Wednesday, July 20, 2011
Gender Stereotypes in Literature
Today's class discussion on the different stereotypes presented in traditional literature really got me thinking hard about where these stereotypes come from and why we don't try to challenge them more often. Most of the book shelves either at home or in schools are filled with stories we are all familiar with such as Cinderella, The Three Pigs, and Little Red Riding Hood. These are stories students, teachers, and parents all feel comfortable hearing and reading because they are simple-minded tales that are universally known. They embed morals of honestly, kindness, and purity, however they are also introduce extremely gender specific roles and expectations to children at ages as young at 1 years old. Already girls are playing house and boys are wrestling each other because they believe that is how they are supposed to act in society. Rarely will you come across parents who encourage their four-year-old son to wear nail polish or their daughter to go hunting, so maybe it is up to educators to teach students that gender roles are not set in stone. If the classroom library is filled with fairytales and folklore literature, what kind of message are you sending to your students? Traditional literature does not challenge gender roles, instead it reinforces them. My philosophy on traditional literature is that it should be used as a way to address the stereotypes that were so prominent in the past but are now changing and shifting in today's society. Instead of putting classics in the classroom library for children to use during free reading, it might be a good idea to hold onto those books separately so you can use them to introduce gender stereotypes and make a lesson out of it. If we are working towards blurring the lines of gender specific roles we have to start at a young age, and reintroducing children's stories of the past is only holding future generations back from crossing those lines.
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Traditional literature should continue to be read in classrooms. The Three Little Pigs and Cinderella are classics for a reason—they are great stories and teach good lessons. Children hear the story when they are young and end up reading the same books that their parents and teachers read to them when they were little. I like traditions and I think they should be kept.
ReplyDeleteWhat is wrong with gender stereotypes? Men and women are made differently; their stereotype fits their gender. Maybe I am just saying this because of how I was conditioned in childhood, but I think the stereotype is okay.
I agree with Caitlin, times are changing and it is important to start blurring the lines of gender specific roles. Like Rachel said, classics are obviously classics for a reason. I think we should continue to use this classic literature in a classroom, but why not make a lesson plan out of it? I think students could really learn a lot when comparing classic literature to modern literature. They would be able to see how the stereotype of men and women differ from both types of books, and how it is evolving in the literature. I think its important to show the students that they don't need to fit into a certain stereotype and they need to be who they want to be. If a little boy wants to dress up and read a princess book he shouldn't feel obligated to read books about sports and wrestle with his friends. At the same time if a little girl wants to go hunting and play sports rather than play dress up and house she should be encourage to do so. The classic children's books that everyone knows and loves should be continued to be used because of how great they are, but at the same time they could also be used to make great lesson plans and teach great lessons.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Hillary, there is no reason to not still teach those classics because they are great. They need to be paired with different books that do not have these gender stereotypical roles, so then the students can see things from multiple perspectives. Having a lesson plan on the gender stereotypes and how they aren't true is a great idea. To expand on that, there could be guests that come to the class and talk about how their jobs do not fit gender stereotypes possibly. I feel like then the kids will be able to see that they can do whatever they want and should be motivated by their interests as opposed to societal expectations.
ReplyDeleteThis post reminds me of a child psychology class I took a few years ago. We learned about an experiment in which a boy was raised as a girl. If I recall correctly, everything went OK until the child got to school and was ridiculed by the other students. I think the opinions and expectations of society is the reason that we can't tamper with gender roles. Maybe if everyone in society could have the same point of view that sex and gender should not go hand in hand then we could have more ambiguous genders and people could conform to what is comfortable instead of what is expected. But that seems a long way off, I would be curious to know if we will ever reach that point.
ReplyDeleteI grew up a tomboy and was scolded for climbing trees. I had my share of Barbie dolls but what is wrong with climbing a tree? Maybe i should of been baking a cake in my easy bake oven (which i loved). The things i did as a child was because i wanted to do them. I am happy with myself as an individual because i decided whether i would wear and how i would play. Maybe because i grew up in the middle of nowhere i was allowed to run wild climb trees, make forts, cut grass, etc. Then one day a woman scolded me for wanting to climb a tree. Well excuse me i did not know there is a handbook how to be a girl. Sex and gender are not the same. If a boy wants a Barbie more power to them. I believe homophobia has really affected gender roles. Many parents find anything other than the norm to be a problem. Shouldn't a parent love their child and want them to be comfortable within themselves? People let society control too much of their lives.
ReplyDeleteThis is actually the basis for my application project for the class. I am looking at examples of opposite gender stereotypes in children’s books. More specifically I am looking at women saving men from danger, men showing sensitivity, and stepmoms or stepsisters not being mean and ugly. Surprisingly, there are a decent amount of examples of these types of books available. I think that these are important to show children because it gives them the opportunity to look outside the normal stereotypes. It is up to teachers to bring these types of books into the classroom because most schools that I know of do not have these in the rotation.
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