Sunday, August 30, 2009
Glenn Ryan Gender Bio
When I was a kid a was heavily influenced by my parents to do what most Americans would consider to be "masculine." Besides playing a wide array of sports including Baseball, Basketball, Soccer, Tennis, and football, I was always told to "be a man" -even when I was very young. I remember in elementary school there were even times I was bullied and my dad took me outside and taught me to fight. He said "if someone is ruffing you up, always try and get a least one good swing on him so he'll remember you." This contrasted with what was told to my sisters as my mother told them "Ladies don't hit people." Furthermore if I look back at pictures of my siblings and I as toddlers my brother and I are matching in blue and my sisters in pink. Truly, we were raised to be an american culturally defined "male." Personally, I loved doing all the things I was put into by my parents, but it's interesting to think of how much influence they had on the "male" I became.
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I am not an American, but I think what you did in your childhood, that's really a typically what an America boy behave.
ReplyDeleteAs i am a girl, my parents never ask me to do a lot of sports, even though some of my girl friends parent not allow them to play a lot of sports as they don't want their daughters to be masculine.
I think what you have described in your gender bio is a clear depiction of research done on family gender socialization. Research states as Glenn said, fathers push kids into narrow gender roles more so than do mothers. It has always been proven that like Glenn mentioned, boys are punished physically and that families assign household tasks along gendered lines. I also believe that this gender bio is a perfect example of Cultural Anthropology as Glenn's parents cultural values of masculinity influenced their child rearing processes in teaching him "if someone is ruffing you up, always try and get a least one good swing on him so he'll remember you." This as now resulted in an effect on Glenn's personality and gender.
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