Our first personalities are formed by childhood socialization. Because our sexes are the first things noted about us, from infancy boys and girls are socialized differently. Girls are enculturated to be“feminine" while boys are “masculine. This cultural socialization causes females to acquire a more passive behavior, and boys become more aggressive. The passive and aggressive behaviors of girls and boys are learned from the ways in which they communicate with their parents, teachers, and peers.In a study designed to detect adults sex stereotyped notions about babies, researchers showed adults a videotape of an infant responding to a jack-in-the-box. Half the adults were told the infant was a girl, the other half told the infant was a boy. The videotaped baby responded negatively to the jack-in-the-box by startling and then crying. The adults who thought the baby was a girl interpreted the reaction as fear, while the adults who thought the baby was a boy interpreted the reaction as anger (Cartwright, 1999). This research proves that historically girls have been socialized to be passive, and boys to be aggressive.We are born genderless, but the process of gender socialization is immediate. Often from the very moment of birth, males are dressed in blue, and infant females in pink; from that point on they can start becoming boys and girls. The color of apparel is only the beginning of gender socialization, and may act merely as an indication of sex and how people should treat infants and young children. A study conducted by psychologists Michael Lewis and Susan Goldberg found that mothers usually kept their infant female children closer to them than their boys . They also touched and talked to their daughters more than their sons. By the age of thirteen months, girls stayed closer to their mothers when they played. When researchers placed barriers between mothers and their children they found girls were more likely to cry and motion for help; the boys tried to climb over the wall (Nieken, 2000). In our society parents unconsciously reward independence in their sons and passive dependence in their daughters. Parents often allow their young sons to roam father from home, to get dirtier, to play rougher, and even to be more destructive in their play. Young girls are kept cleaner and are expected to stay that way, and are taught the importance of beauty and image. Girls tend to play indoors more and are much less rough in their games. Parents promote this activity in their children, and from it they teach that violence and rough, athletic activity are acceptable for males. Cleanliness and quiet, near inactivity is expected for females. Children learn the line between man and woman is clear. For boys: independence, power, leadership, and freedom- for girls: domesticity, passiveness, a focus on beauty and image, and a generally more subdued existence.
|
 |
