Interesting, debatable, thought-provoking, and compelling were just some of the words that came to mind while reading Fine, C. Gender Education. It brought me back to my childhood and how I was raised. Growing up in the Hispanic/Latino culture everything is gender and there are so many gender stereotypes and they are so profound; meaning they are so deeply embedded into the culture that I believe we’d have to move mountains to create change. My parents would never have gone to that extreme as to gender neutralizing practically every aspect of our live so much as to drawing in our books, as they did in the article. Don’t get me wrong, I respect different styles of effective parenting but would that be considered effective parenting. In a way, I see it as guiding your children into the world blindly. You are teaching them something completely opposite of what the world will expose them too. Yes, you may learn your values from your parents but you spend more time with your peers. Also, this style of parenting may confuse the child with the two conflicting perspectives. Yet on the other hand, I see it as allowing your children to enter this world with a completely open mind. Even though this idea made the wheels in my head turn; nonetheless, I do agree that women and men are capable of doing the same thing and one of the few differences between them is their sex organs.Another noteworthy aspect of the article is how much these gender stereotypes follow us throughout life, from infancy to adulthood. They are plastered everywhere, from the Disney movies we’d watch as kids to the commercials and environments we are exposed to as we get older. Also, how blank and claylike children are. To where they can be molded into and taught anything but even then, they have a sense of their own identity. As shown in the article how children would conform to the stereotypes as long as someone else was around but once they were alone, they played or behaved as they felt was right to them at that moment. So, to someone, such as myself, who was exposed to these concepts it is the norm until these ideals are challenged. You then can take a step back and look at the bigger picture. Once we acknowledge the problem we will then be able to reform it. But is reforming how gender education is taught the way to go about this change?
-Agape Arias, 9/5/18
