The “Two Cultures” of Childhood, goes on to state that
from early childhood both girls and boys are affected by conditioning of gender
roles that are given or targeted to them. Examples of this is the concept of
segregating girls and boys, which creates separate social worlds that are characterized
by the different activities they do or how they socially interact. This, then
later goes on to the development of strong gender schemas. These schemas only
further perpetuate the ideologies that are brought upon boys such as that boys
should participate in rough-around activities such as football or soccer.
Whereas the ideology brought upon girls is that girls are dainty or fragile and
that they should play with feminine things such as baby dolls.
“According to gender schema theory (Bem, 1981),
children learn gender schemas from their social environments, but also
willingly adopt and exaggerated distinctions between sexes. Gender schemas
become part of self-identity, influencing children’s preferences, attitudes and
behavior as they strive to act in socially appropriate “masculine” or
“feminine” ways (Martin & Ruble, 2004).”
The photo I took of my younger brothers’ room
clearly show the influence of not only the social environment but also the
physical environment. From the blue walls, to the sport stickers on the walls
and the blue bedding, the physical environment subconsciously enforces the
gender schema of what a boy’s room should be like and further add on to what is
associated with boys and their characteristics. The color blue for as long as
I’ve known has been a symbol for boys and the many shades of it throughout my brothers’
room from the walls to the bedding only further enforce into their minds to
associate the color blue with boys. The funny thing about the setup of their
room is that they didn’t really have much choice in how they wanted it to be
put together. My parents gave them options of what they wanted their wall color
to be, they were given three color choices to choose from however they were
three different shades of blue. My parents whether they realized it or not
contributed to the gender schema that boys are associated with the color blue.
Same goes with the sport stickers on the walls, my brothers were given the
options of sports, monster trucks and science stickers to put on their wall.
There was no consideration or thought that maybe they would want to paint their
walls any color other than blue. When I first look at the picture my graze goes
to the walls because of how much they stand out and enhance the stereotypes of what
activities boys like to do and what their favorite color is. However, my graze
then moves to the toys placed around the room, from the Pikachu piggy bank on
the dresser, to the Pokémon cards on the cubby and even to the Legos inside the
cubby. The toys are in their room are toys that are considered and targeted
“for boys”. They encourage the characteristics boys “should” have such as
creativeness and being imaginative, and also enforce skills that society
believes that boys should have (such as being builders, leaders, and being
intelligent). Overall when I look at the picture in its entirety it’s
hard to deny that the room belongs to a boy, it’s a bundle of influences that
are forced upon boys and how they grow up thinking about what it means to be a man.
Works Cited
Pollitt, Katha.
“Hers; The Smurfette Principle.” The New York Times, 7 Apr. 1991.
Rudman, Laurie
A., et al. "The Two Cultures of Childhood." The Social Psychology
of
Gender: How Power and
Intimacy Shape Gender Relations.
The Guilford Press, 2015, 59-63.
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