Growing up as a child, I was surrounded by gender stereotypes. Whenever I entered Toys ‘R’ Us, I would be directed towards the blue section filled with toy cars, action figures, and guns. I would not so much as bat an eye to the pink section filled with dolls and kitchen sets. After all, they were meant for girls.
I would set aside my love for reading without a second thought and go out to play basketball or football. It didn’t matter if I enjoyed reading more. Boys were supposed to play sports, right? My perception of gender was influenced in more subtle ways as well. Watching my mother stay at home and take care of the house while my dad went to work. Doing the dishes and cooking meals. It all added to the way I viewed gender.
These perceptions were reinforced with every trip I made to my family. My grandparents were very traditional minded as was the rest of the community we lived in. Women were supposed to dress conservatively and were not supposed to go to work. Those were just some of the values and beliefs that I was exposed to and brought up with.
It was as I grew older that I started to learn more about the prevalence of gender stereotypes in society(especially after joining UWC). Exploring the concept in class after class, what had once seemed fact, I now questioned. Interaction after interaction, year after year, my perception of gender slowly changed and evolved and with it, so did my values and beliefs. So did my actions and the choices I made. No longer was it ‘crazy’ to turn down sports for a good book. No longer did I believe that toys, books or media were differentiated for each sex. Gender stereotypes no longer blinded my thoughts and actions.
However, gender does still have a hold on me and has shaped the individual I am today. For instance, it chooses the interactions and relationships I had. Being a boy, I find it hard to talk to those of the opposite sex in a context outside of school. Thus, all my friends are boys and they have played a huge role in shaping the person I am today. Teaching me to go from being a very serious person to one who loves a good joke, pushing me to be ambitious and aim as high as I can and so on. I might have been very different had I become friends with a different group of people.
I love going to the gym and try to go at least 5 times a week . It is something that I enjoy and find very relaxing(especially when you have a lot of homework due and several tests approaching).It in turn has shaped my personality, fostering resilience as well as a good work ethic. However, the only reason I started going was because of my own insecurity and the stereotype that men were supposed to have an amazing physique.
There are other ways that gender has impacted different aspects of my life. For instance, playing video games. This is one of the many sectors that has for the most part, been marketed specifically towards boys and as a result my friends and I spend a significant chunk of our weekend on this activity. Another way gender has impacted my life is cooking. As a child, I never thought about or worried about learning to cook. This was due to to how cooking is traditionally considered something girls do. This resulted in my cooking skills being abysmal for a long while. However, I have recently picked it up and it has quickly turned into a hobby of mine.
There have been a lot of influences on my perspective on gender over the years. As I had mentioned before, my family was a really big influence as were the trips to India in general. I was exposed to their values and beliefs from a very young age and carried them for a long time. Another big factor is school, especially UWC. Being an international school, I have been exposed to many different perspectives. This has enabled me to look at the bigger picture on gender as a whole and have a more educated opinion which takes into account all sides of the story rather than a select one.
Lastly, there is the influence of the media. Things like books, movies and social media are full of subtle gender stereotypes that I have been absorbing for a long while. Even now, while I can identify them, they still have some power over my thoughts and my actions (i.e Body image issues). Just goes to show how strong of an impact the media has on us as a society.
