Gender & Sexual Orientation
This week’s
topic of gender and sexual orientation both were familiar to me due to working
in a preschool setting and being a mother to an infant. In the classroom, I
would always observe the children and notice that some would make comments to
each other about the roles that they should be doing. For example: “Lets play
house, you be the mom and I be the dad”. There was a specific way that the
children would play and they would never play if there were two moms or two
dads. Now a days, the topic of sexual orientation is coming up more often in
schools, and I agree that it is difficult to teach to young children due to the
error that they may think that being gay means having a friend, or
understanding that being gay means loving each other. Growing up, I have heard
the term such as “gay” or “fag” used as a joke amongst friends, people used to
think it was funny. For example, “you’re so gay”, although it is inappropriate
and the used in the wrong way, this was due to lack of knowledge and also
unawareness to the LGBTQ community.
As a mother, I
notice a lot of gender bias in children’s commercials and also nursery rhymes.
Commercials focus certain toys towards girls if they are pink or targeted
towards baking, hair toys, or animals. On the other hand, commercials for
trucks, and toy chests have boys acting in the commercials. I noticed that
there is no mixing of genders in these commercials. This sends a message to
children that they are to play with certain toys or associate with certain
colors (boys-blue, girls-pink). In nursery rhymes that my daughter listens to,
songs refer to men as the master, or when talking about families, they always
bring up the men first and the women second. I sometimes put on nursery videos
on YouTube, and in the videos the woman is in the house, with an apron,
watching the children and there is typically no man. This may mean that they
are working and the woman stays home, a very old school and traditional
idea. Although this is concerning to me,
I know that I can choose what my daughter can play with and listen to. If she
chooses she wants to play with cars and trucks, she may do so. The songs may
have these negative stereotypes, but this is also because the songs are very
old. I have to take the time to find more appropriate nursery rhymes for her,
so that she may understand that there is not gender bias in my household, and
we do not believe in it.
Laureate Education (Producer). (n.d.). Start
seeing diversity: Gender [Video file]. Retrieved from https://class.waldenu.edu
Laureate Education (Producer). (n.d.). Start
seeing diversity: Sexual orientation [Video file]. Retrieved from
https://class.waldenu.edu
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ReplyDeleteHi Angela,
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading your post. It has always been said that boys wear blue and girls wear pink, but there are pink shirts made nowadays for men as well. I think that a man was created to be with a woman, but people have a right to become who they want to be if that is what makes them happy.
I enjoyed reading your post too! I also have a little daughter and I dedicate myself everyday to identify what covert messages she is getting in her environments regarding biases of gender diversity. When I identify them, I take action to change it so that her environment can be more anti-bias.
ReplyDeleteHello Angela!
ReplyDeleteI greatly appreciate you perspective as a parent regarding our topic of society's influence on gender identity. I think that it is unfortunate that we still have not moved away from placing gender roles on little girls and boys. Personally, as mother I allow my children to explore the world and toy choices for themselves. My daughter has never liked playing with dolls but I did when I was a child. On the hand both my son and daughter love playing with toy trucks. Furthermore, at my school we are encourage to say 'Friends" or "Class" versus "boys and girls" when addressing the class. Thanks for sharing!
-Stephanie D.