In Rethinking Early Childhood Education the author talks about the gender stereotypes children are exposed to and believe. It is true that in many if not most toy stores toys are obviously designated for the male and felmale role, not too many genger neutral toys can be found. What is worse is that not all of these gender specific toys are sending children the right message. What really stuck out to me was the Barbie scale of 110 pounds. Do little girls really need to start worrying about weight issues so early in life? It may seem harmless but recently I met a young girl who was in second grade and she constantly made negative remarks about her weight. Sometiems she did not even want to eat and would just sit there clearly sad and hungry. When playing with her barbies she once told me, “I wish I looked like this, she is so pretty.” I had to tell her that she was beautiful too and real so she was more special.
Children have many ideas about the world and how things work but not all their ideas are even close to accurate. They observe and begin forming their view of the world. If they can be taught that yes boys and girls are different but both are equally competent then hopefully the children will grow up having a more open mind.
Since it is not likely that the toy companies are going to change the way they make toys we need to make a conscious effort to include both genders in all activities and create encounters where genger role stereotypes can be broken. For instance, woodworking centers are great for involving all the children and everyone can see that carpentry is for girls as well. Boys can also be encouraged to take care of the babies or wash the dishes. These are more realistic scenareos for many of the children who will grow up and have children rather than shoot imaginary bad guys.
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Yes children are influenced by their environment settings so it is important that we instill in the children about gender identities. When I would walk in a toy store, I never really thought about really "looking" around to see how it's set up, what's on the labels, etc. But now after reading this section, It really made me open my eyes to really see the details in what these companies are producing to these children. They have no idea that these kinds of things influence childrens' thinking. I believe as teachers, we need to show children, not tell, that both men and women are equal in what they can do.
ReplyDeleteYes I agree that a good way is to have toy that are both neutral to boy and girls. It's up to the teacher to make it creative as possible.
Hi Kawai,
ReplyDeleteI agree that both boys and girls can take part in different play areas and activities together which can also help them influence their understanding when they become older. After reading your blog it made me think about what types of toys are children learning from such as positive or negative.
I took my nieces to Toys R Us the other day and I immediately led them to the girl's section. I was kind of caught off guard by two realizations: 1) I ASSUMED that they wanted to go to the girl's section, never bothering to let them lead their way to the store and 2) I naturally KNEW where in the store the girl's section was. How far have these gender stereotypes affected our own behaviors and way of thinking? Sometimes I think that it's not so much that we don't want children to play with whatever they want, be it assigned to a certain gender, but we just figure we know what they want; we know girls want barbies and boys want race cars.
ReplyDeleteHi Kawai,
ReplyDeleteThe woodworking center -- a place of possible gender neutrality -- I never thought of this in this manner. I wonder how our classroom choices influence gender stereotypes....
I visited the preschool at Mid-Pacific Institute this past week with Susan. The preschools is considered a reggio-inspired program offering child-inspired projects at the center of curriculum. As Susan and I observed the classroom, we both noted how the classroom was not set-up as specific centers rather beautiful materials were throughout the classroom. This set-up could create a more gender equal classroom as the materials were not considered male or female.
How can teachers create classrooms where materials lose their gender pre-dispositions? Can materials take on gendered ideals as girls or boys play with them or is it all related to the culture of a classroom?
Jeanne
Hi!
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree with children having negative images about their bodies and what they have to do to fit in. We do need to teach children that girls don't need to be skinny and boys do need to be muscular in order to be popular. It's much more than that. Children have to be confident with themselves. Another problem are advertisements on alcohol, cigarette smoking, and violence. Therefore, children need to be educated early because if a second grader says negative thing about themselves then they are capable on understand what is good for you and what's bad for you.
You mentioned that most of the toys at the toy stores are gender-specific and that it is difficult to find gender-neutral toys. I completely understand your comment because I now refuse to buy toys as gifts for my cousin’s and friend’s children because it can be difficult to find appropriate gender-neutral toys, which I prefer to buy because I don’t want to perpetuate the gender-bias cycle. Maybe the toy manufacturers won’t change the way they make toys but maybe if more letters are sent to the manufacturers, especially those from children, there could be a possibility that they might reconsider. Of course, to really make a difference (because toy manufacturers have made changes), there must be support from consumers. What can we do as educators to advocate for change from the toy companies through the education of our community? Or are we simply limited to doing what we can in our classrooms and with our students to counter gender-bias?
ReplyDeleteThat is quite alarming the story about the girl who wished that she looked more like barbie. I think it's hard the prevent gender stereotypes when our society standards are so set in their ways. I don't think it's the toys that are reinforcing these stereotypes. I think all types of media portrays these stereotypes including girl's and body image. It starts at a young age but it doesn't stop. I still get bombarded with these images constantly. I don't think changing media or toys is the answer. I think the only sure way is to build the child's confidence and self image and not to worry about the outside factors that we can't control.
ReplyDelete