Nabith 1

Ashim Nabith
Professor Ditch
5 December 2014
English 113A
Society and Parents Constructing Infants
Western society gets the terms gender and sex confused. They believe sex and
gender mean the same thing, however sex is used to describe someone on the basis of the
reproductive system and gender is the term used to describe whom a person is within him
or her and how the person see him or herself. Society has in place gender codes and role
for both men and women to follow, if they dont comply with the social norms then
theyll be seen as weird and be discriminated. . The articles Rethinking Womens
Biology and From Women, Men and Society address the theme that parents willingly
or unwillingly put us in gender codes based on our physical appearances that will reflect
our behavior in our adult life. It refers to the problem that we as people judge too quickly
about other people. We shouldnt do this because itll destroy how we see and treat
people. Why is this important? People are being humiliated and discriminated because
theyre being whom they see themselves rather than being what society wants them to be.
Physical appearance in our youth determines how we will be treated and how we
are expected to act. If a boy were seen not wearing blue or dark color clothes he would be
treated not as a boy and be expected to be more weak and less masculine. In the article
From Women, Men and Society Renzetti and Curran states that, Boys are typically
dressed in dark or primary clothing, such as red and blue, the colors blue and red are
associated with male masculinity while any other colors such as pink and purple would

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not be seen normal and will be against the social norm. The color pink is typically
dressed on girls to label them as girls. Colors are just labels to label our physical
appearance and have different gender expectation in our infant years. If you were wearing
blue you would be seen as a boy and be treated more masculine and tough, if you were
wearing pink you would be seen as a girl and you would be treated more feminine and be
expected to be quiet and shy. These create gender constructions and gender expectations,
expecting you to be behaving or acts in a certain way that is seen normal in todays
western society. Clothing in our youth years play a significant part in gender
socialization. Clothing is a label of sex, it shows how a child should be treated based on
sex; also certain type of clothing encourages or discourages particular behavior or
activities not seen normal to society. These physical standards parents have placed on
children will reflect on the childrens adult life in the future.
As adults our physical appearances means our weight and height. As humans
weve grown up with different body types, and weight became a huge factor in western
social construction. In the article Rethinking Womens Biology the author Hubbard
states that, In our society changes in style not just of clothing but of body shape are
generated. (Hubbard, 49). In the past women who were thicker and were seen attractive,
now attractive women are near size 0 and they eat less than the healthy amount of food
required for a normal human being. Now society has changed how women must look
like, women are expected to be super thin so they can fit in super tight clothes because
this became a social norm and expectation. These are just standard, society and parents
placed on women to define beauty. For most men, its only about being strong and having
muscles, they arent really motivated to have a certain body figure as much as women

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are. Parents push their daughters to have a certain body shape because they want them to
be accepted in society and be seen as beautiful girls. Society sets certain standards for
being beautiful and parents exploit that standard to their daughters so they can be like the
models on runways. Overtime women forget that the definition of beauty is the deep
satisfaction to her mind not their parents or society. Overtime society made women
believe that if they arent seen beautiful towards society then they arent beautiful at all.
Women forget that the definition of beauty is the deep satisfaction to her mind not their
parents or society.
Toys given to us by our parents in our infant years reflect certain ideas of
femininity and masculinity. This means that toys are gender linked. An action figure may
reflect the idea that a boy has to be strong and tough to be accepted in society. A smallscale toy kitchen may reflect the idea that a girl has to be in the kitchen and complete
other household duties for society to accept her as a girl. In the article From Women,
Men and Society Renzetti and Curran states that, In the catalogs we examine most of
the toys obviously gender linked. (Renzetti & Curran, 81). These ideas would give the
children the idea that they have to act and be a certain way to be accepted in society.
Each toy is associated with gender, infant girls plays with toys such as baby dolls,
miniature appliance and other items associated with domesticity and motherhood. Infant
boys play with military toys, athletic equipment, cars and other toys associated male
masculinity and toughness. In fact boys, have more toys associated with education than
females, the only toys that both boys and girls have are musical instruments and books.
Girls toys today still revolve around the ideas of domesticity and femininity while toys
for boys focus on action and toughness. Whether intentionally or unintentionally parents

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construct gender roles for their children by letting them play with certain gender linked
toys.
In our infant years we are taught what it means to be a boy or a girl through our
parents by the clothes we wear, the way we are expected act, toys we play with and the
way we are expected to behave. The toys we play with in our youth years will reflect how
we would be in our adult life. If an infant girl plays with a miniature vacuum and kitchen
in her adult life, shell think its her job to clean the house and cook for her kids and
husband. The toys we play with as babies reflect how we behave and act in our future
adult life. The toys and gender roles are directly linked in our brain. The reason why is
because of years of gender codes placed by parents restricting their children to play with
certain toys and acting in a certain way.
In my household I am the only male child in the family. As the only male child, I
was expected to do better than my sisters in school, this is one expectation my parents put
on me. As an infant I was particularly playing with cars and trucks, my parents wouldnt
let me play with anything that had to do with female femininity. I would sometimes play
with my sisters stuff animals and pretend I would drive them to places in my toy trucks
and cars, but even doing that would make my parents mad because thats not really what
a man is suppose to do. When I was a young child I watched a show called The Winx
Club, usually this show would be for girls but I would still watch it. After many years,
my parents told me not to watch it because it wasnt right, it was a girls show they said,
my sisters made fun of me after some time because I would watch a show meant for little
girls and after some time I stopped watching out of pressure. After my adolescent years, I
started to become more like a man society wants me to be. I started to watch more

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masculine shows like Power Rangers and G.I Joe. I watched these shows to follow
society gender performance and so my parents and society can accept me. I didnt
associate myself with female clothing or music, I didnt act like a woman and stay firm
and aggressive towards people. I didnt realize that my parents were slowly forcing me
follow a specific gender role until I took this class because I saw it as something that was
normal, as if it was part of growing up.
After all, these years of expected gender roles and expectation what can we do?
First we can start from the beginning, infants are put in gender roles even when they
dont know what a boy or a girl is. Parents put their children in gender roles and codes as
early as theyre born. They have the greatest impact on how they act and behave because
they want their children to act in a way society would accept them without discriminating
them. We can start fixing this problem by letting children be and letting them play with
what they want to play with. Its not their place to make them be someone they have a
choice to be. Through toys body, figure, clothing, and even the way they treat their kids
shows that theyre imposing gender roles on them on a young age. These roles would
then be part of their everyday lives. This type of exposure will then show them that boys
and girls are different and should be treated differently in their everyday life. However in
reality, men and women are only different from their reproductive organs and how they
procreate. These reasons dont justify how parents should treat, dress, and treat their kids.
Any other reasons are just an excuse to put us into gender roles. Gender role is
constructed through our parents so we can be accepted in the society we live in now.
Through toys, clothes and the way we are treated at a young age shows that our parents
are constructing us to follow certain gender roles so we can be accepted in society.

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Bibliography
1. Hubbard, Ruth. "Rethinking Women's Biology." Rethinking Women's Biology
(n.d.): 237-45. Print.
2. Claire, Renzetti M., and Daniel J. Curran. "From Women, Men, and Society."
Composing Gender. Boston: Bedford/St.Martins, 2009. 466-76. Print