Any topic (writer’s choice)

Write a peer conversation post to the following discussion to dig into gender studies.
Including one direct quote from the reading attached.

As we all know, there is a difference between gender and sex even though sometimes people think that they mean the same thing. Sex refers to the biological differences between females and male while gender refers to the roles of men and women in society which has sometimes been defined by stereotypes created by society. Everyone has their own gender identity as it is based on themselves as an individual. Gender roles are defined by behavior and attitude that society feels like it is appropriate for men and women. For this week’s discussion, I wanted to focus on where gender comes from and how it is learned about by society. I also wanted my main focus to be on toys and how kids feel like they can only play with certain toys based on their gender.

From looking at the Barbie picture from Professors discussion, I remembered one discussion I had done before in regards to a stereotype that only girls can play with barbies and that boys cannot. Society has created this stereotype that since Barbie is a girl, it is only meant for girls to play with even though boys can have an interest in playing with them, and there is nothing wrong with that. I have also noticed that girls tend to play with pink toys and boys tend to play with blue toys even though the color of the toy does not make a difference in who the toy is for. In my opinion, children should be able to play with whatever toy they want and they should also not feel pressured to play with a toy that they dont want to. Another thing I would like to add in regards to Barbie is that children tend to buy the white Barbie more instead of the black Barbie because they feel like the white Barbie is better looking than the black Barbie.

It seems like since birth, genders have been segregated in many ways such as in clothing. Parents find that baby clothes and paraphernalia still come in pastel pink for girls, pastel blue for boys, and white or yellow for babies who have yet to be born and whose sex is unknown or babies whose parents do not mind that a stranger might mistake their gender (Klugman, 170). This quote does not relate to toys, but it shows how the stereotype with pink and blue gets started when a baby is born.

The packages on toys also play a huge role with gender stereotyping. From the article A Bad Hair Day for GI Joe, by Karen Klugman it was described that baby doll packaging has images of a girl taking care of the baby, feeding it, and bathing it, but there is never an image of a boy doing that which shows how these toys are trying to say that baby dolls are only for girls. There have been dolls made that are for boys to play with, but they do not have a nurturing concept like the dolls for girls do, based on the packaging of the dolls. There can be many stereotypes made with all of the toys in the market today, but even action figures and robots have this stereotype that only boys can play with them. This raises some questions for me such as, Since there is a stereotype that only boys can play with action figures, is it trying to say that only boys are strong and that girls arent? The packaging of action figures rarely makes use of photography, let alone photographs of boys. Instead, the doll visible through the plastic wrapping is usually surrounded by colorful, elaborate illustrations that depict the figure as more expressive and lifelike than it actually is (Klugman, 174-175).

Overall, gender plays a huge role in one’s identification. It shapes social life, behavior, attitude and makes individuals sense themselves. Gender is something that we do rather than have (Shaw & Lee, 126).  Throughout being in society, we as people learn about the practices and skills of gender. Gender has been embedded in culture by the characteristics of someone being feminine or masculine. Every culture has their own definitions of what gender is and how it is described.

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