Gender Stereotypes In Society

1180 Words5 Pages
Throughout the years, there has been a typical black or white line drawn that tells an individual whether they are male or female. From that, an individual is then taught, or socialized, on how to fulfill being that gender and what that entitles. However, over the years, people have been fighting against having this clear cut role of a woman and a men. Unfortunately, due to strong social norms being in place for decades, and the media presenting an ideal form of beauty type for men and women to follow, it makes it difficult to move past the stereotypic roles formulated throughout history. Once a person is said to be either male or female, the individual is then taught on how to fulfill the roles of being a male or female. This is done through…show more content…
This starts as early as infancy, such as children being able to detect and choose which toys are appropriate to be played with for their gender (Andersen, p. 38). Additionally, girls are typically associated with the color pink, whereas boys are associated with blue. Therefore, parents tend to follow this color theme, in which the girls will be dressed in pink or purple type clothing, whereas the boys are usually dressed in blue clothes. The next stage of life, childhood, is affected through their play and games. Games hold a major impact in their intellectual, moral, personal, and social development. Children imitate people in their environment, play the role of a significant other such as “playing mommy” or “playing daddy”, as well as playing games which incorporates the generalized other (Andersen, p. 39). The next stage of life, is when the child is off to school and participating in sports and other socialization. In particular, teachers and older children display an expectation on how to behave and to think in particular ways. For instance, teachers tend to respond to boys more often in the classroom, even when calling attention to a boy misbehaving (Andersen, p. 41). In sport participation, besides there being a split of having a girl and boy team, but males have higher opportunities, such as through higher salary and coaching, than woman do. Furthermore, male sport teams…show more content…
Language reflects the values a culture has, therefore, communicating and reproducing stereotypes (Andersen, p. 58). Although is can continue stereotypes, it can also break them up. For instance, women are now addressed as Ms., instead of the traditional Mrs., or Miss. By simply changing how a woman is addressed aids in breaking away from the idea that the single-most important feature of a woman was her marital status (Andersen, p.
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