#8: What I've Learned

The topic that I chose to write my blog on was gender development. Throughout my blog posts I looked into how our society deals with gender roles, especially with children. I always knew that gender roles were something that seemed to be engrained in people, but I never fully realized how stuck we are in them.  The one thing that seemed to be a trend throughout all of my research was how girls breaking gender norms was not a big deal, however there is a greater stigma on boys who break gender norms. It seems like society is completely fine with little girls dressing in boy clothes, or partaking in boys activities, however when little boys decide to wear princess costumes or want to play with Barbie dolls there is immediate backlash. The stigma placed on young boys especially is something that we would all like to hope we don’t buy into, but unfortunately it is something so drilled into our society

that it is hard to ignore.  This is exactly what needs to be changed. Once we start changing the way people view gender roles it will become easier for everyone to accept whatever a child wants to do.  This is something that will not be easy, and something that will not happen over night, however it is possible.  We need to create a culture where children can grow up and know that they can be whatever they want.  Girls need to be encouraged that they are strong enough to be firefighters, and boys need to be reminded that they are nurturing enough to become a nurse or a teacher.  We are living in a constantly evolving society, but for some reason gender stereotypes are stuck in the past. We need to change the way we view gender norms so we can make a more accepting environment for children to grow up in today