Genderic Stereotypes

Boys are told to not be a girl, that they cannot wear pink, and cannot play with Barbie’s. If a boy acts outside of this stereotype he is considered a homosexual. Stereotypes and traditional roles need to be squashed. Restricting a child to one set of behaviors can psychologically damage them. Maria do Mar Pereira, a sociological researcher, found in a study that “constant effort to manage one’s everyday life in line with gender norms produces significant anxiety, insecurity, stress and low self-esteem for both boys and girls, and both for ‘popular’ young people and those who have lower status in school” (Forcing

Gender roles and stereotypes have been implemented in society since the beginning of time due to the male’s belief of being the superior gender. These stereotypes are placed into the children of society's by watching parents or even the parents enforcing these stereotypes through things like television and items children play with every day like toys. Many of these stereotypes are enforced on children through the parents beginning at birth with the basic clothing colors of either pink or blue. Dr. Susan Witt had found one study that stated, “Parents have differential expectations of sons and daughters as early as 24 hours after birth” (Witt).

For example, pink is a color associated with female, while blue is generally the color for boys. This idea is interesting since before the 1940s, pink used to be a male color. Men also used to wear high heels. (find more info on this) Madonna addressed this gender issue in her song, What It Feels Like For A Boy, stating: Girls can wear jeans And cut their hair short Wear shirts and boots

Interpreting Objects “On Wednesday, we wear pink” circulates the internet and occasionally appears in conversation between teenagers. It summarizes the plot of the famed Mean Girls film from circa 1990 into a concise theme – the physical attributes determine your place in society. Culture, in general, operates visually with members asserting their status with their display of physical items. Children up through the elderly have selected decorations and clothing as projections of their personality and their desired social affiliations.

As stated in the text “Fashion and Social Identity” fashion can help construct a man and a woman’s social image. The social norm for males in terms of fashion is that men are meant to wear pants and clothing that show more of a masculine figure. In difference a woman’s social norm is to wear more dresses, skirts, blouses, and outfits that express her feminine side. These social norms relates to the unstated notion of one’s self by displaying a person’s gender without the need of communication.

According to role theory, clothing may influence the self-concept and make the role easier to play, possibly determining whether or not a particular role is to be played at all” (Draa 25). Uniforms are a way for students to internalize and accept their role as a student. Admittedly, another problem is that uniforms force gender nonconforming students into the gender

Nguyen and Brown explain the importance of clothing for identity, “Clothing and other forms of style are also reported to signify ethnic and cultural identity and used to differentiate among types of

Boys, well, boys will be boys. They have the expectation of being touch, loud, get into mischief, be dirty, play with trucks, and remember… BOYS DON’T CRY! These expectations are a few of many, but they paint a picture of what is mean to be masculine.

There are numerous objects in our lives that demonstrate social relations and how different people may view either the objects or those using the objects. For one thing, articles of clothing are something that many people use as a way to define an individual when in social environments. This typically, will affect our relations directly because it changes the power of a person and the article of clothing from person to person, which leads to different judgement of individuals. Do Muslim Women Really Need Saving by Lila Abu-Lughod and Identity Dub: The Paradoxes of an Indian American Youth Subculture (New York Remix) by Sunaina Maira are two texts that demonstrate this very concept. In discussing objects and social relations, we learn a lot

In our society exists another social norm, a code called, “Behavior Code”. Even at this moment, many idiosyncratic babies with different characteristics are born around the world. In their adolescence, however, many boys and girls question themselves whether their behaviors are in accordance with the behavior code. For instance, some girls grow into tomboys — “girls start wearing stylish clothes and watching from the sidelines as the boys acted and spoke” (Pipher, p1). But, unfortunately, at some points of their adolescence, those idiosyncratic girls lose thier authenticity and become a part of the society, behaving correspondingly to the behavior code.

From the very beginning of our lives, a majority of us are told or taught upon by cues on how to act according to our gender. Saying that if one wants to perform gender right, than girls should act a certain way, while boys act another. In,“Night to His Day,” Judith Lorber discuses how the formation of gender begins, “For the individual, gender construction starts with the assignment to a sex category on the basis of what the genitalia look like at birth” (Lober 1994:55). Solely based off the genitalia, it will be determined if the child is a boy or a girl; from their parents will dress their child in a certain way to make that gender prevalent to an outsider.

Orenstein further highlights that gender is a social construct by historically looking at the association of the color blue and pink with gender. Initially, both boys and girls wore gender-neutral white gowns and when colors were introduced to the nursery pink was associated with males and blue was associated with females. Pink, being a pastel version of red, symbolized strength and the blue symbolized femininity due to its intimations of the Virgin Mary. The nature of the switch is unclear, but in modern day you will find most girls attracted to pink and most boys attracted to blue because their environment tells them these associations are correct. Since children are so malleable and absorb most of their information from their environment they believe that the gender roles are set in stone, any deviations from the “norm” leads to children being shamed or looked at skeptically.

We intend with this research to show insight on how to some extent a large majority of students in college populations, within the realm of fashion, tend to conform to a prototypical style over time. Indeed, we tend

“Fashion (is) a key resource through which individuals … construct their identities and position themselves in relation to others”. Bennett, A. (2005). Culture and Everyday Life. London: Sage. p. 115.

Stereotype refers to the cognition aspect of feeling towards a given group of people. It is the picture that most people flood in their minds about other people. However the picture painted by people with regard to other people is not necessarily a true depiction of the reality. Stereotypes hold the fixed view that people of a certain community or group exhibit specific character traits, which influence their behavior in general. Stereotypes as regards gender, refer to certain traits presumably adhered to males and females in the society, that define and distinguish these genders. According to Mynhardt, the two genders (males and females) portray traits which are both negative and positive. Gender stereotypes have far reaching consequences