Gender Play essays

Gender Play essays Whereas sex is a biological term that denotes male or female in terms of their reproductive organs, gender is learned through socialization. Genderization begins in infancy when adults say baby boys are handsome and tough while they call baby girls angelic and beautiful. Unlike our reproductive organs, gender is not something we have. We learn to construct it and enact or perform it by choosing to wear clothing associated with masculinity or femininity, for example, moving about in certain ways, and pursuing interests and goals that society has deemed appropriate to our specific gender. By the time girls and boys start school, the socialization process is well underway, and children are actively constructing gender (Khasan Barrie Thorne, author of Gender Play: Girls and Boys in School (1994), argues that children are not just passive recipients of genderized socialization from parents, teachers, and media influence, but also participate actively in the creation and performance of gender. The book is a result of two periods of intense observation at two elementary schools. Thornes findings fully support the view that gender is socially constructed and that children act, resist, rework, and create gender (p. 3). She argues that their activities should not be viewed as preparation for future adulthood, but as children living in the present, living life itself. Thorne uses the metaphor of play to describe childrens gender activities. In one sense play is being actively engaged or employed; in this sense, children actively perform gender identities, participate in gender-based groups, and produce gender meanings. Thus, gender is not something a child is or has, but something the child does. A second strand of meaning is play as dramatic performance of games and rituals such as girls-chase-the-boys, cooties, and bra snapping.&...