Differences Between Gender Stereotypes

Gender stereotypes are all around us, whether we chose to notice them or not. They are lingering within our media, and media is believed to be a reflection of society. Gender stereotypes are the exaggerated and oversimplified beliefs about masculinity and femininity that misrepresent men and women. The differences that separate men and women are overblown into huge misinterpretations that society deems appropriate in order to separate the genders. We were all taught as children that boys need to grow up to be tough, strong men who don’t cry and are aggressive, while girls need to grow up to become beautiful, home-oriented women who are emotional and nurturing. The opposing differences between femininity and masculinity created these ideas …show more content…
A belief discussed in this chapter is that most people in western cultures grow up learning that there are only two sexes, male and female. They also believe there are only feminine and masculine as genders, and only two sexualities; heterosexual and homosexual. Everyone is taught at a young age what expectations a man needed to meet in order to be a man. They need to be male-bodied, masculine and heterosexual in order to live up the expectation of what a man needs to be in their society. As well of femininity, they were taught that a woman needed to have a woman’s figure, feminine and heterosexual. In the 3rd article within Chapter 1, it discusses intersexed individuals, which goes against the common Western culture belief of there only being on two genders. In the article, “Beyond Pink and Blue” by Sharon E. Preves, she writes about children and their perception of gender. When she was on a field trip with her students, she mentioned how the people who were guiding them on their field trip asked her students to get in two lines; one line for boys and another line for girls. She started to question herself and the whole gender divide that is within many cultures. How do we know what gender we are and what determines that? When I asked myself this question, many things came up in my head. The reasons I came up with is my parents taught me the differences between girls and boys and I am a girl because of those differences. I also thought of the media I watched and read as a kid. I watched Barbie movies and read all the Judy Blume books; those are girly things, so therefore I am a girl. I started thinking that what we watch, what we read and what we do for entertainment is an indicator of what gender we are. Gender stereotypes are within the things we do and within the media we happen to