Re: starting early with gender stereotypes

[Ken Olum <kdo cosmos phy tufts edu>]

   From: "Nancy Whittier" <nwhittie email smith edu>
   Date: Fri, 10 Dec 2004 11:54:56 -0500

   Hi Ken (and whoever else is still on this list):

   Are they in childcare at all?  Do they have babysitters who talk about
   gender?  Do you all talk about it?

They are not in child care but they do have lots of babysitters, some
of whom definitely have strong gender stereotypes.  I'm sure this has
gone into the degree to which Jocelyn cares about her clothing
(although the idea that if it has one drop of water on it she must
change it immediately is probably her own).  It wouldn't surprise me
if someone has explained something as being "because he's a boy".

We also just came back from a trip in which nearly everyone we visited
had strong gender stereotypes.  Having boy/girl twins just seems to
attract such comments.  We got to hear, for example, that some study
of infant language was poorly designed because naturally "the boys"
were disassembling the objects that they had to name.  If Jocelyn was
better at counting then Perry it was because girls learn things
earlier.  Presumably if Perry had been better they would have said
that boys are better at math.

The funniest incident was when we went to visit a family with a one
year old girl.  At a particular time the one-year-old was playing with
Jocelyn and her parents remarked how even at that young age she still
preferred to play with someone of her own sex.  It's funny because
Perry has long curly hair and the majority of adults think he's a
girl, so for this claim to be accurate the one-year-old would have to
be a better judge of sex than adults are.  In any event, the girl
went over to play with Perry right after this comment was made.

I did explain to Jocelyn that Perry likes the crust because he is
Perry, not because he is a boy.

                                        Ken