Stereotypical Thoughts

A little over 3 years ago I became the aunt of a little boy named Max. My nephew’s mother is Native American and according to their tradition she wanted to let his hair grow out. When he was about a year and a half, his hair was already shoulder length. People have always told us that she was a beautiful little girl and would ask what her name was and we would respond, “HIS name is Max”. What my family and I were and still are astonished by is the fact that people would still mistake him as a girl, even though he was dressed in loose fitting jeans, boy shoes, and an Iron Man shirt. My nephew even and a deeper level voice and plays like a typical boy. Family members would sometimes directly tell people that he is a boy and they would still call him a girl.

Everywhere we look we see a stereotypical persona of females and males. Girls usually are dressed in dressed or blouses and little girl shoes with Dora the Explore or Tinkerbell. Some have little girl bangs with long hair, bows or ribbons. While little boys typically have short hair styles and wear loose fitting clothes and shoes with super heroes. As Judith Lorber says, “a sex category becomes a gender status through naming, dress, and the use of other gender makers”.  When one of these factors is changed it seems as if society doesn’t know what to do or how to respond.

Society tends to raise their children in the “old fashion” tradition in the sense of girls learning how to do house work and doing more homebody duties while the boys are allowed do more physical activities. The adjectives used to describe the differences between the females and males and opposite in most cases. Women are most often thought of soft, motherly, and nurturing, while men are more commonly thought of as strong, the defender, and masculine. If a female has some masculine traits she should not be view differently but yet she shouldn’t go to the extreme of changing everything about herself. Same thing with guys, if a man has some feminine traits he should not be treated differently. In some situations the roles of females and males are forced to switch. For example, if the husband becomes unemployed and the wife is the only one working. The man would stay home and do house work and if that family has children, take care of them. According to Lorber, they were “…changing the role of fathers”. 

Personally I think that the way a person was biological designed is what he or she is meant to be. Regardless they should not be forced to abide in the stereotypical ways. The reading has given me more of an insight on this topic at hand. I believe that I have an open mind and I am pretty accepting of others that do not follow the status quo. I also believe that this course will allow me to look more into this subject and broaden my perspective.