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Society expects deferent attitudes and behaviors from boys and girls. Gender Colonization Is the tendency for boys and girls to be socialized differently. Boys are raised to conform to the male gender role, and girls are raised to conform to the female gender or role. A gender role is a set of behaviors, attitudes, and personality characteristics expected and encouraged of a person based on his or her sex. (Sparseness) When a baby is born, the doctor looks at the proud parents and says three simple words: Its a boy, or Its a girl!
Before this newborn child even takes his or her first retreat of life outside the mothers womb, he or she Is distinguished and characterized by gender. The baby is brought home to a freshly decorated room with colors that represent their gender, and dressed in clothes that help others identify the sex of the child. Baby boys are dressed in blue and baby girls are dressed in pink. The baby boy may be dressed in a blue shirt with a firebrick or a baseball glove on it. The baby girl may wear a headband with a flower on it and a pretty dress with flowers or the word “princess” on it.
As the boy begins to grow, he Is given a tank truck to play with. The girl Is given dolls an doll clothes to dress them up In. When they get a little older, the boy is learning how to use a play set of a hammer and nails pretending to be a carpenter. The girl plays with a baby, pushing it in a stroller, dressing it up, feeding it a bottle, or playing tea party. Sounds pretty normal right? Why? As illustrated in the not-so-fictional scenario above, gender colonization begins very early in life. Children are raised In many different cultures all over the world.
As we know, cultures differ from place to place. They have different rules, values. Roles, and even communication patterns. An example of this would be a French person greeting someone, and an American greeting someone. The French say hello by kissing each other on both cheeks. As Americans, we tend to shake hands. These things are what determine how a child will turn out after being brought up in that culture. Children growing up with Anglo-European roots are taught to value their Independence, boldness, equality, achievement, self-help, and self-directness.
All of these values significantly affect the family. They believe In family privacy because It Is said that families will be allowed to raise their children as they see fit. The only time that this is interfered with is when the parents neglect or mistreat their children. Individualism is also another highly valued trait. Those who subscribe to such thought believe that individual growth is essential to a well-balanced approach to life. It should be noted however, that equality amongst others Is essential as well.
Those who have come before us have worked extremely hard to gain equality In this country and it should be cherished. Life as it was once known has changed due to the vast amount of modernization and blending of cultures that has occurred within the past 30 years. People talk, walk, and dress differently with a steady eye always toward the future. Success, now based on power and resources, especially money. Each Individual is expected to do his or her best and Is often thrown Into the arena of fierce competition in which he or she Is encouraged to flourish.
Hamlets communicate Eternally Walton themselves. For example, at Elements, most families will sit together and talk about how the day was. All day long, everyone is out doing their own thing but at dinner the whole family comes together. This is the time of day that they set aside to communicate amongst each other. My family viewed dinner as Just another meal. Instead of sitting together around the table, we all Just came in, made our own dinner, and ate it wherever we wanted.
A lot of the time I made sure that my sister and I were fed. Our father was a truck driver so he was not home much. This differs for every family and due to my experience and longing for the family connection growing up. I will make it a point to be involved with my family. Utilizing times such as dinner time as an opportunity to touch base and make connection. I believe strongly in family connection and unity. More than likely due to the fact I never felt connected to mine as a child and young adult.
Religion also takes a toll on the children, but not as drastic as it would have in the past. People have the right to pick their religion and what they believe in. Some even feel that spirituality is not important and do not support any religion. This is often seen across cultures. In my family, I was technically born Irish catholic. I was refused baptism upon my birth due to the fact that I was born of my father’s second marriage. Therefore, I grew up with a bit of animosity towards Catholics.
To top it off, I always found it extremely disturbing that the church was willing to take my grandfathers money when it came to putting me ‘to there ridiculous school but deemed me a bastard child. Thieves in my eyes! As a young adult, this led to my research in all different sorts of religions, dabbling in a few myself, only to come to the conclusion that I am an Atheist. I am a spiritual person but believe that if one believes so firmly in one way being the only way, then we close off the doors of our mind and become Judgmental of those who don’t believe “our” way.