Gender In Language

I thoroughly enjoyed Mr. Robertson's presentation about gender in language and found it fairly interesting.  Something that I found interesting was the idea that toys we receive as children affects the way we write stories and ultimately our behaviour. For example, a large amount of parents give GI Joe's to boys and give girls Barbies.  The GI Joe emphasizes that boys are suppose to be strong, tough and the heroic, like GI Joe is.  The Barbie emphasizes that girls are suppose to be petite and beautiful.  When I was a kid, the same happened to me. I loved GI Joe and toys of that nature, most of my friends did as well. The next question that Mr Robertson proposed was, is this wrong? Both arguments have compelling reasons and I have to agree with him that it is not completely right, we should as a greater community give children more of a chance to decide how they want to be. How much does that do though, it's up to larger corporations and how they portray children on things like toys, ads, etc. Unless government can authorize a policy, it will be very hard to convince corporations to start making toys differently that are already highly profitable.  

I also found the article on the writing of 2nd grade student intriguing, but not surprising.  Of course i was unaware of the statistics and the conclusion that boys stories tend to be more about individuals and becoming a hero not surprising.  I did this as a young boy, I would write most of my stories as a comeback kid becoming the hero or something along those line.  This problem most likely stems from the way we are brought up, maybe even till the type of pajamas your mom put on you when you were a child. Is it on the parents to dress their children more neutrally? I find this potential proposition ridiculous.  I am frankly scared of a bunch of young kids running around in “neutral” outfits.  Reminds me too much of “The Giver” by Lois Lowry.

Adios,

Cooper M.