Gender Bias

I appreciated Bruce Kokopeli and George Lakeys’ vision of androgyny. I feel that, too often in society, we assign gender roles. This is evident even in the way we raise children. For instance, the color pink is typically associated with femininity and blues normally signify masculinity. Even by monitoring the colors of children’s clothing, we are creating a gender bias.

Another example of gender bias that is seen is toy selection. Girls normally play with dolls and boys play with cars. There is no reason for this other than societal influence on their selection. A male child is not born innately drawn to toy trucks. In fact, I believe that a boy raised without any gender bias would be just as likely to play with a Barbie doll.

One gender bias that is deeply ingrained in our society is that men and women cannot just be friends. That of course is false, but it is evident that the majority of society has been socialized to think in such terms. To this day, I have about an equal number of male and female friends and I attribute that to my parents’ lassez-faire style of parenting.

The vision of androgyny appeals to me because it seeks equality. Its goal is to eliminate any socialized gender bias and create a level playing field for men and women. I was raised with very little gender bias. By growing up with very few gender biases and seeing equality, rather than patriarchy, I feel that my relationships with others have been immensely, positively impacted.