At an early age, some children are able to distinguish differences between a male and female and the roles usually associated with each. However, even though they are able to relate certain characteristics, symbols, and actions through gender socialization, the unfortunate outcome of stereotyping transpires as a negative product to such a natural human occurrence of observing one’s surroundings and categorizing. Stereotyping gives rise to prejudice, which is an issue that still exists in many places and many adults, teenagers, and even young children practice it. Even though gender stereotyping is useful for the development of a child’s identity and sense of self, different factors of an individual’s environment tends to further reinforce and …show more content…
Due to this thought process, when he becomes an adolescent he will most likely focus on being strong due to the association of strength as a male attribute or even discriminate against those who do not display such strength. Besides the association of certain characteristics, people associate certain colors and symbols to one gender over the other. These types of stereotypes, involving color and symbols, are first introduced to an individual during his or her toddler years during playtime in which different toys are set for a particular gender. My brother, Jarek, enjoys playing with his toy cars, miniature airplane, and building blocks. However, he refuses to incorporate one of my sister’s Barbie dolls dressed in pink and purple clothing during his array of cluster and motion. As he shook his head in disapproval, he stated that dolls were only for girls and carried on playing his own toys. Then, I carried on with asking him his favorite color. He looked up from the mess he was preoccupied with and replied with numerous colors he knew and was knowledgeable about. However, I noticed he left out pink. I asked him whether or not he liked the