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.