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Book about gender stereotyping

Posted: Mon Mar 11, 2013 1:11 pm
by JRM
I think I saw one recommended somewhere revcently and think it must have been on here. It was something quite in depth about how society influences little girls and boys. Can anyone point me in the right direction?

I've had a weekend of praise for my clever boy and my pretty girl, and presents of code word puzzle books and pretty flower pictures to colour - can you guess which was for my DS and which for my DD?

Anyway, instead of grumpily ranting, I thought I might like to educate myself a bit. So, who can find me some sensible reading material?

Thanks :D

Re: Book about gender stereotyping

Posted: Mon Mar 11, 2013 1:15 pm
by Tinkers
There's a campaign group on that well known social networking site called 'let toys be toys'
Pm me if you can't find it and want a link. Not sure if I'm allowed to post here.
Some stuff is shocking. Chemistry sets listed as boys toys, craft stuff list as girls toys and the pinkification of stuff. Don't even get me started with some of the books on offer.

Re: Book about gender stereotyping

Posted: Mon Mar 11, 2013 1:23 pm
by Amber
Steve Biddulph has now written 'Raising Girls' to go with his well-respected boy one. I gather from the reviews it is aimed at precisely the kind of issue you mention.
And Frank Furedi has recently contributed to articles on the premature s exualisation of teenagers which touches on these things too I expect.

Re: Book about gender stereotyping

Posted: Mon Mar 11, 2013 1:55 pm
by JRM
You have certainly got the measure of me. I already 'like' that FB page and I have both Steve Bidulph books. (Although the Raising Girls one is written by someone else but foreworded by him if I remember rightly). The Steve Bidulph book about raising boys was brilliant and we still refer to bits of it. DH is always particularly keen to look out for more positive male role models around the place and it spurs him on to keep helping run a youth club when he is shattered at the end of the week.

I'll keep digging around through my internet history to try and track down what I was thinking of. I think it was about the very early years when very subtly girls are moved towards pink and 'traditional' girls toys so that by the time they are 3 and really like pink so that is why we buy it, it is obviously down to conditioning already.

I haven't been militant and banned pink, but with 7 grandchildren and only 1 girl, it is fascinating and infuriating to see the differences in how they are treated.

I keep wanting to turn round and say 'I don't have a clever son and a beautiful daughter' but obviously I do. In fact I happen to have the 3 most beautiful, clever and wonderful children in the world ever :lol: (No bias was used in the typing of this post!)



DD is saving up for a chemistry set. DS was given some money (not by us) to celebrate him getting into his new school. That irked me too - he got his place by the fortune of where we live, and seeing how hard it is for some on here I feel we have had it easy. Can you tell I am a grumpy woman at the moment? Anyway, I might give DD an equivalent amount so that she can buy her set and excitedly tell Granny about it and hope that one day we will get the message through.

Re: Book about gender stereotyping

Posted: Mon Mar 11, 2013 3:25 pm
by Tinkers
I think girls actually get 'pinked' to death to the point where my Dd and her friends don't like it, but even so the pink stuff dominates and is difficult to escape. My MIL, despite being a retired physics teacher, still tries to give her pink and/or girly stuff that she just doesn't want.
My DD is fortunate in some ways to have both parents who are engineers. She sees her father cook most of the time and she cooks herself now. Yesterday she helped me change the battery in her fathers car. (He has a bad back so I wouldn't let him do it before anyone asks). Ultimately I want to raise a child that can do stuff for herself and not think she can't do something because she is a girl.

If you remember the books shown on FB, The how to be clever/how to be gorgeous ones. Actually my DD had a different take on those which made me smile. She said that Girls don't need the How to be clever book, because they already are. :D
She was however most put out that the Chemistry set was in the boys stuff section.

Re: Book about gender stereotyping

Posted: Mon Mar 11, 2013 5:17 pm
by Rob Clark
(Although the Raising Girls one is written by someone else but foreworded by him if I remember rightly)
Not so, JRM, it is written by the man himself! Bit late for my two as they are teenagers now, but I was a disciple in the early years.

We have a science-oriented DD whose idea of fun was more water and skateboard parks than dolls (which she never owned) and dresses. You'd think in this day and age it wouldn't matter any more… :roll:

Re: Book about gender stereotyping

Posted: Mon Mar 11, 2013 5:38 pm
by JRM
I shall have to look that one out then Rob. The one we had was 'Raising Girls' by Giesla Preuschoff and with the foreword by Steve Bidulph. His name is nearly as large as hers on the front cover! I didn't get on with it as reading material as well as I did 'Raising Boys' but I didn't know whether that was because I was on my precious first born with more time to myself when I read the Boys one.

I sometimes think girls have it easier than boys as they can be traditionally 'girly' and do other things more seen as 'male' pursuits. But then I sit back and wonder why are they seen as 'male' pursuits. Having friends with the problem of other people complaining about their sons doing dancing and evern gymnastics there is far more obvious stereotyping close to home than I ever though in this day and age.