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Formation of Gender Identities in Children
By James Keightley of giggleberries
Identities are unique and concerned with more than the qualities and characteristics that form our personalities. They embrace the similarities and differences between others and ourselves and the way we actively engage with these through an awareness of who we are. Identities are shaped in many ways, but are principally concerned with the choice of how we identify with the similarities and differences of others. The degree of agency we might have over these choices can be affected by biological and socially influences. Three notable social scientists explored the social formations of identities. George Mead argues we’re free to imagine and visualize ourselves, and the way we symbolize this. However, the extent of our choice can be restricted by the social symbols available. Ervin Goffman suggests we present our identities like an actor acts out a part in a play. The lines, which form our role, are already socially written for us. But like an actor we have some freedom to improvise and interpret how we act out our identity. Sigmund Feud emphasised the significance of our childhood experiences. Unwanted feelings, behaviours and pleasure seeking desires are repressed in to our unconsciousness and these can be influenced by the relationships with our parents. We draw on these experiences, even if we are not conscious about them, when making decisions as adults when we form our identities. Further studies have focused on the significance of gender. This should not be confused with sex, which is biologically predetermined. Gender is culturally and socially constructed around masculine and feminine gender categories. These categories are characteristics that society associates with men or women, which shape our gender identity and contribute to the formation of our identity as a whole. A child’s identity is simplistic and they actively engage with gender categories through cultural and social experiences in and effort to seek certainty as to who they are. Turner et al explained the importance of being able to self-categorize which group we belong to and sees this as an essential skill in the construction of identities. Durkin (1995) states, “the child slowly becomes aware that he or she is a member of a particular sex”. Children categorize themselves between 2 and 3 years of age. However, the categories they interpellate serve as nothing more than a label as to whether they are a boy or a girl. Children then draw upon knowledge from cultural and social experiences to shape these labels. Still, their lack of knowledge means that they construct their own categories differently to adults. Kolhberg (1966) points out that this difference is apparent by the mistakes children make, such as perceiving that boys can become aunts and are regarded as being ‘naively certain’ about who they are. Bem (1989) demonstrates that due to their lack of knowledge their categories are influenced less by biological evidence and are more reliant on the cultural and social experiences they acquire. Only half of 3, 4 and 5 year olds were able to use anatomical evidence of genitalia to identify boys from girls and the same were also not deceived by pictures of boys and girls fashioning hairstyles and clothes that were at odds with there typical gender categories. Due to their lack of knowledge children are more reliant on social and cultural influences. These can be stereotypical of the masculine and feminine traits which society assigns to each gender. As adults we are able to see through these stereotypes, but children lack the knowledge to do this and thus their categories become essentialist. Even though children become more certain about their own gender and the existence of multiple genders they are still influenced by the powerful social structures they are exposed to. These serve to help them refine and maintain their identities from around the age of 5 years on. Francis (1997, 1998) demonstrated that boys and girls use their social and cultural experiences to make choices during role-play. Boys choose the high status roles, such as doctors and use their role to exert domination more than girls to reinforce their identity. These choices are typically representative of the masculine and feminine roles of society. Children clearly use gender categories in the search of certainty as to who they are and that cultural and social experiences are significantly influential in this process. It is evident that this process becomes more flexible as their knowledge and experience develops and that they continue to apply their knowledge in refining and maintaining this identity.
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The copyright for this content entitled "Formation of Gender Identities in Children" has been specified by the contributor as:
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This intel was contributed by Jimbob
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May, 2012
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