Gender is a more polite way of saying sex, as in male and female. Children are born with distinct characteristics and biological factors that determine what gender they are. There are special circumstances when a child is born with both, but this is rare. I am going to talk about the distinctions between male and female and why it is important.
As soon as a baby is born there are things that show us there are differences, that male and female are in fact, not necessarily equal… don’t get mad at me yet. A male baby, only a few days old, will startle easily when someone blows on their stomach. A female baby at that same point will be cooing and starting to make eye contact. You can easily see that already the female is working towards communicating, while the male is already showing signs of needing to react in an abrupt way to either show aggression or to protect.
As the baby grows and is now a toddler the children are set behind a glass wall where they can still see their mother but not get to her. The male toddlers immediately run towards the glass wall and try to knock it down, once again some aggression is shown here. The female toddler just sat there and cried. This shows that the girl is more sensitive and uses her emotions to express her feelings rather than aggression. Of course, there are circumstances where this is not true, but the studies showed this happen the majority of the time.
Now the children are a little bit older and elementary school aged. Boys tend to play hard, wrestle, play with trucks, and use any object they can get ahold of as a play gun. The girls played with dolls, dress up and communicate with their friends.
Parents are being told over and over again they should stop raising their children to be a certain gender… to stop making their boys play with trucks and their girls play with dolls. The fact of the matter is that they WANT to play with these toys! There are parents who tried to not raise their kids to play with certain toys, but it ended up happening because the child wanted to.
We can try to make things so gender neutral, but that does not change the studies and the facts. There was a toy store that used to be separated by gender. Boy toys on one side of the store and girl toys on the other side of the store. They decided that all children should be able to play with all toys. They ended up mixing all of their toys throughout the store and ended up going out of business in ONE YEAR!
I do have to say this, if a boy wants to play with a doll he should not be shamed. He sees his sister playing with the dolls and sees his dad taking care of the baby. They are just trying to fit in, or heck, they just want to play with a doll. If they are shamed for playing with certain toys, they will end up trying to rebel. Girls CAN play with trucks and rocks. Boys CAN play with dolls and barbies. There is not a rule. Kids deserve the chance to play with their toys.
As we become adults all of this comes to make sense. Females tend to stay home to nurture their children, as they grew up nurturing their dolls. Males grow up to Protect their home and families. There are literally differences in our brains that allow this world to turn and go on as it does, WITH OUR DIFFERENCES! Females are able to work in the home. Taking care of children, dishes, laundry, running errands, and the list goes on. There is more white matter in female brains which is what connects the information. Meaning they can multitask easier. Men have more grey matter which is processing. This is why they are so good at focusing all of their time and energy on one thing at a time. This is why they are so good at going to work, focus on work, come home to the family, focus on the family.
Males and Females are so different, and it is so beautiful!! We are made this way in order to compliment one another.
I hope we can embrace our gender, treat others with respect, and truly love everyone no matter how they choose to live their life or raise their children!
Best of Family Relations 