Re: starting early with gender stereotypes

["Nancy Whittier" <nwhittie email smith edu>]

The examples of gender stereotyping you give are classic, and this stuff
drives me nuts.  I am very aware of how ANY differences between our two
could be read as based in their gender, regardless of the actual
characteristics or the direction of the differences.  

Sounds like Jocelyn is trying to figure out what all those comments
she's heard are about, and how they might apply to her.

Of our two, Isaac is MUCH more picky about what he wears, although in
most areas of life he tends to be less picky than Eva.  He is the one
who demands to wear the impractical dresses, and today he demanded to
wear the pink overalls with the really loud pink striped shirt, and then
a red sweater on top.  (Hand-me-down clothes.)   I honestly think some
of this is temperament.  

Nancy

>>> Ken Olum <kdo cosmos phy tufts edu> 12/10/04 2:09 PM >>>
   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.