What is in a Gender Stereotype

If you think about what the oldest stereotype in society would be, it would have to be the stereotype of genders. From birth it is imbedded into our minds and lives through mostly every interaction we have with society and our environment. For example, parents when choosing colors for their kids, will more than often pick blue for boys and pink for girls. Thus as we grow older we continually associate those colors with said genders. Yet it is the case that a long time ago that pink was actually a unisex color.

This painting entitled "Pink Boy", by Thomas Gainsborough, depicts a boy dressed in pink. In the 18th century it was actually the case that a man wearing pink was not actually that big of a deal. In fact it was fashionable to wear pink as a man. Continuing down the timeline, in 1905 people began to debate whether pink was for boys or for girls, and for a while it was the case that a majority of people agreed that pink was a boy's color.

This leads me to the thought that most likely a majority of our gender stereotypes that have been placed in the world are technically forced upon us. These stereotypes that we have been given our whole lives technically have no ground to stand upon when questioned. For example if I asked people what color pink is associated with they would most likely say girls. But if I continued and asked why do you think it is pink, they most likely would say that it is because that is the way it has always been for them. If you think about it, at it's core value there is no logic for why certain colors are associated with things other then the fact that humans have associated them with those things.

Now in advertising we see that a lot of the time the usage of gender stereotypes depicts an image of what a women should do and act like, but according to who? A lot of the world thinks alike on this subject, the idea that women should be tending to the house, taking care of kids, and making all the meals in the house. It is not just a stereotype that is limited to the United States, but it is a global stereotype. Thus it makes it a very difficult stereotype to deal with since mostly everyone thinks it. In addition to this media and advertising reinforce it with their messages that they send to society. I have stated this before, if we want negative things to stop being portrayed in messages to society, then we as a society must change first. We must begin to start thinking that men and women are equal, not just in terms of rights but in terms of what they can do and what they should do.