Assignment 4

I believe that children naturally act like boys and girls but society also enforces gender roles. Society, impacts how girls and boys should act before they are even born. At a baby shower if the women knows the sex of the baby, everyone buys pink for girls and blue for boys. Girls are always told to act lady-like when they sit in the classroom or when they are acting rough on the playground. Girls are expected to always carry themselves properly and dress appropriately.

Children’s toys are gender made as well as their clothes are. Girls are expected to play with Barbie, and in the kitchen or the house playing with dolls, while boys play with sand, dirt, trucks, and blocks. Girls get told not to play with boys’ toys and not to get dirty, and if a boy plays house or with a doll, it is assumed he is gay, and he is redirected to the boys play area. From my own experiences, I don’t think it matters what children are playing with as long as they are using their imagination. As a child I was sporty and what some would call a tomboy. A was a cheerleader and a soccer player, but I loved both equally. Although I used to slide in the mud at soccer that didn’t mean I was a boy, or would turn out a lesbian. I’m the total opposite now. I love to shop and get my nails done, and hate to get dirty. I don’t think making me play with girls toy or boys toy would of changed who I am today, I think kids need many experiences to decide what they like and enjoy and what they want to peruse in the future.