CHYS 1F90 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Femininity, Masculinity, Essentialism

• School: Brock University
• Department: Child and Youth Studies
• Course: CHYS 1F90
• Professor: Dawn Zinga

Document Summary

Pink is for girls + blue is for boys: gendering children and youth. To be male is to not be female and vice versa. To be masculine is to not be feminine and vice versa. Male often framed in very limited ways: many do not fit, gender much more complicated. Based on discourse and highly structured social norms. Performing gender at home: chores, after school activities, bedroom decor, clothing, language: Interviews w/ upper middle-class, white, private school boys. 7 themes: act tough, don"t ask for help, ridicule emotions, regulate each other, rag on each other, teasing as part of friendship, being tough has a price. Superior to femininity and lesser forms of masculinity. Real men care : dove real strength campaign: Toronto family refuses to divulge gender of baby. Neural plasticity means brains are shaped by experience. Gender identity not same as birth gender. Children have immediate sense of gender identity.