3/23/11

What defines a boy? 

What defines a girl? 

In my opinion stereotypes are a set to put boundaries on people, pointless boundaries.  

In the past a woman were viewed as weak, always having to look good, and fragile, over time things have started to change.  Woman have started working outside the field that they were expected to work in,they work in construction, offices, and modeling and acting. and they've also started to join sports.  Woman are viewed by the world has the person in any relationship that has to be kind, loving, soft , etc.  Everything related to woman can fall into one if not more of the categories that describe a woman.  For example one of my little cousins recently bought a barbie doll.  The doll had pink clothes, blond hair and pink everything.  I asked my little cousin why she choose the doll and she that it was because it had a lot of pink and because it was really pretty, just the way a girl should look.  I was really surprise at her response because she was only seven and it seemed like if she has been exposed to the real world way to early, (in my opinion).  My mom always said that in a family the female always thinks with their heart.  

On the other hand, males are viewed the complete opposite, males are viewed as the strong ones, the ones that most provided the needs for a family.  In the past the man were suppose to go out an work, bring food for the family, and still this traditions remain so.  Man are viewed as the strongest of both genders, the ones that aren't suppose to show emotions.  The color read, blue, muscle, pride, reputation, they are all things that describe a man.  One of my uncles has two kids, and both of them are males (boys).  Its weird how the only toys that they have in their house are action figures and cars, not even a bear ( to me a bear is a neutral toy).  I asked the youngest of my cousins if he would like a teddy bear for his birthday ( he is only four years old), without hesitation he told me no.  I asked him why and he said that teddy bears are for girls.  My mom always said that the male in the family must think with his brain.   

In the end, both of my cousins knew what stereotypes they were supposed to follow according to their gender. I think that young kids are getting exposed to stereotypes and such things way to early in life.  In the end I think that stereotypes hurt more than they help.  

3/14/2011

Wow, not going to class for two days can really leave someone speechless.  

   Today we made a project that made me really confused, the project was that we were suppose to take stereotypes that people had on genders and switch them.  I think that this project could surely open the ideas of people that still hang to the same stereotypes.  In the past stereotypes were part of the taboos that kept people (or in this case man and woman) in their place in regards of what they could and couldn't do.   In the past, stereotypes were viewed with more seriousness than they do at this time. In todays world, many stereotypes that people had of one another have slowly started to fade away.  Many people don't have the time to think of such things.  

   A well known stereotype that is directed towards woman is that they are suppose to stay home and cook, take care of the children, and clean the house.  People in the past were really closed minded.  Families today need both the mom and dad to be working in order to be well put in society.  In my family, both my mom and dad work in order to give a good life to my siblings and I.  All of my aunts whether they are in Mexico or here in America,  they are all working.  In todays fast pace, parents, both moms and dads need to work, need to  earn some money in order to keep up with societies needs.  

  A well known stereotype that is directed towards man is, how they aren't suppose to show any emotion, and how they are the only ones that are suppose to put food on the table.  I think that this stereotype is really dumb because its prohibiting people from expressing their emotions and this stereotype eventually is passed down from generation to generation.  At a school that I went to for my job, a kid started to cry( kid was 6, boy, Hispanic) because someone was calling him names.  The kid went to the dad and the dad told him to stop crying, to be a man and to stop crying.  The kid got even worse and started to cry even more.  After the dad left I asked him why he kept on crying and he said that his dad didn't love him because he wouldn't stop crying.  

I think that stereotypes are useless and pointless.  It doesn't matter if one is a male or a female, one should be able to do anything that they want.  I think that in todays society, stereotypes of the past have started to diminish while other new stereotypes have started to arouse.  Some of the new stereotypes seemed to be worse than the ones that people had back than.  

I hope that in some near future, stereotypes would cease to exist since they don't really serve a good purpose other than to draw pointless boundaries that affect people both emotionally, mentally, and physically.    

4/7/2011

This week in sociology we discussed what makes us who we are, is it Nature or is it Nurture. In my opinion I think that we are who we are taking a lit bit of both Nature and Nurture ( but leaning I bit more towards Nurture) . Nature covers the biological factor of the human (what we are born with), and Nurture covers what we are taught, what we learn from out surroundings. 

EX. I have a little cousin who is really outgoing and talented at sports, she is really straight forward. Both my uncles are per say shy. Both of them like to keep to themselves and don't like to have confrontations with people. I think that my little cousin learn to be outgoing from his surroundings (Nurture) instead of his biological inheritance (Nature). My cousin is currently ten years old, when she was seven, she started to play sports (soccer) (she is really good). I think that she learn to be more outgoing from being involve in sports  and socializing with other kids her own age.  I think that many people learn from viewing and mimicking what others around them do ( kind of like observational learning). 

   On Thursday we read some articles that I found to be a bit misleading and not completely telling the truth.  The article that I found to be the most misleading was the one that said that starting school early was bad for your child.  I find it to be misleading because I have a younger cousin that only benefited from going to school at an early age.  He is currently five years old, he started going to school at the age of three.  At the age that he is right now I think that he is really smart.  He can name you different shapes, colors, numbers, letters, he can also do a little bit of math and read (add and subtract) and he can do all of does things in both English and Spanish.  He is also really social, he has no problems making friends. Currently he is in kindergarten and he really likes, he said that its his favorite part of the day.  This is why I believe that the article that stated that  having your kid start school early, is not real accurate.