How are gender stereotypes

Despite the apparent impotence and passivity of newborn human beings, and their the developing brain, it is obvious that they are equipped with different "set of first gear necessary. " Babies are like sponges, absorbing information about the world, and this means that we need to very carefully follow what the world tells our kids. What are the rules and guidelines they are in the world? Are the rules the same for all children? What events and what life experiences can have an impact on the final product?

One of the first, the most high-profile and powerful signals, which takes the child is, of course, a signal about the differences between boys and girls, men and women. Separation by gender and gender everywhere: this baby clothes and toys, books, education, career, movies and books, not to mention the daily "random" sexism.

Just go to the supermarket and you see rows and rows of products with a touch of gender - shower gels ( "Tropical Rain" for women "build muscle" for men), cough lozenges, gardening gloves, mix of dried fruits and nuts ( "burst of energy" for men and "The Power of Life" for women), Christmas chocolate sets (with wrenches and screwdrivers for boys, ornaments and cosmetics for girls). All this means one thing, and one has only to feel the pain in the throat or recall the roses in his garden as a subject immediately podvorachivaetsja gender label.

Of course, because the "real man" will not go into the garden with gloves "wrong" class and the "real woman", even accidentally soaped "build muscle".

In June 1986, I went to the delivery room, to produce a daughter №2. That night, Gary Lineker scored a stunning goal in the World Cup. Together with my daughter were born eight more babies, all boys, and all supposedly named Gary (I also like). We are neighbors read from close notes (not pro football), when he suddenly heard a sound as if the approaching locomotive, every moment louder: we drove to our new children. My neighbor handed blue bundle, and the nurse said approvingly: "That's Gary. He has already flexed its light! ".

I received the package assigned to me, wrapped in a yellow blanket (first and hardly conquered victory feminists), and nurse sighed: "That's yours. The loudest of all. It does not look like a girl! ". At the tender age of ten minutes my daughter was first faced with the gender division of the world into which she had just arrived.

Stereotypes become such an integral part of our world that we are at the first request can compile a long list of "features" of people (states, activities, etc.). And if we compare our list with a list of friends or neighbors, we find a lot of matches.

Stereotypes - a cognitive "shortcuts" pictures in our heads.

When we are faced with people, situations, events that are going to do something about it, these images allow the brain create their predictions and to fill the gaps, to develop preliminary forecasts, which determine our behavior. Stereotypes take a lot of storage space social vocabulary and social memory shared by other members of our society. [...]

As we already know, our social brain - a kind of "scavenger", which collects the rules. He looks for the laws of our social system, as well as "important" and "desirable" characteristics that we need to acquire in order to meet the identified contact group "friends". This will inevitably include stereotypic information about how should look "like us" how we should behave, what we can and can not. It seems that there is a fairly low threshold for this aspect of our identity, since it is very easy to cross.

We have seen that certain manipulations including the reaction of stereotype threat can be completely invisible. It does not need too often to remind you that you are inefficient woman that you become inefficient woman. And do not even need to be reminded that you are a woman, your "I" will do the rest. This applies even to the four year girls. Color picture, in which a girl playing with a doll, has been associatedEffects of gender stereotypes and stereotype threat on children's performance on a spatial task. with poor results on the perception of the task space.

The neural network of the brain associated with processing and storage of social labels differDissociable neural correlates of stereotypes and other forms of semantic knowledge. from those which are busy working with the more general knowledge. A net charge of stereotypes overlap those responsible for the subjective self-identification and self-identification in the society. Therefore, attempts to challenge stereotypes, especially about myself performances ( "I'm a man, and therefore ...", "I'm a woman, and, therefore... ") will entail a very fast connection to the shared storage of knowledge, which, in any case, there is sufficient information. Beliefs of this kind is very deeply rooted in the socialization process, which is the very essence of the human being.

Some stereotypes have their own system of positive reinforcement, which, if it is to run, will provide the behavior associated with the stereotypical characteristics.

[...] stereotypes regarding toys "for girls" and "boys" can affect a whole range of skills: the girls who think of Lego designed for boys perform worseEffects of gender stereotypes and stereotype threat on children's performance on a spatial task. job design.

Sometimes stereotypes can become cognitive hook or a "scapegoat." In this case, the poor performance of the task or the lack of ability can be attributed to the characteristic, which is associated with stereotype. For example, before premenstrual syndrome for the explanation of phenomena that could be just as well be related to other factors, and we discussed in Chapter 2. Scientists have found that women are often blamed his bad mood on account of the biological problems associated with menstruation, although the cause, in the same way, can be otherAn attributional approach to moods and the menstrual cycle. factors.

Some stereotypes are and prescriptive, and describing, if you emphasize the negative side of capacity or character, a stereotype is "prescribe" appropriate or inappropriate actions. Stereotypes are also strong signals that one group in some ways better than the other, and that there are things that members one group simply "can not" do and not to do, that is, emphasize the division into "higher and lower. " The stereotype that women can not do science, implies that they are not engaged in science and leaving science to male scientists (and themselves become a sort of comely assistants). [...]

Last year, youth charitable organization «Girlguiding» conducted a survey and reported the resultsGender stereotypes impacting behaviour of girls as young as seven: Girls already in the age of seven, feel the pressure of gender stereotypes. The researchers interviewed nearly two thousand children and found that for this reason, almost 50% of respondents have no desire to speak or participate in school activities.

"We teach the girls so that the most important virtue for them - like the others, and that's a good girl behaves calmly and politely," - noted in the comments of scientists.

It is obvious that these stereotypes are far from harmless. They have a real impact on the girls (and boys), and on the decisions they make in their lives. We should not forget that the social development of the brain of the child is inextricably linked with the search for social rules and expectations, the relevant member of the social group. Obviously, the stereotypes associated with sex / gender, create a completely different sets of rules for boys and girls. Those external signals that receive little woman, do not give them the confidence they need to reach the heights of success in the future. [...]

On a par with the ability to recognize gender categories and related characteristics, the children seem to be eager to comply preferences and activities of their own sex, and this is confirmed in studies of the phenomenon of the PKK ( 'pink dress with lace "). Once children understand which group they belong to, the more they strictly adhere to their choice, with whom and what to play.

Children are also ruthlessly eliminate anyone who is not part of their group. They like the new elected members of society: they most strictly follow the rules and vigilantly monitored to ensure that they and others performed. Children will be very hard to decide on what can be girls and boys, and what is not, and sometimes even deliberately contemptuous of members of the opposite sex (a friend of mine, a pediatric surgeon, once heard from my four year old son that "only boys can be doctors "). Then they are surprised when they meet such items as the female fighter pilots, mechanics and firefighters.

Until about seven years children are quite persistent in their beliefs about gender characteristics, and they are willing to obediently follow the path that is laid out for them corresponding navigator gender. Later, the children take exception to the gender rules about someone who excels in one way or another activity, but as it turned out, and it can not disturb, baby beliefs can simply "go away in underground".[…]

If anything characterizes the social cues twenty-first century for sex differences, it is actively emphasizing "pink for girls, blue for boys."

And a wave of pink is much more powerful. Clothing, toys, greeting cards, wrapping paper, party invitations, computers, Phones, bedrooms, bikes, whatever you call it, marketers have painted it pink Colour. "Pink problem", now more burdened way "princess", is the subject of anxious discussion about the last ten years.

Journalist and author Peggy Orenstein commented on this phenomenon in his book "Cinderella ate my daughter: the Epistle to the cutting edge of a new culture-girls girls". She found in the stores of more than 25 thousand names of products, one way or another connected with Disney Printsessoy.26

All efforts to level the playing field are frustrated by the onslaught of pink waves. "Mattel" the company issued "natural science" Barbie doll - to stimulate the interest of girls in the sciences. And what can construct Barbie engineer? Pink washing machine, a rotating pink clothes, pink storage box of jewelry. [...]

As we know, the brain - a system with a "deep learning", it tends to get the rules and avoids the "prediction error". Thus, if the owner of a newly acquired gender identity out into a world full of powerful pink letters that helpfully It suggests that you can do and what can not, what you can and can not wear, it will be very difficult to change the route in order to disperse the pink wave.

Gina Rippon - Professor of Neuroimaging, a member of the editorial committee of the International Journal of Psychophysiology (International Journal of Psychophysiology). Her book "Gender brain. Modern neuroscience debunks the myth of the female brain, "which comes out in August, the publishing house" Bombora "says on the impact of social attitudes and our behavior "neyromusore", which is used to confirm rooted stereotypes.

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