OH BOY

  All of a sudden I found myself thinking sociologically when I was babysitting over the weekend. I was babysitting a little boy named Arnold. He is seven years old and  is a very tough little boy. I asked him a  couple question, like what his favorite color was etc.  He answered all my questions as expected. His favorite color is blue and he loves to play sports. This all made me think about nature vs. nurture, and the gender role topics we've been covering in the classroom. Arnold wants to be a policman and told me he thinks that boys shouldn't cry. He was molded as the sterotypical boy.

   We learned the difference between gender and sexuality this week. Arnold's gender and sexuality are both the same, he is a boy and acts as a boy. However,I was thinking of what really influences his choices. People are born a blank slate, so our behaviors are all learned; were his parents  the ones that influenced him into liking sports and the color blue?All the things that we've been talking about in class really have made me think. Was Arnold at the young age of seven already a victim of the meadia's sterotypes? The first thing one sees when entering Arnold's room is the football wall paper. All the men stereotypes really take a toll on younger generations as well. When Arnold said that boys aren't supposed to cry, that really worried me. I believe that is healthy to show emotions. That qoute is greatly overused and shouldn't even excist, it gives men a bad outline of attitude. I was really thinking sociologically all weekend and seeing how society molds each gender to be, is actually impressing. If only these unspoken rules applied to other things for example: being polite. Society has done a great job at molding each gender to it's given behavior. It's done such a great job that acting other wise not specified by these "rules" creates conflict. The conflcit theory can be seen with all the men and women that behave in opposite characteristics. We should all just be accepting of each other because at the end of the day no one is alike. We all have different characteristics and seeing the things that we have in common will generate less stress.