Gender, Gender Identity, and Sexual Orientation

As young children develop, they begin to explore gender roles and what it means to be a boy or a girl. Cultures provide expectations for boys and girls, and children begin learning about gender roles from the norms of their family and cultural background. They also hear messages about gender roles from the larger world around them.

Through their interactions and their play exploration, children begin to define themselves and others in many ways, including gender. Children may ask their parents and teachers questions about gender, take on “boy” and “girl” roles in dramatic play and notice differences between the boys and girls they know. They may choose certain toys based on what they think is right for boys or girls. They may also make statements about toys and activities that they think are only for girls or only for boys (Langlois, & Downs, 1980; O’Brien, Huston, & Risley, 1983; Egan, Perry, & Dannemiller, 2001, as cited in Department of Health and Human Services, n.d. ).

Almost all children show interest in a wide range of activities, including those that some would associate with one gender or the other. Children’s choices of toys, games, and activities may involve exploration of male and female genders. They may express their own emerging gender identity through their appearance, choice of name or nickname, social relationships, and imitation of adults. Teachers should show support for each child’s gender expressions by encouraging all children to make their own choices about how to express themselves.

READING WITH PRIDE

Because my interest lies with using diverse books to education young children on how to celebrate the many races, ethnicities, cultures, religions, abilities, genders, and sexual orientations I found articles on how children’s books portray these different family units, gender roles, the LGBTQ community, and how to support identity development.

A research conducted by Toman (2014), discovered that only 29 children books were published between 1972 and 2013 featuring LGBTQ characters. While some publishing companies include diverse family structures in their line of children’s books, research has shown that characters in children’s books have typically exemplified traditional, stereotypical gender roles (Taylor 2003). There was also indication of sexism in the books portraying young boys as very active and typically outdoors, while girl characters were usually passive and stayed inside. These children books also portrayed girls as followers and boys as heroic and demonstrating leadership capabilities (Weitzman et al. 1972). Books featuring lesbian and gay characters often presented them as conforming to heteronormative standards to find fulfillment. Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) organizations have argued that LGBTQ characters and themes should be included in children's literature (Casement 2002). Such stories, as well as those featuring people of color and those from lower socioeconomic backgrounds, are still underrepresented in this media (CCBC 2013).

The relative absence of LGBTQ characters in children’s books can lead younger generations to believe that gays or lesbians are devalued or invisible (Casement 2002). Children’s books that exclude LGBTQ characters deny children the ability to learn about the homosexual community. Children books represent one of the best ways children can learn about the different kinds of sexuality and identities that populate our world

Children’s books have the power to help children develop their identities by providing images that reflect their place in the world as valid and important (Collier 2001). In addition to books, children gain exposure to many different forms of media during their primary years of socialization. Movies, television shows, games, and literature that target children have begun marketing sexuality, which may be one of the factors leading children to thinking about their sexuality at a younger age (Dunne, Prendergast, and Telford 2002).

HETEROSEXISM and HOMOPHOBIA

Heterosexism is the assumption that heterosexuality is the social and cultural norm as well as the prejudiced belief that heterosexuals, or “straight” people, are socially and culturally superior to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, Two-Spirit and queer (LGBTTQ) people ( Rainbow Resource Center, n.d.).

Homophobia is defined as the fear, hatred, discomfort with, or mistrust of people who are lesbian, gay, or bisexual and not heterosexual. Homophobia can take many different forms, including negative attitudes and beliefs about, aversion to, or prejudice against bisexual, lesbian, and gay people. It’s often based in irrational fear and misunderstanding (Planned Parenthood, 2021).

Long before they have any real understanding of what the word means, gay children have already been instilled with the belief that to be gay is something terribly unnatural and shameful. Those casual, degrading remarks about homosexuals based on false stereotypes and used in unthinking or joking ways can stamp themselves on the minds of children who are trying to figure out how they fit into a world that sometimes seems not meant for them. The secrecy and the stigma surrounding the experience of growing up gay can keep these children from reaching out to their families, their friends, or their teachers. Most of them are forced to cope totally alone with the growing knowledge that they are part of a disdained group, a group that their parents and friends seldom belong to. Homosexuality, in and of itself, is not the problem facing gay children. The problem is the reaction of families and of society. We do not need to change gay people. We do not need to "cure" them. What we do need to cure is homophobia.

Growing up in the USA, we have absorbed considerable misinformation, specifically negative information about people who are different from us and our families. We have been imprinted with negative beliefs, prejudices, stereotypes about groups of people we barely know. This began to happen when we were young, when we couldn’t distinguish between truth and stereotype before we could recognize misinformation or object. Now that we are older, we have a responsibility to think for ourselves.

References

Department of Health and Human Services. (n.d.). Healthy gender development and young children. https://depts.washington.edu/dbpeds/healthy-gender-development.pdf

Lindsay, T. (2014, July). Queering the LGBTQ characters in children’s books. https://dc.etsu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3723&context=etd

Planned Parenthood. (2021). What is homophobia? https://www.plannedparenthood.org/learn/sexual-orientation/sexual-orientation/what-homophobia

Rainbow Resource Center. (n.d.). Heterosexism. https://rainbowresourcecentre.org/files/12-11-Heterosexism.pdf