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.