Gender Never Seemed Like a Controversy

I used to love playing with hot wheels as a child and I never thought it was weird. I never paid much attention to gender, but I am now aware that there is more than just a boy and a girl gender and that there is a lot of controversy with atypical genders. As a kid I never heard of or saw people talking about gender, I used to play whatever games were available with all of my friends, boys and girls, no matter what the game was and we never thought of it being weird that both genders were playing a boy or girl specific game, we actually never even thought of it. I found it very strange actually that in these articles some of the people question how to react with or how to treat the kids or adults in this world that act not like their own gender.

                As a kid I always treated everyone I met like a person no matter what they looked like. In the article “It’s OK to Be Neither: Teaching That Supports Gender-Variant Children” Melissa Bollow Tempel observes that “. . . when I corrected the classmates and told them Allie was a girl, they asked her a lot of questions. . . Some even told her that she wasn't supposed to wear boys’ clothes if she was a girl” (1). I couldn't believe this when I read it because if anyone ever asked that around me I probably would have looked at them with a questioning look almost as if to say what kind of question is that. If I was in that classroom I don’t believe that students would have done this kind of thing but reading it in this article makes me see that this kind of thing really does happen and even if no one thinks of it people are not taught about gender but they tend to just know about. I never encountered gender variant children when I was younger but I don’t believe that they would have been asked such controversial questions.

                I remember one time that I and 2 of my friends, one being a girl and one being a boy, were playing house when we were about 5 in my kindergarten class. I didn't think this was strange but what I do remember is that the boy was the father, he would go to work and come home for dinner, and I and the other girl were the mother and daughter and we made the dinner and other food items for the house and I was supposed to take care of the daughter. So even though I never thought of gender I guess that we did put it into effect because we all had the “typical” roles of a household. One thing I do remember though that does go against the normal thoughts on gender is once the “father” would come home from work he would help me, the “mother” and even do some of the things like cooking, cleaning, and helping with the “daughter”. In Tempel’s classroom she started teaching her students about gender and that it was OK to be different. She actually decided to line the students up differently instead of boys and girls. “When the kids came out of the bathroom. . . I thought of a new way for them to line up each day. For example if you like popsicles line up here. If you like ice cream, line up here” (Tempel 2) and this is the way that Tempel chose to eliminate gender from her classroom.

                Having an older brother I was used to playing with boys toys and I would even ask for them as Christmas presents.I asked for hot wheels and one Christmas both me and my brother got them. I used to love getting leggos and I used to even play on my brothers skateboard. I did ask for what would be considered girl toys such as dolls and such but I did not only ask for girl items. I never thought that in some cases this is thought of as weird. I wouldn't think twice when walking into a store I would go straight for the Lego's and not necessarily the dolls. I never hid the fact that I liked to play with boys toys because it wasn’t that I wanted to be a boy it was because I found them to be fun. Of course being a girl I did spend a lot of time in the girls section and playing with girls toys but from reading the article “Toys Start the Gender Equality Rift” I realized that some people if they have a daughter or son they go directly to the section of the store that is clearly seen to be boys or girls. As Katrin Bennhold discusses “On the store’s Web site, the drop-down menu under ‘Dolls’ is pink, while the drop-down menu under ‘Action Toys’ is blue” (2) which is splitting boys and girls up according to their gender. Most people if searching for a girls toy or a boys toy they look for color differentiation even though it is ok for girls to play with the blue section toys and boys can play with the pink section toys. Without thinking of it everyone stereotypes gender. They may not know it but by saying pink is for a girl, that is stereotyping girls and that is putting an influence on the younger generations.

                I was never taught about gender specifically but I know what is considered boys and what is considered girls. I may not have ever been told to my face what was boys and girls but TV commercials magazines and newspapers all would have ads that were directed towards a certain gender.  I wasn't necessarily told that It didn't faze me though that the children that are in between can be felt left out and discriminated against and if nothing is done about it then they could hide who they really are in fear that they will be bullied. Tempel didn't want this happening to any of her students so she wanted to broaden her “students’ ideas of what was acceptable for boys and girls” (2). She did what she needed to do to make it know that no matter what sex you are or what sex you act like you are accepted. The problem with this though is that no matter how much you tell kids about gender everything will always have subconscious gender roles. It is observed that “Until the toys themselves and the marketing are tackled, there will always be pressure on girls and boys to pursue the route in life consistent with their stereotype” (qtd. In Bennhold 2).  No matter how much Tempel might teach her kids the world will always have gender roles.

                These articles have really opened my eyes to see how much controversy there is with gender. Reading all of these articles and thinking back to my past experiences I was very shocked of how gender variant people are treated. I never knew so many people would question them. Some people accept it all and don’t think twice about it and others think that is it wrong for someone to act like the opposite gender. I have the same views on gender as I did before these articles and I still believe that no matter what you do in your life you are still human and deserve to be respected and accepted.