Gender Cues

I recently read an article about the process through which children learn about genders and identifying themselves with their genders. So as young children, we often search for cues about gender that provide the answer to who should or should not engage in a particular activity, who can play with whom and why girls and boys are different. The assumption from cognitive perspectives suggests that children are actively engaged in the search for ways to find meanings in and make sense of the social world that surrounds them. In doing so, they look for gender cues given by the society to form interpretation of what they see and hear. From this newly generated knowledge, children develop expectations about other people and draw personal standards for behavior. For instance, girls should have long hair and boys should have short hair. This process is rather instinctive than taught by elders. Once we have gained enough knowledge about the distinctions between male and female, we develop stereotypes about gender that we then apply to ourselves. For instance, girls have long hair and boys have short hair. So in genderal, gender identification plays a significant role in our psychological development at a young age and enhances our learning of the world and ourselves.

However, I feel that such identification consequently directs us to the social norms that limit our freedom of choice. Identification with one gender group actually gives children motivation to be similar to other members of their group and increased preferences for members of their own groups. As a result, children experience growing selective attention to and memory for information relevant to their own sex and increasing interest in only things suitable for their sex. Moreover, experimental studies also conclude that: “they pay more attention to and remember more information relevant to toys they believe are appropriate for their own gender group than to toys they believe to be for the other sex”. Because of this natural loyalty that we have towards our gender groups, we feel a strong obligation to behave and act in certain ways and stay within those boundaries. Overall, while gender cues are necessary for one’s development, they are built upon gender stereotypes and social conventions that isolate a female world from a male world. Gender identity helps us to make sense of the world, as default rules for coordinating relations with others. Nonetheless, it is a “diffuse background identity” that acts to regulate and control our behaviors and actions in alignment with social expectations. In that respect, gender identity restricts our freedom of choice. In our society, social conventions, religious and cultural beliefs continue to dictate our freedom to pursue our will and give rise to discrimination that, in turn, pressure us to conform with the prescribed norms.