Anthropology
... becomes easy to see how a society can shape its individuals. The Western culture is one culture which without a doubt one can say pushes the “right” sex into the “right” gender role of either masculine or feminine. In this essay I intend to prove that through the combination of the presentation of culture through parents, peers and the media children are forced into what is considered the “appropriate” gender role for their sex. ROLE OF PARENTS IN DEFINING GENDER The construction of gender identity in a child of western culture is initiated by the parents on the day of birth through their automatic insertion of the baby into the categories of masculine and feminine. While there have been no consistent reported differences between the behavior of male and female babies during the first few weeks of their lives (Powlishta 1994), parents continuously manage to add their child to a gender category by dressing them in particular colors. As expected, female babies are dressed in the color pink. A color which is said to be symbolically delicate (a trait which is often used to describe young girls and grown women). On the other hand, parents choose to dress their baby boys in the color blue. This particular color has many times been associated with strength and power, two words that are very much associated with how society views males. It is important to understand that parents are also a product of their culture and in most cases will “…see their children through “gendered-colored” glasses that focus on presumed gender differences where few exist” (Doyle 1985). In view of the fact that parents will differentiate between male and female babies, it would also be fair to say that they will also modify their behaviors toward male and female children. Due to the parents’ response toward the child, the child will learn the gender role which society expects him or her to play. One way in which parents place their children in specific gender roles is through the way in which a parent chooses to interact with his or her child. Since the assumption that females are naturally delicate and interested in being feminine has already been made; pare...