I would have to say that there are definite front and back regions to my topic. Being a theater major and being heavily involved in productions I can safely say that there is a tremendous amount of things happening back stage than any average audience member can fathom. The back stage area is a whole new world completely separate in a way than what the audience sees onstage. This relates to my topic in a big way. When it comes to gender roles in toddlers a lot of what shapes how a toddler views his place happens at home, back stage. Only the tiniest amount is shown in public. When you think about homes with small children you generally see a lot of pinks, purples, and whites for girls. They tend to have a lot of dolls, kitchen sets, and even an easy bake oven depending on how old she is. When it comes to boys there are a lot of blues and reds. They tend to have t-ball sets, baseball sets, tool benches, trucks, and a lot of rough-and-tumble toys. We unconsciously set this up as parents because that is how we were raised in the society. However, in public, say day care or play group or playground, these rules are usually relaxed and boys are tolerated to be playing with dolls and girls with a hammer. It is a natural instinct we have as parents to protect ‘daddy’s little girl’ and ‘mommy’s little boy’. Just in how we handle infant children this is shown. We all know that when it comes to infant girls people are so much more gentle and slower when handling and playing with them. With boys you could bounce his head off a doorway and no one would bat an eye. The ‘he’s a boy don’t coddle him’ theory is shown perfectly there. With girls parents tend to be more vigilant when it comes to child proofing and climbing things. My theory has always been, ‘let him climb the table, when he falls off he’ll learn’. It is an idea that is shared by many parents of young boys. Boys and girls are all born equally and can handle the exact same amount of accidents and no matter how many times they hit a doorway they will both react the same and learn the same lesson. Somehow though, we tend to automatically think of girls as being more sensitive and less capable of rough behavior. In public many parents will watch their little girl go down the slide with the same vigor and just as fearless as the little boy who just went down and flew 3 feet through the air. As hard as that is to watch they won’t stop it. (I usually feel my “mommy’s little boy” protectiveness kick in here though, you never know how they are going to land, children have a remarkable ability to twist inches from the ground and land in an awful position.) Why is this? I thought our attitudes have changed with the feminist movements but apparently they haven’t made that much of a dent.
