Gender Spacifics-pretty long

[Cherokee_Mountaincat]

Sigh...Ok, I must be weird or have too many male hormones(Yes they found that have as many male hormones as I do female..its a wonder I had kids..lol) but I Hated dolls, and went for things like the toy Tonka dumptrucks and tricycles and the animals, and could care Less about the teddy bears and tea sets. Of course I blame part of this on being raised with 5 older brothers who wanted at least One of us twins to be a boy. Guess which of us they practically turned into the boy? lol I have all the female features and the mind of a male...and that in itself is scary..lol ok..heres the artical..:}

.Even 9-Month-Olds Choose 'Gender-Specific' Toys (Could this also be a sign of what sexuality they might choose later on?)

THURSDAY, April 15 (HealthDay News) -- Parents may want their girls to grow up to be astronauts and their boys to one day do their fair share of child care and housework duties, but a new study suggests certain stereotypical gender preferences take root even before most kids can crawl.


When presented with seven different toys, boys as young as 9 months old went for the car, digger and soccer ball, while ignoring the teddy bears, doll and cooking set.


And the girls? You guessed it. At the same age, they were most interested in the doll, teddy bear and miniature pot, spoon and plastic vegetables.


"The boys always preferred the toys that go or move, and the girls preferred toys that promote nurturing and facial features," said study author Sara Amalie O'Toole Thommessen, an undergraduate at City University in London.


So does this mean that boys and girls have an innate preference for certain types of objects? Or does socialization -- that is, the influence of parents and the larger culture -- impact children's choice of toys very early in life?


It's too soon to rule either out, said Walter Gilliam, director of the Edward Zigler Center in Child Development and Social Policy at Yale University.


"One of the things we've learned about babies over the many years we've been studying them is that they are amazing sponges and learn an awful lot in those nine months," Gilliam said.


The study was to be presented Friday at the British Psychological Society's annual conference in Stratford-upon-Avon.


In the 1970s and 1980s, there was lots of interest in the "nature" versus "nurture" debate, and developmental researchers did plenty of research on gender differences in play. However, most studies were inconclusive and interest faded, Thommessen said.


At the same time, roles within the home were becoming more fluid, with fathers taking on more child care and women working more and at a greater variety of jobs outside the home, though the marketing of children's toys remained very stereotypical.


This latest study included 83 children aged 9 months to 3 years who were observed playing for three minutes. The time they spent touching or playing with each object was noted.


Researchers chose the toys by surveying 300 adults about the first toy that came to mind when they thought of a boy or a girl. About 90 percent said "car" for boy and "doll" for girls, with the remainder mentioning the other toys.


Children were also offered both a pink teddy bear and a blue teddy bear. "We were quite interested to see if boys had a color preference, but boys didn't show any interest in the teddy bears at all," Thommessen said.


Gender-specific preferences became even more pronounced as the children got older. By about age 27 months to 36 months, girls spent about 50 percent of their time playing with the doll, and were no longer much interested in the teddy bear, which had interested them when they were younger, or any of the other objects. The boys spent 87 percent of their time with the car and digger, ignoring even the ball.


The finding raises the possibility of a biological basis for toy choices. A study from 2001 found even 1-day-old boys spent longer looking at moving, mechanical options than 1-day-old girls, who spent more time looking at faces.


Yet the impact of socialization should never be underestimated, Gilliam said. Studies have shown parents and others interact differently with female and male babies from almost the instant they're born, Gilliam said.


Even when they're infants, fathers tend to encourage more active play with boy babies, by playfully tickling or poking them, while they tend to hold girl babies closer. Parents have also been observed spending more time talking to girls than to boys.


As they get older, studies have shown boys are encouraged to more actively explore their environment, while girls are encouraged to engage in quieter play.

"Even if your boy prefers playing with a truck, make sure you talk to him and teach him about nurturing," Gilliam said. "Even if a girl is playing with a doll, every once in a while throw her a ball or take her on a run. Expose them to all the different possibilities, and then let them choose."

And keep in mind just how much you may be dragging your own stereotypical notions into parenting.

In the study, researchers found no association between parents' reported views on gender-appropriate toys for children, or parental roles at home, and the toys children chose. In other words, dads who did their share of housework and moms who held high-level jobs outside the home were just as likely to have girls who picked dolls and boys who picked cars and trucks.

But Gilliam remembers one family who brought their young son in to see him. There was an assortment of toys scattered on the floor, from which the boy chose a plastic figurine. "The mom said, 'Oh, he wants to play with dolls.' And the father replied, 'He's not playing with dolls. Those are action figures.'"

More information

The International Play Association has more on why it's important for children to play.


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[TwylaTwobits]

interesting....but I found as the mother of three boys, that kids will play with whatever toy is handy. I remember going to my ex mother-in-laws house, most of the toys she kept there were for her granddaughters as she babysat them every Friday. My boys didn't see a thing wrong with making Barbie kill King Kong, guess that means I raised em right :)

[MarieDelta]

In some native american cultures if the child was exhibiting what can be determined "gender non-conforming" behavior they would have the child dance. If the child danced like a woman(or man,) they would be raised as such.

Some fairly recent speculation has been that it is genetically predetermined who we will take our gender roles from- the male or female parent figure. Thereby determining our later gender identity.

Whatever the case, it is something that we do not choose, rather it is determined for us, by factors outside our control. At a fairly early age.

Nor is gender a social construct, as some early theorist had thought.

[Canticle]

I have to agree with Twyla, that most children, be they boys or girls, will play with any toy available and make of it, what they will. Buy a child lots of toys, he/she will always play with the boxes. Give a child a saucepan and a wooden spoon and they have a drum. Open parcels at Christmas and the wrapping paper gets played with.

I had two sons, a year apart in age (their sister arrived a little later), and they were very different in how they would approach, what interested them and what they would play with. The first word, the elder of my two sons uttered, was ‘car’…..before dadda or mama. From that very early age he showed an interest in taking things apart. He’s always taken things apart….sometimes not knowing how to put them back together. It worried me a great deal, that he had a soldering kit in his room at university……mostly used for altering his electric guitar….which he was constantly taking to pieces….which was probably more constructive than his ability to play it.
He was always interested in science, in it’s various forms, a wizard on a computer and fascinated by space and the universe. So no surprise that he took a degree in microbiology…a boy who would amaze his chemistry teacher…’’this boy has a brilliant scientific mind.’’

His brother was different. He was the pretty little boy…..cooed over by old ladies and always popular with the girls (he once, aged 6, helped the girls, at school, tie his brother to a tree). He was the one who was closer to me and still is and the one who was not afraid to play with dolls, teddies, Lego….anything that could be played with….but always in the way little boys will change things…to how they want them.

Once, when we were shopping, he spotted a cheap baby doll, in a wicker crib. He wanted one and we would never have said no to that, because it was traditionally, a girls toy. So he had one and so did his big brother. At home, the were dolls undressed, just to see if they were boys or girls, and the evening was spent, playing with baby dolls in cribs. The following morning, the cribs had been turned into cars, with all the appropriate noises and the babies were racing drivers. It wasn’t long before they had crashed a few too many times and no longer existed.

Both my sons had cuddly toys, whether they were teddies or any other kind of animal. I don’t see that toys of this kind are exclusively a ‘girl,’ thing. Not in my experience of the many children I have known or know. My younger son had a ‘’My Little Pony’’ and he had one, because he wanted one. He didn’t think them girlie.

At the same time he and his brother built things with Lego, had all manner of jigsaws, ball games (again, something which is not for one sex, or the other), helped their father do mechanical things and also had chores, which I would give them…like washing and drying pots. I used to have the most fascinating conversations with my older son, when washing pots and pans…..from space to menstruation. That, I call healthy and normal.

My eldest met his future wife at uni, his first girlfriend and they have been together 11 years now. The younger of the brothers, well…..he’s always been popular with the ladies…but I reckon he has now met his future wife.

They played with anything and everything that was around…whether it was a car, a teddy, Lego,…etc and they were also creative. The one thing I never allowed them to have, were toy guns and they have never played that sort of game.

Now, when they were 7 and 8, their sister was born. It has been most interesting to see a daughter, with two older brothers, grow up into the beautiful and most feminine of young women.

I did not allow her to have dolls until she was about three years old…but with the owning of the first one, came all the usual play behaviour that girls have. She started off with teddies and long before she had a tea set, she would turn hollow building blocks, into cups and a tea pot. She liked to dust! Where she got that from….we never figured out….not from me.
She always played with her brothers and would make things with them, from

Lego. She always wanted to do what they did. She even tried to pee standing up, on one occasion…..that was funny.
She was a tom boy and also a sweet and cute girl in pink…a balance. When we moved and had a log stove, she would shift the logs, as her father cut them to the right size. When the boys were bought a Mini, ready for when they began to drive, she wanted to get oily and dirty too. If they did it, she wanted to do it. A very natural and healthy approach, I would say.

Now, she is a very confident and assertive young woman, who has got a good job, bought her first house, with her fiancé (whom she also trained) and all at the age of 21. I think that having older brothers, certainly helped to make her who she is today.

I think that the thing to do, is allow a child to play with the toys it wants to play with. I do believe that most little boys and girls, are wired up, to naturally play in a certain manner….but it is fairly obvious that they will watch parents and want to be doing what Mummy does, or Daddy does.

I know one thing…..my sons never wanted a suit of armour……but my daughter did!

[12voltman59]

It is an interesting thing---I know of parents who for whatever reason, did not like guns and vowed to never buy their boys a toy gun---but many of these parents find---boys and sometimes girls--will use their imagination to create a "gun" either using their fingers, a natural stick or broom handle---ya gotta wonder if liking guns is something in our genes or the forces of culture are so strong and do affect even young kids early on.

[Canticle]

It is an interesting thing---I know of parents who for whatever reason, did not like guns and vowed to never buy their boys a toy gun---but many of these parents find---boys and sometimes girls--will use their imagination to create a "gun" either using their fingers, a natural stick or broom handle---ya gotta wonder if liking guns is something in our genes or the forces of culture are so strong and do affect even young kids early on.

I guess I was fortunate, for my sons were never interested in ''pretending'' they had such things. The nearest thing they ever got to that fantasy, was in the very tame computer games they had and I was always careful that any game, was what I called appropriate. Same with films, even if viewed on tv. If it had been for over a certain age, in the cinema, then unless, as parents, we thought that the film was OK, they didn't get to watch it.

[Realist]

My parents were racist, homophobic and ultra conservative. Nothing of a sexual, or controversial nature was ever mentioned in our household.

I've been attracted to both sexes since I can first remember. In college, I had a black GF (she was a double threat...African and bisexual!) I loved an Oriental lady. I have had poly, heterosexual, bisexual relationships and loved both men and women.

I do not avoid controversy, but I do have some conservative views and some liberal ones, too. I've learned I can love more than one person at a time...of either gender, that other races can be good....as well as bad, just like my race can. And, with just a little effort, we can relate to others who are different.

I think it's like this: Nothing is as appealing as something you've been taught is wrong, bad, or forbidden!