Littleover Community School

BBC News School Report @ LCS

Breaking the Wall of Gender Stereotypes

By: Chessie


			Breaking the Wall of Gender Stereotypes
Toys don't have a gender.
Children must be taught how to think, not what to think

Margaret Mead

There are four basic examples of gender stereotypes which are: personality traits, occupations, domestic behaviours and physical appearances. In our society in 2017, gender stereotyping is a lot less noticeable than in earlier years. Girls couldn’t wear blue, enjoy playing with trains or become doctors; now we accept the decisions of girls and what they want to do with their lives. The issue now is that we do not accept boys for what they want to be. We do not want our boys to wear pink, and when they do have the courage to wear pink or play with “Girls’ toys”, we push them out like outsiders. As Gloria Steinem writes, “We are not afraid to raise our daughters more like sons... But few have the courage to raise our sons more like daughters”.

Personality Traits

When we think of different genders we usually think of girls being shy, passive and submissive. This is highly wrong in some cases; girls do not have to be like this. Women are also passed as organized and clean. In contrast, men are expected to be tough, aggressive, dominant and self-confident. Men are also seen to be lazy and messy. Clearly society’s images of genders are unrealistic, so to understand this more we asked people from our school what they think about when we say the words “girl” and “boy”. When we said “girls” the responses we received were Dance, Pink, Makeup, Dolls, pretty, dresses and long hair. On the other hand when we said “boys” people said football, tall, blue, strong, rucksack and fearless. All these responses are very stereotypical. In music videos the women are objectified as helpless vulnerable creatures that would receive anything from the men. We can also see this in Disney movies. Take Tarzan for instance: the main character is a male, Tarzan, who is portrayed as independent, assertive, intelligent, athletic, competitive and stronger than everyone else. On the other hand, Jane, the main female protagonist, is emotional, tentative, frail and weaker than Tarzan. She is also weaker than all the other male characters, even the supporting ones.

Occupations

Women are supposed to have “clean jobs” like teachers, nurses and librarians. Women are not stereotypically good at arithmetic, should not be politicians, presidential candidates or engineers. On the other hand: men are supposed to have “tough jobs” such as mechanics, construction workers and plumbers. Men are supposed to earn more money than women. Do you think this is right? What do you want to be when you are older? Are you breaking stereotypes?

we are afraid to raise our daughters like sons... but few have the courage to raise our sons more like daughters

Gloria Steinem

Domestic Behaviours

Domestic behaviours are the roles traditionally taken by men and women. Women are expected to cook and do housework. Women are seen to be better at raising children. People say that women are bossed around by the aggressive natures of men and that women are dependent on men. We are already trying to break this stereotype but we need more people to come on board and break the gender wall.

Physical appearance

Women are expected to be short and slim, small and delicate whilst men are supposed to be tall with broad shoulders. Everyone is different. Just like snowflakes, no two are exactly the same. With the gender stereotyping in place, people decide that they are different to everyone else and become self-conscious that they are not the right shape. Acting macho for men would mean getting involved in fights, drinking beer and smoking. Females who act in this way are considered masculine.

A lot of people in our society think that, for our society to excel and grow as a community we need to break stereotypes. Point it out. Tell people how you feel about this subject. Walk the talk. Be the change you want to see in the world. Speak up. Don’t just point out the negatives, fight them. Teach everyone. Teach everyone about what gender stereotyping is. Challenge them. Challenge gender stereotypes by defying them yourself.