Posts Tagged → male
The Boys and The Girls
We’ve all been there, seen it or done it ….. Barbies …….. we’ve all heard of, seen, or owned a barbie doll at some point …….. this fact might be embarrassing to about half the people reading this right now. You see for girls this was the ultimate in awesome ….. the best-est thing ever. Most boys however, would be embarrassed by the fact that they like barbie dolls at the age of four, or harboured a secret collection of barbies dating back to the 80′s but what does it really mean?
If you ask people of our generation (well at least the more liberal folk) they’ll usually tell you it means nothing and that there’s nothing wrong with it; probably a “stage” the person you’re going through. However, those of us born in the 60′s, 50′s and 40′s would probably see it as blasphemy of some sort or other (yes, I am referring to the Kuwaiti population as opposed to the population in general and I know I might be over generalising …… but I can …. so live with it)
But is there really nothing wrong with it? Is it really just a toy or is there a difference between boys and girls and the way they see perceive toys? It’s very hard to pin point, in fact it would be damn near impossible if it weren’t for the magic of google ……
Using googles eye-tracking tech psychologists at Texas A & M took a group of 30 toddlers (3-8 month old boys and girls) and put a doll and a toy truck in front of them then gawked at them. The results of this admittedly less than scientific test are rather interesting.
For one thing most of the girls went for the doll and kept staring at the doll (particularly the face) and really wanted it where are boys just couldn’t decide, half of them went for the doll while the other half went for the truck, worst still …… the boys took longer to make their decision (about 25% longer) which means that we are probably born thicker than the girls are …….
But seriously, what could we gain from such an arbitrary study? Should we assume that we’re born liking trucks or dolls? Or that boys like both while girls like one or the other? That a girl is born a girl while boys might be open to gender identity disorder?
The authors of the study claim that it mirrors other such as the one of monkeys, the one where they compared pink and blue preference, in that it proves that gender identity dictates preference (boy like cars because boys are meant to, girls like dolls because they are meant to). I think they are wrong and am arrogant enough to say so.
The study could mean that girls like things that look like humans because they like role play (every girls fantasy is being the bell of the ball/princess/all dressed in white or something to do with role play), boys tend to enjoy playing, messing around etc …… even into adulthood. But that’s probably wrong too.
I think it illustrates a far more boring and mundane point; we are influenced easily by social interactions with our parents as kids. We don’t know what we want, but we know what our parents want us to want because of clues they give us. If my father plays with the toy truck while I’m around him and encourages me to do the same while he tends to ignore me when I play with the barbie doll or even take it away from me then chances are I’m going to go with the truck because I want human interaction. If my mother buys me a toy truck and smiles when she sees me playing with it and does the same when my sister plays with her dolls then it must mean that I’m meant to have the truck while my sister is meant to have the doll regardless of my gender and if my truck has brighter colors than chances are it will seem more interesting to me as a toddler, especially when compared with a texture less doll.
Now the naysayers and firm believers among us would counter that my argument doesn’t explain why boys took longer to decide than girls. The answer lies in how easily influenced we are as kids by our parents, boys may not understand social cues as well as girls do or they may not even get the same amount of attention which is why they tend to take longer to decide, just look at how much women say when they gawk at each other at the local Starbucks for gods sake …. isnt that proof enough ……
Still whether you’re with me or with the original authors you can let them know what you think by emailing them
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