The documentary “The Pinks and the Blues” and the podcast “Can a Child be Raised Free of Gender Stereotypes” discuss the unconscious gender stereotypes and assumptions that our culture places upon children. Children are enculturated with ideas about who they should be, how they should think and behave, and this enculturation has distinct effects upon the child psychology and way of living in the world. The viewer is left with the question: Is it possible to raise a child without gender stereotypes? “The Pinks and the Blues” states that gendered treatment of children begins within 24 hours of the child’s birth. Descriptors for male infants and female infants were different, with boys being labeled as big, strong, and alert while girls were labeled as being delicate, petite, and inattentive. Interestingly, in the podcast, the mother relates that her daughter would be described differently depending on the colors she in which she was dressed. If she was …show more content…
The podcast involved parents trying to raise their daughter without gendered stereotypes, and in listening to the daughter’s thoughts on the experience at the end, and looking at how she exists in the world. While it seems to have been very successful, and the daughter seems to be very confident and happy, I wonder how well this could be extended to other people in other situations. Her parents were well off enough for the mother to be able to stay home and homeschool their daughter, with the intent to limit the influence of outside gendered pressures. How well would it work in a situation where the parents needed to work and the child needed to attend a public school? It sounded as if the family were firmly middle class, and the parents well educated. How well would it work if the family were poor, or less educated? How necessary are those sorts of resources in having the freedom to go against cultural