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Whoo. Boring and kinda odd.
2005-02-01 at 6:07 p.m.
In Child Development today, we got into a debate about Heredity versus Environment in the area of sexual identification and gender roles.
It was kind of interesting to hear people's views on that subject. It was basically: Are feminine and masculine personality traits inborn or enforced by parents and their upbringing?
I tend to believe that it is mostly how children are raised that determine their personality traits in that area.
Take, for example, guys. When baby boys are born, they really are no different than little baby girls, but when they cry, their parents may not react as quickly or in the same way as they would for a baby girl.
Baby boys may be allowed to cry longer. They're talked to (stereotypically) in deeper, tougher voices, and they're praised for their strong grip and "big-boy"ness.
Baby girls are praise for being soft and sweet, for smiling and cooing, for sleeping well. When they cry, they are attended to and taken softer care of. When spoken to, tones are soft and gentle.
Nobody wants to hear their girl is a Big Girl! when they're holding her. They want her to be "cute" and "adorable."
Parents of boys probably prefer that you say their baby is "handsome" or that he's going to grow up to be strong.
I think this really does effect the growth of babies.
It is accepted by many people who study the development of babies that newborns are started out with only one emotion, distress. There is no "fussiness" in the beginning of a child's life.
I think that as babies grow, parents see what they want to see in their boy or girl. If it's a girl, they'll see that she's being fussy, or she likes the pink suit better than the green suit, or she's smiling because we're talking to her gently.
I think that as babies grow, the more sex-specific traits are spotted in them, and they are encouraged while the more "androgynous" traits are probably ignored or made into sex-specific traits in the parent's minds.
This probably conditions children. That is just my belief, though. It seems to make sense in a basic way. You start out with one emotion and as they slowly add more and begin to exhibit personality traits, babies can be conditioned to act more like their "socially accepted" role in life.
Now, there are exceptions. Some men are more effeminate than others. Is that because their parents were confused and treated them like girls? I really don't think so.
I think, perhaps in certain areas, those men will feel more aligned to some feminine qualities while they are growing, and when they are presented with how women are "supposed" to act, they will pick those up and abandon other more masculine qualities.
This is all theory and balderdash, but it makes sense in my mind. I have no way of testing it, but I do think that gender roles are almost entirely socially derived, and that if raised neutrally, a baby boy and a baby girl would probably grow up to be much more "middle ground" than we are now.
I think I fell into the grouping of girls that fits in better with the guys. It's not that my parents raised me to be a boy. I know I'm a girl, no duh. But I am nowhere near as feminine as the majority of girls around me. That's just who I am. And who I am, apparently, doesn't mesh with who society would really want me to be.
That's probably what also fuels my belief behind this "You raised her to be girly" idea.
Meh. I'm out of deep thoughts now.
This entry was entirely boring, but I wanted to get it out and write about it. Do any of you know more about this? Let me know. Do you disagree? Let me have it.
I really have no idea if I'm right or if I'm wrong. It's just a theory in my head.
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