Rihanna, Taylor Swift and Gender Expectations

May 5, 2014

Today I want to share my favourite read of the week, and probably month. It includes Rihanna, Taylor Swift and looks at “Snarky News Headlines About Women, Improved”

 

My favourite:

“Hilary Duff shows off shapely legs in skintight jeans and towering wedges as she takes son Luca to lunch”

Improved to:

“Woman has legs”

The article is a funny, thought provoking read and I loved it because of the leg headline alone. More seriously it reminded me of the many gender expectations and stereotypes hidden, and often not so hidden, in our everyday lives.

For example:

Girls should always look pretty are less emotionally stable than boys

Boys should be tough and are less social than girls.

This is just touching the surface of gendered stereotypes, but where do these stereotypes come from in the first place?

From an early age media, family, environment and society instil in young individuals what the “appropriate” behaviours and expectations for a person are, according to their sex.

The FABULOUS article “Gender Neutral Parenting: 5 Ways to Avoid Implicit Sexism” provides interesting ideas on avoiding gender discrimination and also shares findings on the formation of gender identities, from the way young boys are more likely to be hushed or ignored when crying and the way girls are discouraged from displaying anger.

 

 [Source]

 

Here’s a little snippet:

“…Common wisdom” says that girls are more social and boys are more physical. Studies, however, don’t bear this out.

In one experiment, mothers were asked to guess the steepness of a carpeted slope that their 11-month olds would be able to crawl. Then the children actually crawled the slope, and the difference between actual and mother-predicted angles was noted.

The results showed that both boys and girls were able to crawl the same degree of incline. However, the predictions of the mothers were correct within one degree for the boys and underestimated their daughter’s ability by nine degrees.

What this shows is that the presumption that boys are more physical causes parents to encourage their boys more in physical activities while cautioning their girls. This further translates into providing more opportunities for boys to be physical and fewer for girls.

The result?

Boys actually do develop stronger physical skills than girls. But not because of anything innate or biological, but rather because of the gender roles that the parents subconsciously projected onto their babies.”

Interesting stuff.

On a similar note, I attended a workshop a few years ago, where we looked at the way the media, has a role in shaping gender identities.

Boys magazines included:  Cars and trucks, action related topics and shockingly (I think), a comic showing children by a pool, being served fizzy drinks by a blonde waitress, wearing a short skirt.

Girls magazines included: Free lip gloss, baking ideas and a lot of pink .

The above, it seems, were truly reinforcing rigid gender stereotypes that can be damaging for both sexes.

Are men and women actually that different?  And is it really a good thing to place such an emphasis on agression, power and strength for guys and looks for girls?

What about nurturing young guys caring and emotional side and encouraging young girls to be confident, assertive and aiming high?

More on that another time 😉

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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