Stereotyping – Cultural Discourse
Critical literacy
is learning to question assumptions. I
am writing this as my niece and nephew aged seven and four are playing with
some dolls. What is amazing is that they
are both playing with them. Each child
has their own assortment of Barbie dolls even though one is a girl and the
other is a boy. We ,as a society, are so
conditioned to gasp in shock when boys play with dolls but when one thinks
about action figures, aren’t they actually the same thing? My brother and sister-in-law have heard all
of the comments, from “It’s OK you know!” to “He’s just copying his older
sister whom he idolizes.” Regardless, they both enjoy playing with their
dolls. What is just as interesting is
how they interact with them. My niece
organizes the clothing, and sings as she changes the dolls outfit from one to
another. My nephew on the other hand
shouts, makes vocal noises, and has his dolls perform physical feats that
demonstrate his dolls physical
ability. Whereas my niece enjoys making
her dolls into princesses—pretty and
polished. My nephew is only interested in battling his dolls with his
sister’s. Why is it that little girls
typically prefer calmer more creative pursuits whereas little boys prefer more
action-based ones? Even when we don’t
differentiate and provide children with gender biased toys, it seems that
children play with the same toys differently.
Although young children are very aware of their gender roles they are
also very much impacted on sibling rivalries.
In my niece and nephew’s case, the younger sibling always wants to do
and play with the same toys that the older sibling has. My nephew is torn between loving Barbie and
enjoying more traditional boy “super hero” action figurines. His super hero figurines are addressed as
“Batman Barbie” or “Superman Barbie” because to address them without the Barbie
label would diminish their value in his eyes—toys not the same as his
sister’s. Does it matter that he plays
with dolls vs figurines? Is it not really the same thing? Can’t creative play be creative play? I wonder how my nephew plays when he is in
Junior Kindergarten or daycare? Does he
restrict his play to more typical boy pursuits? Is he really aware of the gender
divisions? Why should we care how he
chooses to play? Why are so many adults shocked and surprised that a little boy chooses to play with
dolls?
As
a society, we consciously and unconsciously define the gender roles. Dolls that are promoted for boys vs girls are
identified by how we as a society
epitomize the male and female role models. Both Batman and Superman are extremely
muscular and are given unrealistically large chests. To be a successful male, you have to be
strong and heroic. You need to be able
to “save the day”. Barbie is also
unrealistic with her hourglass figure, slender waist and voluptuous
breasts. Does this mean that you can
only be a success as a female if you are skinny and beautiful like Barbie and
dressed in the latest fashionable outfits?
Do young children even notice the unrealistic body proportions? Do they
equate physical beauty with social acceptance? How come masculine action figure
dolls are socially acceptable for a boy than Barbie? My nephew loves his super hero action figure
dolls but he does not play with them to the exclusion of his Barbies. These
gender roles have been expanded into stories, movies, advertising, toy
industry—everywhere in society.
