Start Seeing Diversity: Gender, Gender Identity, and Sexual Orientation

For this blog, I will discuss some of the ways I have noticed that homophobia and heterosexism permeate the world of young children including books, movies, toys, stores, culture of early childhood centers, and schools.  I will also discuss thoughts, concerns, questions, and/or areas of discomfort you would like to share related to children, gender, and sexual orientation.

When I look at the TV shows my son watches on the Disney channel and Nickelodeon channels, I do see different families represented but these families represented could represent a more diverse population of families.  The families represented in these families are blended, single parent, biracial, divorced and traditional.  They do represent a large variety of families but none of the families represented on these shows are families with homosexual parents or transgender parents.  I am certain that these networks are afraid to show programs like these to young children and preteens because of losing viewer support even though these families are represented in a positive light. I also see that toys and games are made gender specific.  I see toy cars, trucks, farm toys all being marketed towards boys both in the stores, magazines, the internet and on commercials.  I see dolls, make up kits, play kitchens and many craft being marketed towards girls both in the stores, magazines the internet and on commercials. They are very few children’s products that are marketed as gender neutral.  Children need to know that is okay for boys to play with dolls and girls to play with cars and trucks and that it will only better them and open their eyes to certain tasks.  Asking children “why” they think that way starts the conversation of gender roles and the bias towards them.  Just as important as talking about the bias is following up so that the ideas are represented through class meetings, dramatic play materials, the curriculum and field trips (Laureate, n.d.). 

Another thing I notice is the lack of multicultural materials available to teachers who want to expose their students to people and families of different cultures.  Our library does not have many resources, if any, that represent different types of people and families.  I am not sure who chooses the books for our library and what standards they have to follow.  I wonder, now that I have been exposed to culturally responsive pedagogy, if I could put in a request for books and other media that expose students to different people and families.  I know my school’s population has been changing over the last few years. Since I have spent my entire career at the same school I have been able to witness this first hand.  It is the same with other educational resources like toys, posters, housekeeping items, video; my school does not have those resources available to teachers. I think part of this situation results from my school being most Caucasian middle class for a very long time and the mind set was that it was not needed because we did not have many different families as well as the budget cuts that have come recently with the rise in health care.  Now we know, that even though children are not exposed to families and people of different cultures first hand we still need to ensure we expose children to those types of families to ensure they do not further any biases.  They need to see the similarities/differences between their families and others so that they understand that even if the surface culture is different they can make connections within their deep cultures (Laureate, n.d.). 

  
Laureate Education (Producer). (n.d.). Start seeing diversity: Gender[Video file]. Retrieved from https://class.waldenu.edu

Laureate Education (Producer). (n.d.). Start seeing diversity: Sexual orientation[Video file]. Retrieved from https://class.waldenu.edu



Comments

  1. CulturalSeshatJanuary 27, 2019 at 4:04 PM

    Good Evening Jill,
    As I read your comment on the media portrayal of diverse families, I actually recalled when I was first starting the Masters Program at University of Memphis a few years ago, and I had Communications as a part of the degree I was designing (because of my undergrad in COMM). I spent a good amount of time depicting the imagery and media portrayal to children and recall when Disney actual first showed a "blended" same-sex family on "Goodbye Charlie." To be honest it was very uncomfortable, because they made it randomly air out of no where, and it was amidst many political strides that the LBGTQ community made in that time frame. I think again, that is why I said that a child should just be a child...no politics...no extra imagery, because they will experience plenty of that when they grow older. I think instead that time should be spent among educators to stop bullying within the classroom, because many times, this shows a lack of respect for an individual and also includes many diverse groups as the main target. The text speaks about the influence of images, misinformation, and contradictions that children experience concerning race and gender...and the importance of sending positive messages to children (Derman-Sparks & Edwards, 2010). The types of images being shown to children should never make them feel uncomfortable or ostracized, because you never know what "new image and materials" may do to the next child who was not thinking along those lines. Show children how to respect one another and I believe we can eliminate much of the aggression and confusion that they receive within their educational development.

    Resources:

    Derman-Sparks, L., & Olsen Edwards, J. (2010). Anti-bias education for young children and ourselves. Washington, DC: NAEYC.

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