Okay so my title is a little extreme, but you get the point (or you will after reading the article). I enjoy the topic of gender because, well, it's totally relevant to life and it's one of the greatest examples and studies of nature vs nurture. I'll start with one of my usual diatribes about the terms 'gender' and 'sex'. Sex is the biological state of being male or female. Gender refers to masculine and feminine characteristics. It is a spectrum. (Actually, I have a great argument for sex being a spectrum too, but I won't get into that right now). Masculine and feminine characteristics, what we consider to be masculine or feminine traits, are socially developed and reinforced. They aren't, for the most part, determined by one's sex (or sexual orientation, but again, I'll save that for another entry).
Props to Harrods for reorganizing how their toys are showcased. I bet it is actually a lot easier to shop with toys organized by theme. Like this article about body shapes, this article about toys touches on the age-old "art imitates life/life imitates art" controversy. Maybe if we stop displaying products with such blatant gender stereotyping, 6 year olds won't already have rigid gender stereotypes.
Now to go a little deeper into the article and talk about the author's main point. The studies referenced show that Republicans/conservatives typically believe gender traits are biological, written in stone; and Democrats/liberals believe gender traits are sociocultural. Or to twist that a little more: Republicans are more likely to believe a statement about gender traits and roles if it is explained through science and biology. Democrats, on the other hand, are more likely to believe it if it explained by societal and cultural norms. Not really that surprising, right? So, do we care? I mean, sure we care about gender stereotypes, but do we care about the political spin this article puts on it?
*side note: funny that they mentioned a Dallas paper. Dallas, in my opinion, is a blinding example of rigid gender roles.
~A
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