Gender roles are a subconcious continuous thought

Ever since I was a little girl I have been subjected to the ideas of gender roles. They have been pressed upon us by parents, the media, and our friends. We have subconsciously been conditioned to believe that we have certain roles we have to stay in and we feel that it is perfectly fine to be that way because we don’t know anything different. I as I have grown up have become more aware of what is going on and how it needs to change.

We need to start the change from day one. When we are little we are gender specified by the color we wear, girls in pink and boys in blue. As we begin to mature we are told what to play with, girls a doll and boys a truck. Our minds are made to believe that we cannot succeed in doing anything else then what is predetermined for us. As young children we watch all of the Disney movies who send the message of girls only looking for love. 12 out of the 13 Disney movies portray a movie of a girl who is in search of a man and no search of a woman finding herself. We are depicted to be helpless girls who need a man to fit in that role. A recent controversy has arisen because the movie Toy Story 3 features many children toys throughout the film. CNN has recently written an article about how many of the toys in the movie were very sexist. They consisted of male predominant toys and the one female toy in the movie was a Barbie doll. Many are presenting the facts that it is unfair to show the males as superior to the females even in the children movies.

I feel that the stereotypes that we are subjected to as young children end up shaping our future. If I was raised in a different manner to have a unisex upbringing I may have had a different turn out. Being raised in a complete opposite environment would be an interesting experiment to see how I would turn out. Even adding brothers in the  mix would be interesting to see the developmental changes that can arise. In the end the ideas of gender roles are all around us and I would love to know your personal experience over your life growing up. So please comment on my post and let me know what you think!