Oumn 4471 Week 2 Gender Research Paper
Brian Williams
Professor LaVette Burnette
HUMN 4471
2-14-17
Exam Essay Questions
The media plays a major role in the way we perceive certain things. When the discussion of gender arises, we already have an idea of what is deemed as normal. Gender is something that controls our everyday lives, whether we realize it or not. Gender is a very interesting term that is determined when the sex of the human is known. The sex of a person is found due to a number of factors, which are psychological and biological. Gender is achieved through cultural and societal influences. With that being said, gender can be viewed as a mass idea that is acceptable by society. In each country, the meaning of gender has its’ unique differences. Men are expected to live a masculine lifestyle while women are expected to be feminine. These acts are the final determination of society’s view of a real male or female. The United States contains strong values when discussing the topic of gender. Before human life begins, gender is already being ascribed. For example, if a male child is being born into the world, the parents will obviously buy clothes related to male gender roles. What does a boy wear? What color is suitable for a boy? These are questions that many people have based on societal views. There are expectations that must be …show more content…
met. If children are not compliant with these views, they will be deemed as unacceptable to society. Gender is achieved by living up to the social standard. It’s a repetitive cycle that’s passed down from generation to generation.
Children are greatly influenced by their parents which in return effects their response to specific gender roles.
Many parents teach their children about the certain stereotypes that are tied to specific genders. This ideology is taught at home, interaction with other people at school, and lastly, the media. This is why a girl will feel more comfortable interacting with other girls at home. It just seems like the right thing to do. If a child is taught that boys are better at certain subjects, the response could possibly be failure, which would be influenced by that stereotype. A child’s development is also influenced by their natural response to certain
situations.
In the reading, studies were conducted on the ways that children interact while playing with other adults. This is a good example of attempting to parent a child using gender neutral tactics. In the age of the fight for gender equality, this way of parenting has become popular. This ideology consists of keeping the babies’ sex private before birth, dressing them ways that they deem appropriate, and giving them gender neutral toys. They further explained the use of certain toys in the experiment. It is no surprise that when the adults played with males, they picked toys that are socially acceptable for boys to play with. When playing with females, the approach was totally different. To utilize this study, 48 children were experimented on.
In my opinion, the experiment didn’t show a shift in gender roles. The males were more comfortable with masculine toys while the females wanted feminine toys. The response by children all depends on their upbringing. If the parents didn’t teach them much about conforming to society, then their responses will be different. The gender neutral way of thinking can be described as a hit or miss experiment.
Professor LaVette Burnette
HUMN 4471
2-14-17
Exam Essay Questions
The media plays a major role in the way we perceive certain things. When the discussion of gender arises, we already have an idea of what is deemed as normal. Gender is something that controls our everyday lives, whether we realize it or not. Gender is a very interesting term that is determined when the sex of the human is known. The sex of a person is found due to a number of factors, which are psychological and biological. Gender is achieved through cultural and societal influences. With that being said, gender can be viewed as a mass idea that is acceptable by society. In each country, the meaning of gender has its’ unique differences. Men are expected to live a masculine lifestyle while women are expected to be feminine. These acts are the final determination of society’s view of a real male or female. The United States contains strong values when discussing the topic of gender. Before human life begins, gender is already being ascribed. For example, if a male child is being born into the world, the parents will obviously buy clothes related to male gender roles. What does a boy wear? What color is suitable for a boy? These are questions that many people have based on societal views. There are expectations that must be …show more content…
met. If children are not compliant with these views, they will be deemed as unacceptable to society. Gender is achieved by living up to the social standard. It’s a repetitive cycle that’s passed down from generation to generation.
Children are greatly influenced by their parents which in return effects their response to specific gender roles.
Many parents teach their children about the certain stereotypes that are tied to specific genders. This ideology is taught at home, interaction with other people at school, and lastly, the media. This is why a girl will feel more comfortable interacting with other girls at home. It just seems like the right thing to do. If a child is taught that boys are better at certain subjects, the response could possibly be failure, which would be influenced by that stereotype. A child’s development is also influenced by their natural response to certain
situations.
In the reading, studies were conducted on the ways that children interact while playing with other adults. This is a good example of attempting to parent a child using gender neutral tactics. In the age of the fight for gender equality, this way of parenting has become popular. This ideology consists of keeping the babies’ sex private before birth, dressing them ways that they deem appropriate, and giving them gender neutral toys. They further explained the use of certain toys in the experiment. It is no surprise that when the adults played with males, they picked toys that are socially acceptable for boys to play with. When playing with females, the approach was totally different. To utilize this study, 48 children were experimented on.
In my opinion, the experiment didn’t show a shift in gender roles. The males were more comfortable with masculine toys while the females wanted feminine toys. The response by children all depends on their upbringing. If the parents didn’t teach them much about conforming to society, then their responses will be different. The gender neutral way of thinking can be described as a hit or miss experiment.