Gender Roles Research Paper

Gender Roles

While I was growing up, gender roles were highly defined by my parents and teachers as well as all other societal influences. Boys were taught to do "boy" things and girls were taught to do "girly" things. The toys that children play with and the activities that are encouraged by adults demonstrate the influence of gender roles on today's youth. In my formative years, the masculine traits that I learned came out because of the activities that my parents had me engage in and the things that they expected from me. The expectations that my parents held for my sister, on the other hand, varied from those that they had for me, and this was made apparent through the different activities that occupied her time.
I remember when she and I would play together and the GI Joes would be married to the Barbie Dolls. When I made the action figures fight over the Barbie Dolls, my sister would always get mad. She was more interested in the wedding ceremony. My parents always encouraged me to do things like skateboard, ride my bike, or take karate classes. My sister would jump rope or hullahoop. I remember when my sister wanted to skateboard because I was doing it and my parents would not let her because they said she would get hurt. My mother would cook with my sister, but never with me. My dad would take me to basketball and soccer
Coaches, parents, and peers had a large influence in this context. Coaches have a tremendous influence on kids, and gender roles are driven into young athletes' heads. There were always those girls who would play like boys and they were referred to as "tomboys." The girls who did not conform to the gender roles were looked at negatively. Boys who did not play hard or weren't good athletes were called "girls" and "wussies." Behaving under the ideal ideological standards of the opposite gender was viewed very negatively by society. Girls were not supposed to act masculine and it was nearly forbidden for boys to show traditionally feminine