Throughout my childhood, I have participated in many different sports and activities. When I was younger, my parents tried not to push me in any specific direction concerning sports and activities. However, they did make available a number of activities including: soccer, softball, girl scouts, basketball, dance, and several others. During elementary school, I voluntarily chose more masculine activities—I disliked dance and preferred soccer, softball, basketball. I refused to do girl scouts until a later age. By the time I was in middle school I even ended up playing ice hockey and by high school I joined the throwing team in track. At this point, I would say that I had, primarily, chosen more masculine activities. By the end of my freshman year of high school I stopped doing most of the sports I did when I was younger and took up cheerleading. Although my childhood was filled with various activities I would conclude that these activities had more masculine characteristics than those activities I participated in during high school (cheerleading, national charity league, etc.). I am still in the process of discovering how my parents’ involvement in my life has affected my take on gender roles in society.
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Professor Messner explained the concept of gender attribution in class by using his carpool buddy as in example. His friend's view of gender includes having a masculine son and a feminine daughter. I feel that my parents viewed gender the same way. I have younger brother which I think contributed to clearly defining our roles as a son and daughter. Because my parents had both a son and a daughter I think that they assumed that their daughter would do more feminine activities (like girl scouts and ballet) whereas my little brother would do more masculine activities (like skateboarding and soccer). I did play sports like AYSO soccer and softball, but I feel like I was supported differently than my brother was. When I lost a soccer game my parents wouldn't really make a big deal about our loss and they would just say something like, "You played a good game." If my brother lost a game they would have a more competitive reaction. For example, they would give him tips on what to do better next game and give advice on where his team needs some strengthening. I don't necessarily hold this against my parents because I think that my assigned gender role as a daughter was socially based and it's easy to fall into socialization. It is really difficult to imagine what my life would have been like if I wasn't given such a feminine role to play. I do think it's important for parents to let their children explore different activities that society tends to separate between male and female. For example, if Dr. Messner wanted to play in a playhouse in kindergarten, he should have been able to. Gender shouldn't hold him back from doing so.
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