Why Don 't Boys Play With Dolls Essay

Donna Laframboise and Stevie Cameron have written two very different articles on the topic of gender. Laframboise argues that today’s society treats boys worse than girls. Cameron argues that the poor treatment of women and the relatively high risk of physical danger has shown no improvement from when she was growing up to now. Both Laframboise and Cameron’s articles discuss gender, and the implications that it can have on a person’s life. Cameron displays the strength of her article by exclusively arguing her own point. Laframboise opts to utilize and disprove other’s statements about girls as her proof. Negating other arguments is only an effective tactic when an opposition exists. Arguing ‘who has it worse?’ does not help anyone, and in fact can be detrimental in cases like this. Both articles have their own strengths and weaknesses, but Laframboise hinders her article by prioritizing denying female struggle over substance.

While reading “Gender,” an essay by Jack Halberstam, the topic of sexism was brought to the forefront of my mind. It has been brought up more often in conversation in the modern era, issues such as how a few cruel insults pertain to female reproductive anatomy and, in a sense, degrade females and ultimately identify them, as well as femininity, as inherently “bad”. Such a thought stemmed from how Halberstam touches on the “problematic stabilization of the meaning of ‘women’ and ‘female’”: meaning there is no room for argument when it comes to your gender—you’re either a girl or not. You either fit into a strict mold, or you do not.

“The emotional, sexual, and psychological stereotyping of a women begins when the doctor says, ‘It's a girl!’” Women are forced to conform to a set place in society, and the pressure they feel to conform starts when they are born.

Launched on March 1959, the Barbie doll is a toy that was first put on display in New York. It quickly garnered a lot of attention with the target audience of the creators, young girls. This doll was different than its previous dolls because it was a doll that was an ideal representation of a woman. Thus allowing young girls to use their imagination to create and act-out what this doll’s life is like and what their future would potentially be. To successfully understand this toy, we must think like C Wright Mills, a sociologist who asks to use our sociological imagination, the intersection of one’s biography and history. This artifact reflects and perpetuates the dominant ideology of how to perform your gender the “right” way in the early 1960s. I will argue this demonstrates West and Zimmerman’s concept of “doing gender” which is clarified with Judith Butler’s concept of socialization of gender.

Abundant individuals don’t know the difference between sex and gender roles. Sex is the biological characteristics in a person. Gender roles are the expectations of how a person should dress and act based on their sex. The majority of individuals accommodate to those roles early on, because of the influences their parents have on them. Such ideas of gender roles are exhibited at length in the two short essays, “Why boys don 't play with dolls” by Katha Pollitt and “The Gender Blur: Where Does Biology End and Society take over?” by Deborah Blum, in which gender roles are shown to be sociological rather than biological. Pollitt is an award-winning poet also well known as a liberal essayist and critic. Pollitt 's essay ventures to persuade her readers that not only will sexual roles always exist in society, but also, they have always been and will always continue to be hidden in controversy over the source of their origin that is nature or nurture. Pollitt also highlights some of the causes with gender stereotypes, especially in children. Pollitt says that the the blame for gender stereotypes and differences is based on the environment and how the child is raised. Blum 's essay discusses the differences between nature and nurture when it comes to raising her children. She also talks about how certain biological factors shape the pieces of an individual 's personality that nurturing doesn 't do. Pollitt 's essay is persuasive primarily because she utilizes strategies such as

In “Why Boys Don’t Play With Dolls,” Pollitt writes about the differences between growing up as a boy growing up as a girl. She brings up the stereotypes that society naturally creates between genders in early ages, which leads to the lifestyle and path that boys and girls are raised in. Parents and feminist alike play a big part in establishing these sex roles. They raise their kids wanting them to be successful at what they are expected to be good at based on their gender and the trend that has been set before them.

Both Deborah Blum’s The Gender Blur: Where Does Biology End and Society Take Over? and Aaron Devor’s “Gender Role Behaviors and Attitudes” challenges the concept of how gender behavior is socially constructed. Blum resides on the idea that gender behavior is developed mainly through adolescence and societal expectations of a gender. Based on reference from personal experiences to back her argument up, Blum explains that each individual develops their expected traits as they grow up, while she also claims that genes and testosterones also play a role into establishing the differentiation of gender behavior. Whereas, Devor focuses mainly on the idea that gender behavior is portrayed mainly among two different categories: masculinity and

In today’s society, there are many common stereotypes inflicted upon women. The gender roles that we often face should be taken more seriously. The way that women are obliged to dress, act, and their expected appearance are all concerns that shouldn’t be taken lightly. We are taught growing up not to be exclusive or close-minded to people and their ideas. Why is that the subject of feminism and gender equality isn’t talked about frequently? We should teach young children the same thing we value in others, the belief in equal rights for all.

Gender role expectations are inescapable in our society as we naturally tend to sort humans into categories, the easiest one being gender. Upon first meeting a person, most people automatically classify the other’s gender. With this classification come the inevitable gender role expectations. Even for those who consciously try their hardest not to cloud their perceptions of others based on “traditional” gender role expectations, it is almost impossible not to subconsciously succumb to these expectations that are ingrained in our minds virtually since the day we are born. These expectations often influence how one interacts with another. This is especially important when taking into consideration the effects that gender socialization of children through gendered toys, media, and parental affects child development.

In our society, there are norms of what is considered to be feminine and what is to be considered masculine, but how are these norms constructed? Through the use of toys, books, and clothing, children are socialized into their “appropriate” gender. These objects provide influence over behavior and appearance, showing boys and girls what is appropriate for each gender. After some investigation it was found that the toys, books, and clothing that children use not only foster the norms of gender behavior and appearance, but also construct gender roles in their young minds.

Throughout the history of society, women and men both have faced the constricting roles forced upon them, from a young age; each gender is given specific social and cultural roles to play out throughout their lives. Little girls are given dolls and kitchen toys, little boys are given dinosaurs and power tool toys, if one was to step out of this specified role, social conflict would ensue. Contrast to popular belief, sex is a biological construct, and gender is a social construct specifying the roles men and women are to follow to be accepted into society as “normal”. The effects of gender roles have had on women have proved harmful over the decades. Although the woman’s involvement in society has improved throughout the decades,

A Doll House is a play that focuses on human rights and feminism. Throughout the play there are two women: Nora and Mrs. Linde. Nora is the main character and though Mrs. Linde is less prominent throughout the play her role is very important. The two women become foils for each other in ways that don’t become apparent until the very end.

Today in our American society, the majority of U.S, citizens are still following the gender norms that have been created for both sexes with some twinks. As America is known for the changes made to itself throughout the years, such as phones, TVs, and other electronic devices that would have been seen as impossible back then, it’s ironic to see that societies views on the dos and don’ts of gender haven’t been as widely developed. However, these developments on gender aren’t bad as they also helped women gain the right to vote in the 1920s, allowed same-sex couples to have the benefits of marriage in 2015, and now more women are being involved in politics not only in the U.S. but in other countries too. In an article written by Samantha Olsen, What It Means To ‘Be A Man’: How Male Gender Stereotypes Try To Fit Growing Boys Into A Mold And Fail, Olsen, informs her audience using effective strategies that make the audience understand why gender stereotypes affect societies young men abysmally.

Ever since the dawn of time, women and men have been associated with specific gender roles that can be seen controversial in the eyes of many. Traits and roles associated with a specific gender can be either innate or learned over time. Looking into the deeper concept of gender roles and stereotypes, it is clear that these fixed gender roles are not naturally born with, but rather taught, learned, or influenced by external forces.

The way in which gender roles are portrayed in children’s literature significantly contributes to the development of our youth’s understanding of their own gender’s role and how they are perceived by society. It is important for children to understand gender roles because gender roles are an essential cog in the perpetual machine that develops our society, but these cogs have been replaced with newer, more up-to-date cogs over recent years, so to speak. As society has changed, so has the typical role that each gender plays in it, namely women. As feministic movements have gained more and more traction in recent years, there’s been a shift in the roles and expectations placed on women. Today, more and more women are going to college,