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...e a job, these are all games children play, getting them ready for real life. Testosterone plays a big part in child play. Boys have a higher testosterone level than girls, resulting in competitiveness. Girls tend to play in small groups involving games with no winner or loser, while boys play in bigger, more competitive groups with a distinct winner and loser. Another natural variation in boys and girls is that girls pick up on their verbal skills a lot quicker than boys. Girls have sharper hearing. There are tiny hair cells in the ear that register sound waves and vibrate more forcefully in girls than in boys. Boys are less likely to use communication to express themselves, that’s why they are so rambunctious and very competitive, while girls talk to one another to solve problems. While all of these things are true, not everyone falls into the same stereotype. There are always variations of the norm. Tomboys, gossipy males, girls who would rather climb trees with her brother than play house with her friends. A person’s chemistry cannot be stereotyped, everyone is different. Blum says; “There’s nothing in average, everyday biology that forbids either the truck loving girl or the boy who likes to play house, the aggressive competitive adult woman, or the nurturing, stay-at-home man. Human biology makes room for every possible type of personality and sexuality in the range between those stereotypes.” What she is saying is that biology doesn’t stereotype, there are differences in everyone, there is not a normal or abnormal. The reason these things are stereotyped is because of our culture. We automatically think it’s weird if a little boy wants a Barbie, but it’s not because of biology, it’s because of our culture. We set the limits on what children and adults should be like. Blum asks, “When is biology the primary influence? When does culture overtake it, and at what point?” My opinion is that biology does determine who plays with what and why, and culture doesn’t take over until a child can make his or her own decisions. Girls having better hearing, boys being more aggressive because of testosterone, these are all things biology has given us. It isn’t until the boy asks for the Barbie, or the girl asks for the truck, that culture takes over. This would be the “Barbie versus Godzilla effect” Culture gives our children gender roles, and discourages gender inappropriate toys. We seem to reward the boy that asks for the toy gun by giving it to him, while we hesitate to buy them the tea set. Any child can figure this system out. I grew up as an only child, so I didn’t have anyone to tell me what to play with when I was by myself. Even though I didn’t have any siblings, I had close cousins, most of which are boys. The oldest is about five years older then me and would gather us up and tell us what to play, so I was the kind of girl who would climb trees with my pink dress on. When I got into elementary school I realized I liked playing with the boys better than the girls. I was the kind of girl who would chase the other girls around the playground with a worm just to scare them. My parents never discouraged me from blowing up army men with my cousins or climbing the tree across the street. While I was with my cousins I would ...