Essay About Female Birthday Cards And Birthday Cards

The Hidden Gender Message
Essay Preview: The Hidden Gender Message
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Byron MartinSoc 101Professor Allard11/08/2015The Hidden Gender Message        The number one thing children from the ages 1-12 receive on their birthday are cards. The 10 birthday cards were all based on the gender. The card industry targets the audience not just on age, but on the sex of the child. The female birthday cards were consisted of basic female stereotypes: sensitivity, emotional weakness, and foolishness. The five female birthday cards have more negative, than a positive outlooks. The female cards all display different characters as having blond or golden-brownish hair with fair skin. The girl cards are obsessed with looking good and making sure other people think you look good. In addition all the girl cards had the common color pink. A classic example of sexist cards are marketed to girls only. Recent years pink became a feminine color. The fact that the color pink is only on girl card and not on boys is an issue. There are some children, boys and girls alike may actually enjoy the color pink. Gender roles play a huge impact in the early years of child development. The male cards had adult oriented themes, one in particular was the card with a boy character pretending to be a firefighter. The male cards were also action-oriented and multi-colored. The gender message is clear, separate but apparently equal. Its like having the same career, but having a different pay scale. Which has been an issue in the work place for some time. Most women in the workplace are currently going through the glass ceiling and (glass) escalator effect. Nevertheless, the social impact of imposing gender roles effects us into adulthood. As a society, we should ask the question are we doing harm to children with gender roles and stereotypes.