PSY 211 Transcript for Transforming Our Thoughts on Gender
Now, try to see yourself as a year old. I want you to picture yourself laying in your crib, staring
up at the ceiling of your nursery. What hues are around you? How does your nursery appear?
What do you have on? Now try to see yourself as a six-year-old. Attending a child's birthday
celebration. The other children there are around your age. What do you have on? What outfits do
the other youngsters have on? What are you utilizing for play? How are you guys getting along
with each other? Now I want us to think about it. Being born is difficult to imagine since you are
new to the world. You're not quite yourself yet. Right? Yet as time goes on, the sights get simpler
to picture. I want to ask you some questions regarding those scenarios. Therefore, recall the
moment you were born in your nursery.
How many boys pictured a nursery that was blue? How many girls pictured their nursery being
pink? How many lads could see a blanket in blue? How many little girls dreamed of a pink
blanket? How many girls dreamed of wearing a pink onesie? How many guys dreamed of
wearing a blue onesie? I want you to recall the situation from when you were six at this point.
How many girls fantasize of donning a party dress? How many males think they would look well
with shorts and a blouse or pair of pants? How many girls fantasize about playing house or with
dolls? How many guys pictured themselves chasing after trucks or engaging in other active
hobbies?
How many girls have long hair in their dreams? How many males have short hair in their
dreams? The way we wear our hair, the clothes we wear, the colors we connect with ourselves,
and the toys we pick are all examples of gender expression. Right. Each of these is a gender
expression. Every person has a biological sex. They comprise our bodies. Yet we make decisions
based on gender. Right. It is the kind of thing we say. And to emphasize a particular point, I
particularly contrasted this with the birth scene. We did not inherit gender. We had it put on us.
Right. Gender is therefore something that is not in us but rather in us. And as we proceed, I want
you to bear it in mind. The existence of gender expressions is not in and of itself problematic.
Yet the fact that we ignore the birth scene is an issue. We forget that gender is a choice that was
made for us before we could pick our own toys, clothing, or even before we could paint our
nursery. Hence, gender is an expression that we begin using before we even become aware of
doing so. And this develops into a problem over time because we lose sight of the fact that this
wasn't something that was decided for us to do; rather, we continue to engage in it because
society encourages us to do so.
There is actually a lot of evidence that gender is a taught habit. The social learning hypothesis
explains how children pick up their gender from significant adults in their lives, particularly their
parents or other guardians. Little ones are like sponges. Kids are always looking for signs of
whether they are acting like a decent little boy or girl. So, even seemingly little cues, such as a
modest frown or grin, might reveal to a kid whether or not they are responding in a way that you
think suitable given their birth gender.
Now consider the effect of more overt comments like "you look so ridiculous in that tutu" to a
young boy or "you look so beautiful in that party dress" to a young girl that we frequently hear.
It's interesting to note that parents' adherence to gender norms really predicts how much their
children will follow them and how much they hold other people responsible for them. The degree
to which children adhere to gender standards varies depending on how much their parents adhere
to the same gender norms, demonstrating that this is not an innate trait but rather something that
is fostered or learnt. Then what? Who cares, then? Several types of clothing are worn by girls.
Boys dress in a specific way. Kids like playing with certain dolls, vehicles, or other toys. Nothing
matters. Nobody is getting injured by it. I strongly object. And I'll explain why I think that. I
want everyone to consider if the behaviors you engage in are ones you decided to engage in or
ones you were encouraged to engage in. So, a while back, we had an idea. I want you to think
back to the times we discussed. Imagine then how you acted out gender at the age of twelve,
what that looked like, how you groomed yourself, how you dressed, and so on.
Right. I want you to consider how you began to express your gender at the age of 18. Right now,
I want you to consider it. Moreover, I want you to reflect on today. How many of your
actions—your appearance, speech, mannerisms, and the things you do—were deliberate
decisions made by you from a wide range of expression options because you actually preferred
them, and how many of these actions have been and still are being carried out because they are
endorsed and expected by society? Answering that question is not feasible. I'm still asking it,
though. We genuinely are unable to envision who we would be or what we would be like without
those expectations because we have advanced so far in our gender journeys and because gender
is so deeply embedded in our culture. For this reason, it is hard to provide an answer.
