Gender Segregation

From: Kiara

In my photo, I chose my niece and nephew; who are ages two and five. My nephew is two years old going on three, and my niece is five years old. As seen in the picture they are sitting down at a pumpkin patch field. The pumpkin patch which is held at butler’s orchard every year. Butler’s Orchard has lots of pumpkins, games, petting zoo, and hay rides for all children. The genders of the children that attend are both boys and girls. The activities are not appointed to only girls or only boys they are neutral. What I found very interesting at the pumpkin patch with my niece and nephew were the gender roles that they exhibited. At one point my nephew finds the biggest pumpkin he can find; he then tries to pick it up. After he cannot pick it up he tries to roll it. He then tells his self that he can pick up the pumpkin. I feel that he was trying show a form of masculinity. My niece on the other hand picks out two of the smallest pumpkins the ones that she can handle. The pose and stance of the picture shows how my niece is posing with her shoulders back and legs crossed; which brings out her femininity. My nephew is leaning forward with his legs out and holding onto to each of the pumpkins. In a way, this is a sense of his masculinity. He is proud of the size of the pumpkins. He shows his strength by the way he is holding onto the pumpkins. This relates to gender segregation because, boys learn early in life that they need to present themselves as “masculine” when they are playing with others as opposed to playing alone (Bannerjie & Lintern, 2000). I bring this up, because with my nephew only being two years old he has already developed masculinity roles. Gender segregation begins at a very young age and is carried on into adult hood.