Children And Gender Roles

Have you ever witnessed a boy play with his sisters Barbie doll? Play dress up with them or even a little girl play with a Tonka truck in the mud not caring if she gets a little dirt under her nails?Well have you? Society doesn’t tolerate much of this so called “nonsense”. Most find it strange to see a young boy around the age of nine playing with a Barbie doll. Society classifies playing withBarbie dolls feminine, and girls with trucks and getting dirty as “macho”.
Society expects everyone to fit this mold that we all must fill in order to fit in with society. Society expects boys toplay with trucks and girls to play with dolls. If a boy is seen playing with a doll you might automatically think he will turn out to be homosexual. When he gets older and starts to realize what heenjoys isn’t very masculine he will believe that he is “gay” after all. And if a girl is seen playing with a group of boys and burps and spits constantly and publicly she is considered to be “one ofthe boys”. She can be considered to be a lesbian. You would think that in this time period society would be more excepting of this. Society has not changed much on these views and remains the same.What society expects from a young boy is for him to play with his spider man action figure, collect Pokémon cards, play football with his friends, belch in public and eat with their mouths open. All ofthese are criteria that must be met for a boy to be normal and to grow up and be masculine.
Girls on the other hand are on the opposite side of the spectrum. Girls are to be delicate and prissyunlike their counter parts. Make up, tea parties, dress up, hair braiding, and dolls are all significant in being a girl in the eyes of society. In the essay by Katha Pollit tells us readers that allBarbies do is make young girls “try and fit the impossible American ideal” which is to mimic the Barbies body. Pollit also explains how society is not as excepting of change as it should be. Despite...