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Beyond Pink and Blue
Beyond Pink and Blue
Defining Gender Stereotypes
Defining Gender Stereotypes
A gender stereotype is known as the opinion contributing to characteristics or actions that "should" be performed by men and women. Gender stereotyping is the exercise of assigning attributes, roles, personality traits, and characteristics to men and women out of the expectation in society. The development of gender stereotypes restrict men and women from creating their own identity through personal goals, life choices, and daily actions. Gender stereotypes are all around us.
Where it all begins
Where it all begins
From the beginning society sets an either or path for children. Gender is used as a way to construct children's reality. Gender stereotypes are initiated before babies are even born in forms of gifts received when one's pregnancy is announced. Guante speaks up about his frustration of society's expectations and standards of identifying as a man in his poem “Ten Responses to the phrase ‘Man Up.” Guante questions the idea of why "Boy babies get blue socks. Girl babies get pink socks. What about green?" The preconceived ideas that an individual belongs to a color and has to exhibit the description of boys being strong and tough while girls have to be delicate and sweet. Gender stereotypes also begin in the toys that children are encouraged to play with. Girls are subject to dolls, art supplies, and cooking sets while boys are expected to enjoy trucks, tools, and action figures. Without a second thought to a child's preference, these initial gender stereotypes limit the child’s beginning stages of their own identity development as society has already predicted the future for each given gender. Growing up gender stereotypes are encountered outside and inside one’s home, within friend groups, school, activities, and at work. These generalizations are not built into our DNA; they evolve like the languages we learn through social interaction, social media, ads, and the labels that come with being a man or a woman. Many naturally gravitate towards society's idea of gender typical preferences, but the issue arises when these stereotypes limit the goals one strives to accomplish or restrict the opportunities in becoming the type of individual one believes they can be.
"I want to be who I am"
"I want to be who I am"
"Contrary to what you may believe not every problem is solved by "growing a pair"
"Contrary to what you may believe not every problem is solved by "growing a pair"
"You can't arm wrestle your way out of chemical depression"
"You can't arm wrestle your way out of chemical depression"
The harmful effects
The harmful effects
Attempting to conform to unrealistic ideals seen through popular media defeats the purpose of developing one’s individuality. Strict stereotypes about gender cause people to go through obsessive dieting, exercises, and the process of plastic surgery. Men feel the pressure to be "man enough" leaving no room for vulnerability through feeling natural human emotions. People’s emotions are also diffused due to the guidebook society grants each gender. In Guante’s poem he says “any man who doesn't’ eat steak, drive a pickup truck, have lots of sex with women are nothing more than background characters, comic relief props. It suggests that to be yourself-whether you, wear skinny jeans, listen to Lady Gaga, rock a little eyeliner, drink some other brand light beer, or write poetry-will cost you.” The idea of being threatened by thinking a different way than society wants you to is dehumanizing and causes individuals to believe they are not worthy or they don’t belong. Men want to be weak sometimes, women want to feel free to like mathematics and sciences, boys want to talk to their fathers about something other than sports, women don’t want to feel the need to smile at everyone they look at, men want to be strong in a way that isn’t about physical power or dominance. Society plants an image in children's brain with the idea of what they are supposed to surmount to leaving no wiggle room to feel comfortable stepping outside the suffocating box of stereotypes set for a specific gender. We are all human and the barriers built for each gender to confine in need to be knocked down so future generations can be born without a given expectation. The traditional ideas of what boys and girls should not harm the development of the lives we wish to create based on our own choices. It is exhausting to put on a disguise for everyone around you, pleasing all but yourself, ignoring the feelings in your core, and masking one’s natural desires. Balance must be put into place.
Breaking Gender Dichotomy
Breaking Gender Dichotomy
The communication through language, actions, attire, toys, clothes, conveys a symbolic message of what it means to be a man or a woman in society. By changing the cemented guidelines through the way we speak and the way we act, we can transform the meaning of being a man or a woman to the meaning of being a human. There is a sense of comfort found for humans to categorize things to make the complex world we live in much simpler. Because of this, we use gender as something that humans must fit into. Masculinity belonging to men and femininity belonging to females which completely ignores the idea of gender being fluid. Society must normalize the ideas of their being various possibilities and combinations that anyone can fit into. The goal is to have a society that doesn't see gender and communicates gender through positive language and actions to create a diverse environment.
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