Gender Norms

I read the essay “Learning to be Gendered” and in this article it talks about what gender roles are and why we have them. Sally McConnell-Ginet and Penelope Eckert believe that we as babies are taught how to be male or female as we grow up. I disagree with them because sex is determined by our biological features and gendering comes from our traits as individuals. I think the word “norm” comes from what males and females do commonly but that’s not always the case. Although a great influence comes from how we are raised and what we learn from society as we get older, people should have a choice in who they want to be and what role they want to play. If a woman wants to go out and bring the goods home as a man normally would, so be it. If a man wants to stay home and take care of the children and house, then that’s fine too. Men are taught to be strong and not show feelings which a lot of men present themselves to be, but there are some out there who are emotional and come off as sensitive. Parents dress their children as boy or girl yet people grow up to be cross dressers and style themselves differently. I think gender roles are a big thing for us when we are young, but as we grow up we learn to identify ourselves how we want to be portrayed. I don’t think it’s necessarily bad that we are raised to be what people think boys are supposed to be like and how girls are supposed to be like. I think it’s a problem that people don’t want to grow from that and make their own decisions as well as others looking down on them for it.

That Whole Gender Thing

These gender norms started because someone from birth put you into a category, then from that point on you are automatically expected to act a certain way, look a certain way think a certain way, all ways that match that pink or blue cap put on your head after birth. Boys and girls start out so similar. They all cry the same and we even sound alike, up until boys get that bass in their voice. Then when a boy doesn't get that deep voice people may think he is "girly" or "gay", even thought neither may be true. There are so many things in todays society that are adding to the gender roles the media is such a huge contributor all the time.
In the reading it also mentions how girls and boys are treated differently too. As children girls aren't supposed to be playing in the mud and getting dirty while the boys are supposed to be out getting rough and being a boy. That also adds to the gender roles today. Girls aren't supposed to like to get rough and do "boy stuff" and when a girl does she gets negative feedback from it. Like its wrong that she does anything other than be girly. Then when boys come off too girly and go get their nails done or something they get called names, or if a boy doesn't want to get out and do "boy stuff".
People are just used to these gender norms ever since whoever said that girls are like this and boys are like that. Whoever did that changed everything and now its going to be hard to reach that gender equality.

Growing Up: Boy or Girl

A lot of what the reading said is correct about society, especially with how society expects each gender to act and grow up as. I agree with the points and claims made. Before the birth of a child, parents are always looking to pick things out determined on whether it is a boy or a girl. Society looks at parents to pick proper attire, always relating blue to boys and pink to girls. Now I have always wondered why these colors, mainly why baby blue for boys. Baby blue is such a girly color, at least later in a guys life, so I never understood the point of that color relating to boys. In the bigger picture, why does society relate certain colors to certain genders? I see multiple colors that are related to one gender, worn by many individuals of the other gender. It just doesn't seem very realistic to do for babies since society is so different when you get older, which brings up other points. When children grow up, they are expected to act certain ways, but in all reality, it determines on how the parents raise the child, plus how the child reacts to certain circumstances. typically boys are more troublesome then girls, however, my sister was by far the most troublesome child in my family when growing up. I feel like society expects too much out of each gender, in the sense of how they are supposed to act. Girls are supposed to be gentle and caring, whereas guys are rough and get into things they shouldn't. I know many girls that are considered tomboys, and they do everything that a guys does, but are still classified as girls. I know many guys who don't like to get into trouble and who like to stay indoors, plus there are very emotional guys in the world, which society says shouldn't be allowed. I feel like everyone should grow up based on what they are happy with, therefore, society needs to back off, and stop expecting boys to act a certain way, and girls to act a different way.

Trying to think of a clever gender-related title

The essay “Learning to be Gendered” is about gender norms and why they exist. The authors, Penelope Eckert and Sally McConnell-Ginet, seem to think that babies are taught how to “be” a male or female, which I disagree with. The author’s state, “…sex determination sets the stage for a life-long process of gendering, at the child becomes, and learns how to be, male or female.” I, personally, do not believe this. I feel like the essay was trying to say that a newborn child is almost void of being male or female. If that makes sense. I think gender norms exist because that is how it has always been. That’s why it the “NORM.” Males used to go out and hunt for food while females would take care of the children. I do not think that gender norms are so much needed, as just the way things are. I don’t think girls are taught to female or boys are taught to be male. The authors even somewhat disprove their own theory by saying, “There is considerable debate among scholars about the extent to which adults actually do treat boys and girls differently, and many note that the similarities far outweigh the differences.” That sentence alone disproves the author’s argument that parents teach their children to be a boy or a girl. They do go on to try to discredit the research by saying, “Research on early gender development…is almost exclusively done by psychologist. As a result, the research it reports on largely involves observations of behavior in limited settings-whether in a laboratory or in the home or the preschool.” To me, home and preschool is just about ALL the settings where you’d find the child they are describing. The state that the researchers miss “small differences across many different situations.” The go on to say “Small differences here and there are PROBABLY enough for children to learn what it means in their community to be male or female.” They have no evidence so I do not believe this claim. I think this essay was pretty one sided to say the least. The author’s also didn’t mention the hormones, testosterone and estrogen, that are almost exclusively set for each gender.

Gender Bender (or not so much)

"Learning to Be Gendered" by Penelope Eckert and Sally McConnell-Ginet is an all too real essay to read. Gender norms are real. When kids are little, their parents dress them according to their gender. An example of this is when the essay read, "Overalls for a girl may be OK (though they are 'best' if pink of flowered or in some other way marked 'feminine') but gender liberalism goes only so far." I remember when I was growing up, I couldn't wear what I wanted to wear. I couldn't dress in sweatpants or jeans and a t-shirt because it wasn't "lady like". That's how my older brother was supposed to dress because he's a boy. My mom would put me in dresses, put ribbons in my hair and shoes with buckles on them to go to church every Sunday. She'd dress my brother in nice slacks and a dress shirt with a tie and dress shoes, with his hair slicked back. We weren't asked if we wanted to wear this or that, we just did because that's what girls and boys wore. I agree with the statement that "children play a very active role in their own development" because I can remember times where I'd look at other girls and see their dresses and see the boys in their slacks and remember that that's the way it's supposed to be. Boys and girls are supposed to be different from one another. In time they'll find out what their true gender identity is. Maybe that boy doesn't feel like a boy on the inside, and wants to be a girl. Or vice versa. And that's the great thing about  most of our generation nowadays, you can do that and so many people will support you at the end of the day. Gender norms are real when we're kids, but as we grow up you because who you are meant to be. 

Gender norms

“Learning to be Gendered” is an essay written by Penelope Eckert and Sally McConnell-Ginet which introduces the topic gender. The essay talks about why gender norms exist and how we use them in our everyday lives. Eckert and McConnell-Ginet says “At birth, many hospital nurseries provide pink caps for girls and blue caps for boys, or in other ways provide some visual sign of the sex that has been assigned to the baby.” This is just one of the examples they talk about in the essay about how we classify people into genders. I personally believe that when a baby is born, we shop for pink clothes for girls and blue for guys because it would be awkward if we bought a pink frilly dress for a baby boy. As they grow up, a guy can wear a pink frilly dress if he wanted to. I guess we were just used to the idea of things being this way for a long time. It is what we grew up thinking and knowing. Every parent wants their little girl playing in dollhouses wearing their pink dress, and their son playing with toy trucks and running around being manly. As the kids grow up and start to have a mind of their own, I believe that they should be able to do what they want to do. Gender norms are just there between the gap of a kid knowing what they really want to be. Gender norms stop playing such a big role as we grow older because then we are shaping into the person we want to be. I’ve never really paid attention to the gender norms parents put on their kids because I don’t really think it matters. In the end, the child wont even remember much of their childhood anyways.

Gender norms are the norm

In the essay “Learning to Be Gendered” by Penelope Eckert and Sally McConnell-Ginet It talks about how gender norms exist and why they exist. It talks about how certain names are feminine and other masculine, how you dress baby boys up in guy colors and dress girls up in girly colors. I believe gender norms exist because most likely a baby boy will like the color blue and a baby girl will probably enjoy the color pink. Is that because that’s just how they were brought up thinking? Or is it just how boys and girls are? I think it has to do a little with both. In terms of how they’re brought up, of course a dad wants his son to be a man who does manly things and of course a mom wants her daughter to be a beautiful princess. So naturally the parents will buy toys like trucks and footballs for their son, and doll houses for their daughter, because that’s what they liked as kids, and what everyone else expects a boy and a girl to like. I also think it's just something to fill in the time before the kids grow up and become who they want themselves to be. If a boy wants to be a manly man he can and if a girl wants to be a girly girl she can do that too. A person is going to be who they want to be it doesn’t really matter what they played with when they were a baby, it definitely plays a role, but in the end gender norms stop playing such a big role. And a boy can become more feminine and a girl can become more masculine if they want to. I’ve always thought baby boys wore blue and baby girls wore pink just so that everyone and their mom asks if it’s a boy or a girl I didn’t think it really mattered that much, but that’s just my opinion.