STEREOTYPES IN THE 21ST CENTURY

Stereotypes In The 21st Century

Stereotypes In The 21st Century

Introduction

Most little girls want to be teachers whilst the boys eager to be astronauts. When they want to be something a little bit unusual for their gender, parents usually doubt and ask them why. Take an example of my 5-year-old niece. When she was asked what she would like to be in the future and answered that she wants to be a police, her family started to "Ooh... that's so sweet but cop is a boy's field. The pressure is too hard for girls to handle. You might get hurt because of that, Dear... Why don't you try to be a teacher instead?" From that example, we can vividly see that family and society already construct the ideas of the ideal men and women. (Sanbonmatsu 2007)

Gender stereotyping

We commonly believe that men are biologically and naturally more aggressive and more active than girls. That's why boys should always be encouraged so they can be "a great guy"; they are our hopes for the future. Meanwhile, we do not do the same thing to girls because no matter how hard we push them, they will end in the kitchen for they are so passive. As a matter of fact, men and women are actually born with the same abilities, no matter what their gender is. What makes them seem to have different abilities is the social construction itself. "Primate Studies and Sex Differences", an essay by Sally Linton, tells about her disagreement of the experience done on primates, the "animals that are most like human beings", to reveal the truth that some behaviors reflects innate differences between genders. She defends her opinion by giving the fact that "the female primates who did not receive the proper socialization...make very poor mothers." This alone can already tell the fact that females are not the natural nurturers. Those primates failed to care for their infant because there was no social group to teach them. "It is not natural (instinctive) for [the primate], any more than for a human female, to be nurturing unless she has been taught this behavior by her social group." Therefore, we can safely say that social group plays a very important role in shaping someone's behavior. (Quoted in Devine 2007, pp.112)

If you still think that the fact given above is invalid for it was tested on animal, think about ...