Commentary On 'Doing Gender' By Zimmerman

Introduction

The concept of sex and gender has been socially constructed for a very long period of time, and it was a lot stricter in the past. As author Zimmerman indicated in his reading “Doing Gender” that “Those of us who taught courses in the area in the late 1960s and early 1970s were careful to distinguish one from the other.” (Zimmerman 1987) Nowadays, we know that the society is gradually changing and people are becoming more open-minded than before. However, there is certainly still space for improvement. During the class, we learned a lot about how the concept of gender has been socially constructed and affect an individual's perspective about what "normal" is. Gender segregation began right after an individual was first born and

It is easy to identify a “girl” and a “boy” product by the variation of the presentation of colors, as we know that pink is for girls and blue is for boys usually. Besides, it is very common for the company to print out and signify one specific gender who is suitable to play with certain toys instead of letting children choose what they want to play. I am going to compare the ‘boy’ and ‘girl’ toy from the “little tikes” company.

First of all, the indoor toy “Cook n Store Kitchen” cues signal of “feminine” because the huge box shows two little girls happily ‘cooking’ the meal, which excluded the little boys. The price for this toy is approximately $70. While the outdoor toy “Tot Sports T-Ball Set” only shows a little boy hitting the baseball, which hints the signal of “masculine”. Moreover, I noticed the description said the toy “helps improve battling skills, motor skills and coordination”. Surprisingly, this toy only costs $15, which makes a huge price gap. From the above example, we see that little girls are trained and encouraged to do indoor chores and little boys are encouraged to stay outside in order to enhance their battling and motor skills. Generally, the “girls” toy is also a lot more expensive than the “boys” toy because more accessories are included in the toy