Maccoby Research Paper

This study is no exception to the book “Froggy Bakes a Cake”. Although the book “Froggy Bakes a Cake” may seem like it breaks the stereotypical gender role mold, it is in reality a put down towards young boys, because it shows them that they are not equally capable as girls. In the book “Froggy Bakes a Cake”, we are introduced to three main characters. Individually, each character has his or her own flaw that is amplified to put both genders down.

In Rachel Simmons article “Selfies Are Good for Girls”, she claim that self portrait increases the self-esteem level of teenage girls as their conscious narcissism rises. She assert that as girls get older their confidence level decreases because stereotyping in society increases along with judging people based on their outer appearances. To show addition, Simmons’s say if girls “act too confident” they will be isolated. She claim that young women denied compliments with intense rejection because they want to hear more of the compliments. Simmons emphasis that “selfie is tiny pulse of girl pride - a shout-out to the self.

A child's earliest exposure to what it means to be male or female comes from parents. From the time children are babies, parents treat their sons and daughters differently. Parents’ dress their children gender specific colors, give them gender differentiated toys, and expect different behaviors from boys and girls. Parents inspire their children to participate in sex-typed activities. Such activities include doll playing and engaging in housekeeping activities for girls, and playing with trucks and engaging in sports activities for boys.

Tannen explains, "boys and girls tend to play with children of their own gender, and their sex-separate groups have different organizational structures and interactive norms" (409). Although this line illustrates the difference between men's and women's social structures in childhood, similarities between the two genders are apparent. For one, child friend groups of only one gender are not exclusive to either boys or girls. Additionally, these child friend groups have specific structures exclusive to the group's characteristics, gender, and communication rather than copying parts of the opposite sex's child friend group. However, the characteristics of these groups traditionally contradict each other.

Socio-linguist Deborah Tannen illustrates that communication differences between men and women in her article “Sex, Lies and Conversation: Why Is It So Hard for Men and Women to Talk to Each Other.” Within men and women desire different expectation, they fulfill their roles in certain way. Tannen reveals male and female communication differences are a frustrated problem, which not only causes ineffective conversation, but also pushes couples into a dilemma in their relationship. However, once men and women understand the differences, their relationship improves.

“Between the Sexes, a Great Divide” written by Anna Quindlen, is an essay that talks about the differences between men and women, and how they see the world. She tells about her belief that boys and girls are just different and see the world in different ways, and have always been different. She gives us an image of a middle school dance where the differences can be seen the easiest because of the ‘great divide’ that occurs at all of these events throughout time. She thinks that the divide happens “not because of big differences among us, but because of the small ones” (165). Eventually, both boys and girls will have to come together as a pair and cooperate to live in this world normally.

The preconceived ideas within social classes and races predetermines what people think of others. After reading the story we can draw the conclusion about the dateable young girls and advises the reader to take advantage of the limited knowledge of the girls leading to sexual relations. Although to cover the authors tracks at the end of the publication, Diaz begins to use an educative tone to issue a warning that his advice may not always work and to not follow the rules

Burak defines gender socialization as “the process of interaction through which we learn the gender norms of our culture and acquire a sense of ourselves as feminine, masculine, or even androgynous” (Burack, 1). According to Burack, people of different genders behave differently not due to biological factors, but due to socialization that teaches individuals to behave in a particular way in order to belong to a certain gender. For example, women may tend to be nurturing, not because they are biologically programed to be caretakers, but as a result of society teaching them through toys and media to act as mothers. In this way, gender becomes a performance based on expectations rather than natural behaviors or biology, a phenomenon called “doing

Sexual Identity In “Gender Socialization and Identity Theory” by Michael J. Carter, he asserts gender identity originates with the family. The writer maintains that families are the agents of identity socialization. Carter argues that beginning with infancy children are taught how they are expected to socialize primarily by their families, simply due to the continuous contact with one another, boys are dressed in blue while girls are dressed in pink. The author plainly elucidates children gain knowledge of homophily through playmates by self-segregation into homogeneous groups.

Children and young adults are identifying with gender roles at a young age due to mass media. Children develop within a society that is gender-specific when it comes to social and behavioral norms. These come from the family’s structure, how they play with others and by themselves, and school. Girls were expected to be more passive while boys were to be more aggressive and expressive with masculine behaviors. “Before the age of three, children can differentiate toys typically used by boys or girls and begin to play with children of their own gender in activities identified with that gender.

According to sexologists John Money and Anke Ehrhardt, sex and gender are separate categories. “Sex, they argued, refers to physical attributes and is anatomically and physiologically determined. Gender they saw as a psychological transformation - the internal conviction that one is either male or female (gender identity) and the behavioral expressions of that conviction” (Sterling 4). Although there are biological differences between the two sexes, but gender roles are socially constructed. They determine how males and females should think, speak, dress, behave and interact with society.

Although some people believe that nature affects the gender identity, others argue that, based on the education an individual receives, it is actually nurture. For example, John Moore, a teacher at a female-only school, says, “My findings suggest that, in some senses, the single-sex school is strongly feminist” (Moore, 2005). On the other hand, many societies teach the children gender stereotypes to try and limit them from becoming against what the society feels is appropriate. Gender roles or stereotypes are “a set of qualities, behaviors, and attitudes that are considered appropriate for males and females based on their biological sex” (Whalen & Maurer-Starks, 2008). Most of the time, these stereotypes are taught and explained to the children in the early stages of learning, since as mentioned above, gender identity is most likely detected after the child is two years old.

Gender roles, also known as gender stereotypes, are social and cultural norms on how females and males should conduct themselves within a society. Every culture has certain roles both genders are expected to follow. An example of this in traditional American culture is a man becoming a doctor while a female becomes a nurse or men being the hard workers and women being stay at home mothers. Gender development researchers, similar to other developmental researchers, focus on questions of change over time in gender related subjects (Ruble and Martin 1988). Research suggest that children are socialized to understand gender stereotypes at an early age.

Every culture has different guidelines about what is suitable for males and females and family members may socialize babies in gendered ways without consciously following that path. For example, in a modern society, the colour pink is associated with girls and the colour blue with boys. Even as tiny babies, boys and girls are dressed differently according to what is considered ‘appropriate’ to the respective sexes. Even parents who strive to achieve a less ‘gendered’ parenting style unconsciously reinforce gender roles. A family structure acts as the most important agent of gender socialization for children and adolescents as it serves as the centre of a child’s life.

Gender Stereotyping suppresses an individual to believe that they are not perfect and will not be accepted by society unless they follow the societal norms. The most shocking part about gender stereotyping in children, is that adults instill it in them without even realizing they do. Consider a person’s life for example. From the moment he/she born, that one word defines most if not all of their life choices starting with the clothes they wear to the decorations in their room to the toys they play with. “Children develop gender-typed patterns of behavior and preferences as early as age 15 to 36 months” states a psychological viewpoint on gender stereotyping in children.