Throughout history, children have been taught and influenced by the environment and by their parents. Brain chemistry and genes have also been a factor in what boys and girls do. “Why Boys Don’t Play with Dolls” Katha Pollitt wrote “Why Boys Don’t’ Play with Dolls” on October eighth, nineteen ninety-four while she examines and challenges parents and adults to not lessen the biological differences between boys and girls and what messages they are receiving (Pollitt 187). Some of the things that she coveys in her essay is that she looks at how children are raised, how women view sports, how Barbie affects women, the society views on women, theories, and how stereotypes affect children. Katha Pollitt looks at the way that children are raised
…show more content…
Barbie is considered to be stylish, sexy, and thin. These three characteristics are very important and is why women believe that Barbie should be passed along through the generations. Back in the late nineteen hundreds and even to today, women think that looks are everything in society. Due to society, women suffer over their bodies and they think that their bodies are a failure and it is impossible to achieve the American ideal. With the American ideal comes theories that the world is a rigid hierarchy of sex roles that is evoked by these determinist theories. One of the theories that Pollitt explains is that “Theories of the adult world: in which moms and dads still play by many of the old rules…a girl with a doll and a boy with a truck “explain” why men are from Mars and women are from Venus, why wives do housework and husbands just don’t understand” (Pollitt 189). Normally, kids fit into a certain stereotype, and as one is put into a stereotype, another kid is breaking another stereotype down. For example, a “boy who skateboards and takes cooking classes after school, and a girl who collects stuffed animals A-plusses in science” (Pollitt 189). Pollitt is conveying that the stereotype of boys just skateboard is false if he is also taking a cooking class and that a girl cannot excel in the sciences because she collects stuffed animals. These two examples are of a stereotype that is being broken because they are both out of the “normal” for boys and girls to do. One of the ways that stereotypes are conveyed on children is when they play “doctor.” If a three year old was playing doctor, a male would be the doctor and a women would be the nurse. According to Pollitt, this would be a stereotype because if the three year old was playing doctor in this fashion, she knew this is how it is even if her mother was a doctor. In today’s society, if three year olds play doctor, who knows what the roles
Barbie is considered to be stylish, sexy, and thin. These three characteristics are very important and is why women believe that Barbie should be passed along through the generations. Back in the late nineteen hundreds and even to today, women think that looks are everything in society. Due to society, women suffer over their bodies and they think that their bodies are a failure and it is impossible to achieve the American ideal. With the American ideal comes theories that the world is a rigid hierarchy of sex roles that is evoked by these determinist theories. One of the theories that Pollitt explains is that “Theories of the adult world: in which moms and dads still play by many of the old rules…a girl with a doll and a boy with a truck “explain” why men are from Mars and women are from Venus, why wives do housework and husbands just don’t understand” (Pollitt 189). Normally, kids fit into a certain stereotype, and as one is put into a stereotype, another kid is breaking another stereotype down. For example, a “boy who skateboards and takes cooking classes after school, and a girl who collects stuffed animals A-plusses in science” (Pollitt 189). Pollitt is conveying that the stereotype of boys just skateboard is false if he is also taking a cooking class and that a girl cannot excel in the sciences because she collects stuffed animals. These two examples are of a stereotype that is being broken because they are both out of the “normal” for boys and girls to do. One of the ways that stereotypes are conveyed on children is when they play “doctor.” If a three year old was playing doctor, a male would be the doctor and a women would be the nurse. According to Pollitt, this would be a stereotype because if the three year old was playing doctor in this fashion, she knew this is how it is even if her mother was a doctor. In today’s society, if three year olds play doctor, who knows what the roles