I am always surprised by the stereotyping that we use in our everyday lives, specifically those connected to gender and especially so, considering we live in the Modern age, an age that is largely contemporary, tries to reject negative traditionally accepted or sanctioned norms and advocates and emphasises sensibility. Therefore, to hear Charlie on the UK KISS FM breakfast show (100/101/105 radio stations) speak about things that Girlie girls do not do, makes my senses grate. Even more, when it is echoed by my 10 year old daughter and when she says she is not so much of a girlie girl but is a tomboy.
I try to explain and reason to her that concepts like girlie girl and tomboy really should not exist today. My efforts of telling her that society has created stereotypes of gender or simplistic generalizations about gender attributes or roles, that the modern world does not need these stereotypes, falls on deaf ears. Do I feel I am fighting a losing battle? I could very well be, considering some very popular nitwit on a radio show ever so often brings up mass appeal conversation starters that very strongly reinforce traditional gender stereotyping. A look at the magazines available for youngsters in the United Kingdom gets you to wonder if western society does not want progress and expansion of mental capacity. The magazines, targeted at young females, are very stereotyped with predominantly pink covers for girls, sewing and crafts, celebrity culture, makeup, hair styles, boys, dress up and very little else. The only magazines, I have found could benefit anyone really, like Nat Geo Kids or Horrible Histories are not even on the shelves of many stores. What surprises me more, as a person from another country, considered by most as a developing nation, is that concepts like girlie girls and tomboys are reinforced by parents. One parent was especially proud that her daughter was a tomboy. Scientific evidence points to gender stereotyping being passed on by adults as a result carrying it from one generation to the next. Coming from a country where gender discrimination is rife, patriarchy is the rule and women really have to fight to be treated like humans in many places, I find that in a country where free thinking is encouraged, women are have more freedom than most, and where women are on par with men in most fields, the collective consciousness around gender stereotyping remains poor. There is no doubt that social media has a large impact on young people and I know for a fact that KISS FM is a channel that is most accessed by the young. Therefore, what is discussed and said gets to be norm and if Charlie from KISS FM were to ask women to call in and tell her what Girlie Girl stuff they did not do, then Girlie girl is going to be a concept that is acceptable and talked about and thereby adopted as a stereotype.
We crave for equality and we are angered when we are told women cannot man big machines, or play rugby, yet we are okay for girls to be girlie and praise them for being tomboys. Where are we exactly in understanding ourselves and in challenging stereotypes that are not productive to free thinking or progress?
I try to explain and reason to her that concepts like girlie girl and tomboy really should not exist today. My efforts of telling her that society has created stereotypes of gender or simplistic generalizations about gender attributes or roles, that the modern world does not need these stereotypes, falls on deaf ears. Do I feel I am fighting a losing battle? I could very well be, considering some very popular nitwit on a radio show ever so often brings up mass appeal conversation starters that very strongly reinforce traditional gender stereotyping. A look at the magazines available for youngsters in the United Kingdom gets you to wonder if western society does not want progress and expansion of mental capacity. The magazines, targeted at young females, are very stereotyped with predominantly pink covers for girls, sewing and crafts, celebrity culture, makeup, hair styles, boys, dress up and very little else. The only magazines, I have found could benefit anyone really, like Nat Geo Kids or Horrible Histories are not even on the shelves of many stores. What surprises me more, as a person from another country, considered by most as a developing nation, is that concepts like girlie girls and tomboys are reinforced by parents. One parent was especially proud that her daughter was a tomboy. Scientific evidence points to gender stereotyping being passed on by adults as a result carrying it from one generation to the next. Coming from a country where gender discrimination is rife, patriarchy is the rule and women really have to fight to be treated like humans in many places, I find that in a country where free thinking is encouraged, women are have more freedom than most, and where women are on par with men in most fields, the collective consciousness around gender stereotyping remains poor. There is no doubt that social media has a large impact on young people and I know for a fact that KISS FM is a channel that is most accessed by the young. Therefore, what is discussed and said gets to be norm and if Charlie from KISS FM were to ask women to call in and tell her what Girlie Girl stuff they did not do, then Girlie girl is going to be a concept that is acceptable and talked about and thereby adopted as a stereotype.
We crave for equality and we are angered when we are told women cannot man big machines, or play rugby, yet we are okay for girls to be girlie and praise them for being tomboys. Where are we exactly in understanding ourselves and in challenging stereotypes that are not productive to free thinking or progress?