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Gender Stereotypes In Children Essay

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Children try to interpret their surroundings by using gender cues provided by society: a sign to determine who should or should not do a particular activity. Children use these cues to know what is expected from others and to develop their personal standards. Between the age of two to four, children begin to learn the gender-related characteristics, and between the age of five to seven, children develop rigid stereotypes about gender (). People living in city are insidiously exposed to enormous gender stereotypes through advertisements, TV programs, books, etc. Although adults can filter the gender-stereotyped information that is received from such kind of media, children cannot. Therefore, adults have the duty to aware that these gender stereotypes …show more content…

Within the gender-typical toy with gender-typical color (pink doll, blue train) and gender-atypical toy with gender-atypical color (pink train, blue doll), children were more likely to play with gender-atypical toy that had a gender-typical color for their sex than that did not (Wong, Hines). Specifically, girls prefer pink toys and boys prefer blue toys no matter what kind of toy that is. However, such preference for gender-stereotypical color is not innate but learned. Research shows that there is no preference for pink within the group of children under the age of two. In other words, gender-typical colors that were imprinted by surroundings make children consider that gender-typical colored toys are preferable for them. Since different toys offer different opportunities of learning, some researchers worry that this kind of imprinting causes developmental difference between boys and girls (Wang). Playing with boy-typical toys require more activity compared to girl-typical toys, whereas lower physical proximity evoked. In contrast, playing with girl-typical toys require more verbal interaction and physical proximity that may enhance social and verbal skills. Not only the difference of development, there is another concern that is related to the children’s self-confidence. “Rigidly gendered toys tells kids who they should be, how they should behave, and what they should be interested in.,” says Susan Lynn, a psychologist at Harvard Medical School

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