender or be shunned as outcasts. If boys are not playing sports, acting tough, or wearing boy clothing then they will be shunned. If girls are not acting feminine, wearing girly clothing, and being reserved then they will also be shunned. While this is a major issue in society, this continues to be a major impact in society. What do you guys think we can do to help this massive issue?

The Social Divide of Gender

When I went to the Walmart with my mother to pick out clothes and things for my cousins’ baby showers (who had all chosen to keep their babies gender a surprise by the way) I was shocked at how little gender-neutral clothes and even blankets to choose from. I was shocked at the lack of yellows, orange, lime green, turquoise and light gray that there was. It seemed to be a sea of pink and white and blue! When the text says, “from birth, children are exposed to gendered messages,” there is no better way to show the divide than to separate the isle by color right? Girls with pinks and frills bows and all the dainty “feminine” things and boys with all the bold color and text and trucks and monsters that will make boys into “masculine” protectors. The chart on page 43 of our text has numerous examples of things that can connect to how we gender even the clothes that we put our babies into, not to mention the clothes that they make for toddlers. I mean really, how logical is it to put a 2-year-old who just wants to run around in a skirt? And why should only little boys be allowed to wear cargo pants, I know plenty of little girls who would love all the pockets to hide their treasures in! And whose to say that there’s not some little boy out there who wants to wear a shirt with a kitty and bows on it, and why should we stop them!

Even the words that they print onto the shirts, like ‘daddy’s little princess’ or ‘tough guy’ shows how we gender things for girls to be possessed by something and little boys to be able to stand on their own even from a young age. Which I think is teaching little boys that they need to handle things themselves which leads to them getting into fights from the fact that they have to do it themselves and can’t ask for adult help, even in the case that they are being bullied. If our culture is teaching us to have to stand on our own two feet, then suddenly we have to work together I think it proves rather confusing for kids, as is the contrast that our culture constructs around gender. The text brings up that, “our culture constructs masculine and feminine … in opposition to one another,” why is there no happy medium between the two? (58). So, if people want to do things in radical difference to how people would normally treat their baby, then let them, heck even support them because they could help start a movement that will help our kids have a better future 😊.

(By the way, 3 of the 5 new babies were girls and at least 2 have gender neutral nursery themes.)

The Social Construction of Gender

Target Toys
Girl:
Wonder Woman Shield: "A natural leader and born athlete... now girls can explore her power too"
Cabbage Patch toddler toy: "Pretty includes a new hairstyle and hair bow"
Minnie Phone: "She's always happy with Minnie's happy helpers phone"
Boy:
Take Along Tool Kit: "Your strong little carpenter will learn the tools of the trade"
Buzz light year Hood: "Lets him suit up like a space ranger and blast off"
Lego Town Police Patrol: "Stop the crook and lock him in the police van"

      Right away I could see that they associated certain colors with the different gendered toys. For example, a lot of the boy toys were colors like blue and green, while many of the girl toys were colors like pink and purple. Looking at the messages that the different toys and clothing portrayed wasn't necessarily something that was downgrading towards the other gender, aside from the Lego Town Police Patrol toy in the boy section. This toy in specific showed a male cop and a male criminal. There are also female criminals out there, and I feel there should have been a little bit more diversity with this toy in specific, showing that early on anyone can be a criminal or suspect. These gender based toys were framed as girls being more lady like by playing with dolls, doing their hair, and even being a happy helper on the Minnie phone with many women being secretaries. Also the girl toys were ones that kids needed to be gentle with in order to keep playing with them. As for the boy section, they were framed as being brave and being able to become strong and being able to fix things like the tool kit toy for example. In conclusion, even toys and clothing for toddlers teach some gender norms really early that I see even as an adult now.

The Social Construction Of Gender

Looking at all of the young children (newborn, baby, and toddlers) accessories at department/big box stores, such as Walmart, it is obvious to see how gender is communicated.  Girl accessories are usually pink, purple, and sometimes yellow.  They will also have flowers, hearts, cute bugs, and polka dot patterns on the bottles and pacifiers.  Their socks have a little ruffle around the ankle to make it more "girly" and there are also bows and clips to put on their head to seem more cute.  The styles of cute, sparkles, or looking like a ballerina, seems most common in young girls clothing. Boys accessories are usually blue, green, and red.  Some patterns associated with boys are different shapes, sports balls (basketball, football, etc.), sayings on their clothes like "The ladies love me" or super hero logos.  One time I was at Walmart and saw a onsie for a new born boy.  It was a superman shirt and had abs drawn in to make a baby boy look tough.  For young boys, it is common to wear clothing that makes them look tough, despite their age. 

Gender is "framed" as early as infancy by what the stores have available to buy.  Young girls wear pink because its "made specifically for them".  Young boys wear blue for the same reason.  If a parent put their newborn daughter in a blue shirt, some people would probably think the newborn is a boy.  That's not to say that someone can't put their newborn daughter in a blue shirt, but it kind of points out how right away, society has an affect on that child.  My conclusion from this is that gender is "framed" not just by what kind of reproductive organs you have, or your birth certificate, its also from society and what they surround you with at a very young age.  Even though girls can be tom boys, there are still certain accessories that are only associated with girls. 

Qualities that are emphasized for girls are dress to impress, be cute, accessorize wherever you can and be a sweet little girl.  For boys, qualities that are emphasized are play sports, be tough, act like Superman, and be a stud.  Activities associated with girls are playing with dolls, picking flowers, playing tea, and listening to nice songs.  Activities associated with boys are playing sports, getting strong, don't be soft, eat like a man, and don't play with dolls.  Girls characteristics is being polite and sweet.  Boys characteristics are being manly and attract the ladies, even if you've just been born. 

Social Construction of Gender!

                It is definitely interesting to see how the social construction of gender is put to action in real life. At a baby’s birth, most parents are set on the idea of a gender binary. This means that there are two genders: male and female. From this, they use what they learned growing up to be appropriate for each gender throughout their childhood. It is such a typical trend that parents very rarely defy these norms. With that being said, stores have been set up to reflect these ideas to help parents easily shop for their children.

                Starting off immediately after birth, the newborn is whisked away and returned to the parents in what is considered to be gender appropriate clothing. This usually consists of pink hats and onesies for girls, and blue hats and onesies. This is the start of the social construction of gender: boys are associated with blue and girls are associated with pink. Coming home to the nursery is no different story. Themes such as pink, princesses, fairies, flowers, and butterflies fill a baby girls room while the themes of animals, sports, trucks, and farms fill the rooms of baby boys. Thus, no matter what, the child will always be surrounded by things that influence how his or her gender is supposed to be raised.

                Exploring the toy isle or isles at a store is a very unique experience that helps illustrate how the social construction of gender works. It is quite obvious that the toy isles are arranged in a way that make it clear what toys are meant for boys and what toys are meant for girls. You could almost say that the isles are distinctly segregated in the way that they are arranged.

 Isles that are dedicated for boys include a lot of cars, trucks, remote control toys, building blocks, tool sets, farms, military men, bows and arrows, and guns. All of these toys represent hard work, violence, and strength. Many qualities in which are associated with men. Thus, from an early age on, boys are taught to be rough, tough, work hard, and be dangerous. Another indicator that these toys are intended for boys is the packaging of the products. The packages display images of little boys playing with these toys. Very rarely will you see an image of a little girl smashing two semi’s together for entertainment on a toy truck box.

The same goes for girls. Girl gendered isles contain princesses, dress up outfits, kitchen sets, baby dolls, Barbie dolls, jewelry kits, stuffed animals, doll houses, and lastly cleaning supplies. People in society would find it weird to see images of little boys playing with dolls on Barbie packages thus explaining why there are images of little girls. Also, the entire girl isle is showered in everything and anything pink when looking down the isle from one end. It is easy to see how the toys that girls and boys play with when they are little are very reflective of the roles they are expected to play out later in life. For example, little boys playing with tool sets associates with men becoming mechanics. On the other hand, little girls playing with kitchen sets, cleaning supplies, and babies emphasizes their later roles in life as a mother figure/ homemaker. Thus, “children also learn what is considered women’s work and what is considered men’s work by observing both  the amount and kind of domestic and unpaid work preformed by their parents” (32).

With all of that being said, I would like to take the time to point out that society has a completely different take on boys that play with girl toys and girls that play with boy toys. The concept I am thinking of goes along the lines of gender ranking: “often framed as both biological in origin and immutable, with masculine qualities defined in opposition to---and more culturally valued than---feminine qualities” (42).  For example, if a little girl were to be interested in playing with her brother’s farm set, parents typically wouldn’t “freek out” per say. There is potential that the girl may be referred to as a tom boy, but she usually isn’t really affected. On the other hand, if a little boy wanted to play dress up with his sister’s princess collection, this would be a completely different story. The boy would be looked down on, and the parents would most likely be very unsupportive. He risks being referred to as a “sissy” later on in life. Thus, since masculine qualities are valued, it is okay for a girl to inhibit them while it is not okay for a boy to inhibit feminine qualities. This also goes along with an example I found while reading my thresholds concept book. On page 30, it talks about how an elementary aged transgender girl was having trouble joining girl scouts because of her male gentiles. I wonder if this would have been any different if it were a “girl” trying to join the boy scouts (aka. Switch the roles around). In short, I just find it very interesting how society views children differently depending which roles they are interchanging into.

All in all, the social construction of gender is something that is unconsciously implicated into our lives since the day we are born. The minute our biological sex is identified, the social construction begins. Whether it’s the parents picking out names, designing the nursery, choosing outfits, or choosing toys, there is always going to be gender values in mind. Sometimes we just don’t even realize we are doing it. 

The Social Construction of Gender

I used to work at Kohl's and I remember having to work in the infant/newborn department early one morning putting new price marks on the baby clothes; so while refolding the clothes, I got a chance to look at all the cute clothes there were. While I was folding the baby girl clothes, I noticed that they were mostly light colors (pastels) or colors that you would usually use to "identify" a girl such as pink to purples, and, they usually had animal prints (or just animals [that are usually more cutesy]), flowers, hearts, bugs (butterflies) and lace. Some of the clothes said things like: "little sister", "princess", "love".
                     
When I got to the boy section, the boy clothes were more blue, red, brown, green, black, or gray colors (darker colors) and they had pictures of cars, animals, dinosaurs/other reptiles),and sports on them and had sayings like: "Hunk", "Mr. Fix-It", "Brave Little Guy", "Little Brother".
                   
I went to look at the baby clothes that Kohl's had online and I was surprised to see they had a category Neutral Baby you could look through, which of course, consisted of unisex clothing (that were mostly grays....)
                                             

The passage that I chose from TC clearly sums up my conclusion about how gender is framed as early as infancy. In chapter 2 of TC, they state, "first, there is the assignment of sex and gender, which quickly becomes a gender status"...."through naming, clothing, and the choice of children's toys and room decor."

When you go to the toy section in stores, you can clearly tell which aisle belong to girls and which aisle of toys belong to boys. In the girl section, there are dolls, doll houses, and domestic toy items (sinks, dishes, stoves). And when you go to the boy section, they have Nerf guns, sports equipment (balls, skates, kites), cars, military toys and guns, superhero action figures; so you can definitely see the different activities and characteristics emphasized for girls vs. boys.

The Glorious Gender Construction of Wal-Mart

Because I don't want to go into an actual store, I'm browsing online to observe the differences in baby products from consumer empire that is Wal-Mart.
Up first is clothing.
Immediately noticeable is that age and sex is organized into different sections, with baby and toddler and boy and girl sections under each.
The baby girl's section has lots of pastel colors, pinks and purples, dresses paired with pants (because, you know, they're babies), and lots of cutesy animal stuff. A couple of things are gender neutral, which are the only actually blue things I've seen that aren't pastel.
The baby boy's section is immediately very different, with lots of blues, greens, browns, and even black. There's a couple of red things along with some camo as I keep scrolling. There's a couple of lighter outfits but other than that there's no pastel at all, and literally nothing pink or purple.
Toddler girls deviates from the baby section a bit, as it has some deeper colors, and lots of characters from kids shows. They're either gender neutral shows or things that are noticeably "girls" shows.
The toddler boys are pretty much the same, darker colors, no pinks or purples, and characters that are from "boys" shows. Something that's different is that there's some sports stuff included in here, where the girls ones don't have anything like that. Along with sports, things like dinosaurs and trucks are also popular.
The bibs and burp cloths are up next for scrutiny.
The first thing I'm noticing is a bib with "Lil' Man" written on it in blues and greens. Thanks for making this easy, Wal-Mart. I see some pink ones, blue ones, and some flannel burp cloths. They're not organized by gender, but it's pretty easy to see what's what. There are some labelled baby girls, and they're pink and purple. There are some boys bibs that I don't even want to try to describe, so I'm just gonna show you so you can see for yourself

And to show the opposite side of the scale, I'll show you this:

"Parent's choice". Nice.

I decided to try one more section before finishing, which was pacifiers and teethers. Not really much to say for those, other than there's a lot of pinks and blues, and though they aren't labelled for a specific gender, it's still pretty obvious what they're meant for. Here's the highlights from what I saw:

In conclusion, I found every stereotype that I expected to find. Lots of pink for girls and blue for boys, and also a correlation with light colors for girls and dark colors for boys. Things such as sports, the mentioned colors, boys shows, dinosaurs, cars, and being a "ladies' man" are assigned to being things associated with boys, and things like being sweet or ladylike, the mentioned colors again, girls shows, princesses, hearts, flowers, and other sunshine and rainbow junk are assigned to being associated with girls.

I feel really bad for gay guys honestly cause damn dude, the stereotypes than even a child is already flirtatious and wanting the attention of any and all girls is like, really really toxic. Let kids be kids, jeez.

Anyway, nothing here surprised me, and I doubt any of it will actually change, especially since the topics of gender and children are really tense, since toddlers and babies really can't speak for themselves, and even as a young child, they can't really understand the implications or consequences gender has in our society.

But what do you guys think? Lemme know, I'm interested in your opinions and what you found in your explorations.

Feminist Stance

Feminism by definition is:  number one: the theory of the political, economic, and social equality of the sexes. Number two: activities organized on behalf of women's rights and interests. Honestly before this class I didn't really know what feminism meant or what being a feminist was. My first thought of a feminist was a woman who just wanted equal rights for women. But after reading this section there is a lot more to Feminism then what I thought. First off, supporting feminism or being a feminist does not have to be a woman, it can be a man too!  These feminists went through a Feminism movement -three times! Gaining rights for woman and also showing and stating how they feel! Another thing that I learned is- that women do not just want equal rights to men but they want equity- to be given what they need to be successful!  Also, a feminist to me, is someone who doesn't follow the norms of society but rather break the norms and stand up for what they think is right. For example, the older lady in the dove commercial, did not dress as an elderly lady, she dress how she wanted to. I think her doing that is empowering. I know I do not understand feminism all of the way, but I hope to learn more and get an even better understanding of what these words mean.

A few things that have bothered me in talking about: Mothers are the caregivers and Fathers are the hunters... is that in my family, my father was the stay at home dad and my mom was the one who went to work every day. I hear it all of the time that mothers are the ones that need to stay home and take care of the children and clean the house, but honestly my father did an amazing job being a stay at home dad! He did the cleaning, cooking, bathing... everything! And honestly, I did not know until I was older that, that was not the norm.

Another thing that has bothered me is dress code. A part of feminism is equal rights to a point, right? Then why is it in school, when there is a dress code set in place for everyone, that girls are the ones who will most likely get in trouble for what they are wearing? I understand that they do not want girls to dress, in what, they consider inappropriate attire, but it is not fair, for a girl to have to cover up their shoulders or wear a certain length sleeve, and boys are able to wear muscle shirts that have no sleeves. And the excuse that girls are given in school is "wearing a shirt like that will distract the boys". But honestly, how?!Are these boys are not able to control themselves? I mean, it is a shoulder...there is nothing exciting about a shoulder... Girls should not have to worry about what they wear because boys will find it distracting. Girls should be able to be confident in what they wear despite what boys think.

Social Construction of Gender

I figured taking a look at the newborn and toddler section in Kohl's would be best.  For the bed sets, there were a lot of characters from children shows and even the show itself could be watched by either gender, the color blue or pink appeared very often.  There were very few that were a neutral color.  I noticed in the shoe department, there were pictures of children wearing different types of shoes and the boys had mainly tennis on and the little girls had flats on or a type of shoe like that.  In the toy section, there was a box set for some cars and on the box, it showed two little boys playing with the cars.  A lot of the bibs were gendered specific meaning the majority were either blue or pink.  There were some that were a different color and had some funny caption on it, which could be meant for anyone.  Something that did stand out to me was that one some of the bibs, there was a quote that said, 'Handsome dude.'  At first glance, it's just something cute and probably wouldn't think anything of it.  Because of this class though, there could be some 'controversy' over it.  For some people, there is a difference between their sex and gender.  And because when you are born and your parents decide your gender for you, that can pose a problem for some.  So on that particular bib, it's obviously assuming the gender is a boy, and by doing that, it's inadvertently telling that 'boy' how to feel about themselves, hence, handsome.

As early as infancy, children are already assigned a gender.  Sure, before they are able to talk or really think for themselves, it might be easier to assign them a gender to make it rather easier for everyone, but later on, in the child's life, it will be hard for them to change that.  By doing this project, we can safely say that almost all baby/infant companies design their clothing, toys, etc., for either a boy or a girl.  Their colors are mainly blue or pink, and because of society, it's not 'acceptable' to switch out the colors for the genders.  Regardless of colors though, a car set had a picture of a young boy on it because the makers of the toy had intended for boys to play with it and not girls.  So, larger companies are also conforming to 'gender norms.'  In TC, page 43,  there was a chart that had 'masculine' and 'feminine' qualities and male qualities included protective, invulnerable, and physically strong.  For female qualities, they were passive, sensitive, and emotional.  Because society has these unspoken 'rules' for how people should feel, look, act, and express themselves, it's hard to not go along with fear of being judged and a lot of times worse.  But everywhere you look, even in stores, you can see products that are gender assigned and give references as to who you're supposed to be.

Feminist stance

My previous knowledge of feminism and feminists is that most are women that are just, please excuse my language and I don't mean to be offensive, "crazy women." I think that is because all you ever see are feminists who are just angry. Now I know that that isn't actually true. I realized that even I am a feminist. Growing up with a mom and two sisters never made me think we were unequal at all

FEMINIST

When I think about it, I feel as if the feminist movement today has much more exposure then it did years ago because people are letting those who don't support this movement hear their voices. This movement has grown so big that even celebrities are using their fame status to support this movement. Which I think is really cool, because it shows that they're more than just a famous figure. I also think that the internet (social media) has a major role in the exposure of the feminist movement. People can instantly see what's going on and I think that's why feminists always get viewed negatively. It sometimes may just capture the bad of what feminists are saying and in turn, people think of them badly. But at the same time, I think women have become more confident and more willing to speak out for what they believe in and what women deserve. I really didn't really hear about feminists until my senior year when other girls were talking about certain girls from another school making a big fuss about being feminists. I just thought that they were women who were just seeking attention and recognition. But now I realize that they're more than that. These women believe in equality and rights that will help us and our future children.

What kind of bothers me is that I don't know if they're calling themselves feminists just to call themselves that or if they really do believe in these values and ideas. It's hard to tell now a days if someone is faking it to get exposure or if they really do care.

My goal in this class to get more in depth about feminists and really understand what and why this is happening. If we will see change or will it stay the same.  I also what to go back in history and see how far we've come and what others before us had to do to get us to this point today.

Feminist Stance

My earliest exposure to feminism was in high school. Predominately my junior and senior year. There were three girl in my class that were very passionate about the cause. One girl even left a room crying because a boy in the class insulted her stance on feminism. I never liked the word feminism. To me it always reminded me of those three girls that were very intense about the cause. They even wore sweatshirts that even said "Woman are the Future". If anyone asked me what I thought of feminism I always said I was an egalitarian. I understand now that feminism isn't woman trying to turn the tides of society and make woman the dominate sex. Which is what I thought it was for a long time. I see it's just like egalitarianism. 

Now, goals for the class. I don't really have any. I just want to learn and have a nice time discussing things. I mostly took the class because the class discussed things that my school in a way ignored. So I wanted to expose myself to things I never experienced before.

Feminist Stance

Feminist Stance

When growing up I lived in a culture where women are image to be the stereotypic women who stays home watches the kids, clean the house and cook. When I was growing up I saw that my parents would always make sure my siblings would help clean and cook. I now understand why feminist fight, they fight for their rights, money wage, and many more. When we look at the outside of how they react, they seem to be very furious, and violent. But look a little inside of how they were treated, and who they fight for, you’ll understand why they are furious. I’ve learn that women has been fighting for their rights for awhile now. It is depressing to image about how our society treated and viewed women. To this day I feel that many people still have the image that women shouldn’t be able to go out, vote, instead they should just sit in a home and be a “good” housewife. I’ve also learned that many women celebrities have also contributed to this women’s right movement by educating those who are unaware of the situation. But if you look around, you'll see that some of feminist protesting actually worked, women now have the right to vote, they aren't discriminated base on their gender because of laws which they help made. In many ways I see improvements but I believe that the image of where women taking care of the house will never

My goals for this course would be to be able to understand why women are treated the way they are, what makes a man better than a women. I want to also learn how it feels to be image to sit home and do the “dirty” work. Why man thought that it was wrong for women to work in factories. Most of all, I want to learn why in today’s society they are still image, and treated with disrespect.

Feminist Stance

I would have to say that I have heard of the term "feminism" and seen it articles about it on social media platforms before. I've learnt about Malala Yousafzai though but didn't realize that she is a feminist. I never really cared to look up the term and do any research on it. I was never interested in it I think because words like "feminism" and "feminist" are words that I don't use on a regular basis. I used to think that feminism only applied to women and that feminists were only women. Through the reading of Chapter 1 in the book Threshold Concepts, I learnt I was wrong about feminists being only women. Men can also be feminists and want change to the traditional norms of masculinity. An example would be, men on youtube who does makeup for a living. Makeup and men are a combo that is unexpected I think to others who aren't very open-minded. The chapter talked about misconceptions about feminism to which I found that they were all false. For example, not all feminists are women and gay or lesbian. The chapter and class discussion also gave me a little bit more insight of what feminism is.

My learning goals for the rest of the semester for this course is to just learn more and deepen my knowledge about feminism. I want to be able to understand feminists from a feminist stand point and not just judge based on preconceived ideas. I also want to learn about what types of problems affect feminists to keep the feminist movement moving forward. Another thing I want to learn about is how feminism from back then is different from today's feminism. Basically, how feminism is changing.

I don't have any questions of points of concern as of right now.

Feminist Stance

Prior to registering for this course, I considered myself to have a decent understanding of feminism and what it actually stands for. At this point I would still say this holds true. My understanding of the word comes from a strong interest in local, national, and global politics. No matter the scale, feminist discussions can almost always be found. Feminism to me is the movement to give women of all backgrounds, religions, and nationalities the equality they deserve. Feminism mostly focuses on issues regarding the oppression of women, as they have been historically oppressed by society, specific groups, and media. While there may be biological differences that must be acknowledged, women should still be treated on an equal platform with men, and vice-versa.  

Although I would consider myself to have a good understanding, this class is still fascinating. I never knew just how much weight the term "feminine" carried and what exactly it meant until the reading from TC. The socially applied principals from society dictate what feminine means, but this class has begun to show me that feminism wants to break the societal principals, and let each individual define how they want to live and run their respective lives. After reading through some of my peer's blogs, I also came to the realization that feminism is not just one movement, but a number of movements under one umbrella term. While this can be beneficial in the matter that it offers different perspectives on different ideas and concepts, it can also lead to internal conflict within the movement itself. One example of this was the Tomi Lahren video. While she would likely consider herself an advocate for women, she completely disagrees, and even bashes, women who approached the protests in specific matters. This goes to show that there are multiple levels and types of feminists, and the water is slightly murky when it comes to generalizing the movement.  

I have a learning goal of developing an even stronger understanding of what feminism fights for, how it fights, and all the people involved with it. I would also like to see how all these things are represented throughout society via the media and pop-culture. As for lingering questions, I would say I have none. Let me know in the comments how you all feel about this & what were your ideas of feminine coming into the class?