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Original poster

I am racking my brains here, and coming up with NOTHNG...

81 replies

Oakmaiden · 01/05/2012 12:27

Please help me...

I am writing a dissertation on stereotyping in KS2 children, and have ground to a complete halt.

I am TRYING to think of ways to show that gender stereotyping is pervasive throughout our entire culture - but without mentioning specific things like the media, books, TV programming, advertising etc (they will come later).

All I can come up with so far is that the baby changing units is generally in the women's toilet room.

There must be more examples of mundane things that people hardly notice but which underline the gender roles in society???

OP posts:
mrsruffallo · 01/05/2012 12:49

Maybe it's not pervasive throughout our society if you are stumped.
And you should be presenting your own ideas within your dissertation, not getting MNers to do the work for you.

JuliaScurr · 01/05/2012 12:48

I took 9mth dd wearing blue denim hat into a shop. Assistant 'Ooh, here comes trouble. Bet he's a handful.' etc etc. Me 'She's a girl'. Assistant 'Ooh, isn't she pretty. Are you good for your mummy?'
Gah!

Sanjeev · 01/05/2012 12:44

What about toys shops - meccano/lego in the boys aisle, dolls in the girls? The changing unit thing though - most gents toilets have them now, certainly in family-centric establishments like restaurants, play areas, sports centres etc.

TheOriginalSteamingNit · 01/05/2012 12:43

Girls Toys and Boys Toys aisles in shops?

AyeRobot · 01/05/2012 12:41

Oakmaiden - there is a post of mine on here from about a year ago that links to a great study about gender and socialisation, with lots of examples. Might have been a meta-analysis. I can't find it whenever I look for it, though, so I guess it was under a name change. And the laptop I was using then has since died, taking my bookmarks with it. I found it via google scholar, I think, though it might be easier to search within this section of MN.

RoxyRobin · 01/05/2012 12:36

Don't know if this would be relevant, but when DS was a toddler he had silky blonde hair and had/has very big blue eyes. Many people used to mistake him for a girl (fair enough), but some would say things like "Oh, those eyes are wasted on a boy!" which got on my wick.

I suppose the implication was that girls would depend upon their looks in life, whereas boys didn't need to.