Sex and gender

I remember seeing this little boy, at a family party we were having, who picked up a pink ball and inspected it for a second. Upon seeing that there were princesses on the front of this ball, he hurled it, and immediately ran to the blue one laying on the driveway. I recall thinking how odd this was that the child was so young (maybe 1 1/2 years old), had no influence from anyone in this decision, and he still chose to go for the "boyish" ball over the "girly" one. Whether or not he had previously been influenced by his parents to be "boyish" I cannot speak to. However, I venture to say that he had been influenced in many different ways. As Berger (2011) states, gender differences are "culturally prescribed" differences in the way we act.

This cultural aspect to gender happens without us even thinking about it. The clothing in stores is very clearly divided into girls and boys sections. Toys in the toy sections at Target are separated into boy and girl sections. Girls have princess dresses and barbies and boys have swords and tools. Along with this comes the gender schema that develops in children which Berger (2011) speaks of. Kids start to form their own opinion of what it means to act like boy or a girl. It's ok to cry if you're a girl, but not so much for boys. Girls should be loving and hug their mom's throughout childhood and adolescents. Boys are supposed to get up when they fall and "brush it off." They also should stop hugging their moms during adolescence because we can't have them looking less masculine.

Since I tend to focus on women's issues most of the time, I will switch it up here:
I watched a very interesting documentary on Netflix called The Mask You Live In that addressed the issues of boys growing up and being expected to mask emotion and act "tough." These boys described some of the hard childhoods they had and the "mask" they felt they needed to put on every morning before going to school, or out in the public, to cover it all up and look tough. It is alarming to see how ultimately destructive these gender roles can be that we create as a society. Boys end up depressed, aggressive, and suicidal as a result of feeling like they need to bottle up emotion. This documentary was very eye-opening for my husband and I as we have two children, and our youngest is a boy. It made us realize how important it is to openly talk to boys about their feelings and allow they to vent without having to turn to violence or aggressive behavior, which is often what happens when these feelings are suppressed in boys.