Gender role stereotypes help to perpetuate gender norms within the three subsystems of biology, society and culture. These stereotypes are perpetuated through various means, such as through pressure from society and institutions, and the creation (and internalisation) of cultural gender norms. They often become so ingrained that we do not realise the extent to which they are socially constructed, and as Harrison notes, “[t]he lack of conscious intentionality in a large part of our performance then supplies its ‘naturalness’” (2006: 49). Indeed, the fact that gender often involves the body naturalises gender performances.

Such stereotypes serve to reinforce the rules of the subsystems and allow us to understand what constitutes deviance. It is only when rules within systems are set down and understood that they can be broken – it is only through the creation of stereotypes that gender nonconformity can exist. As Blessing suggests, “one’s gender presentation and responses to those of others are determined by how one thinks (consciously/unconsciously) one ought to look at a given moment” (1997: 14). By looking at the creation of gender stereotypes, we can understand how we believe that certain characteristics of an individual may be described as gender nonconforming.


4.1 Childhood socialisation

Socialisation into gender norms almost always start from the moment the infant is born. Spade and Valentine point out that "[a]lmost every person a child comes into contact with, and virtually all aspects of a child's material world (e.g., toys, books, clothing) reinforce gender" (2008: 157). The sex of the newborn is usually the first thing that is checked by the medical team, and the first thing that the parents and family want to know. From then on, the child is brought up in a gendered manner, from the name that he/she is given, to verbal encouragement such as phrases like “what a good boy/girl!”, to the toys and activities that he/she is encouraged to play with. As Lindsey (1994: 57) notes, “[t]he family is by far the most significant agent of socialisation”.

Children’s toys are usually extremely gendered in nature. Girls’ toys are often geared towards nurture and family, such as dolls that require feeding or changing, or cooking sets that reinforce domesticity. Boys’ toys, on the other hand, focus more on violence and aggression, such as action figures, weapons and sports equipment. Activities that involve body action or aggressiveness are encouraged in boys, while girls may be chastised for getting their clothes dirty. As a result, boys who play with “feminine” toys such as Barbie dolls may be reprimanded or punished.

The clothes that children are made to wear are also extremely gendered. It is often difficult to tell the biological sex of infants and children, as we often assign a sex category to an individual based on his/her secondary sex characteristics and physical appearance. As a result, many parents deliberately dress their children in a gendered fashion, allowing others to correctly identify their child’s biological sex. A common understanding for this can be seen in the colour-coding of clothes – parents usually do not dress their infant son in pastel pink, for instance. Girls are put into dresses and skirts, while boys may wear baseball caps and sports jerseys. The infant girl may have bows or ribbons in her hair, while the boys’ hair is kept short.

Media that is geared towards children is also often heavily gendered. Baker-Sperry and Grauerholz (2008), in their study of children's fairy-tales, found that young women's beauty is heavily emphasised while little mention is made of the handsomeness of men, while Firminger's (2008) analysis of teenage girls' magazines reveals that much emphasis is placed on beauty, fashion and the need to know how to attract boys.

Children are often treated differently, depending on their sex. For example, girls in rural India may be pushed to work in the household starting much younger than their male counterparts, who are allowed to wake up later or contribute less to the household chores. In America, young boys may be encouraged and pushed into taking up certain sports, while girls may be sent to dance and piano lessons instead.

Extreme adoption of masculinity among young girls is also seen as unacceptable. Halberstam notes that among young girls, tomboyism “may even be encouraged to the extent that it remains comfortably linked to a stable sense of a girl identity. Tomboyism is punished, however, when it appears to be the sign of extreme male identification (taking a boy’s name or refusing girl clothing of any type) and when it threatens to extend beyond childhood and into adolescence” (1998: 6).

There is far greater negativity towards young boys who display feminine tendencies. Kane (2008) notes that many of the parents in her study expressed discomfort and negativity towards their sons being gender nonconformant, such as the desire to play with nail polish, barbies or wear pink dresses. Kane concludes that such fear was often rooted in the worry that their son would turn out to be gay.


4.2 Social negativity towards anything gender atypical

Socialisation does not remain only in childhood – stereotypes are reinforced even during adulthood. Conformity to the gender norms thus acts as a form of social control to ensure that the rules are obeyed.

For example, sport in the US is seen as a way of reinforcing masculinity for males, especially after the industrial revolution (Crawley et al 2008). The advance in technology meant that males were no longer as physically active as they once were, due to the increase in manufacturing and service sectors. As a result, sport became an outlet for men to demonstrate their physical ability. Men who are uninterested in, or unable to play sport, may be viewed as effeminate and gender nonconforming.

As adults, the rules are no longer enforced by parents, but by the individual himself/herself and by the people around him. Internalisation of the gender norms has occurred, to the point where the individual can actively or passively enforce the rules on nonconforming others, or even himself/herself. Disapproval from society may encourage a man who wishes to dress in women’s clothes to think otherwise about doing so in public, for instance. As a result, individuals survey themselves to ensure that they do not violate gender norms and risk disapproval or discrimination from society.

Sandra Bartky (1990) observes that with reference to femininity, women have internalised it to the point where gendered behaviour feels innate, while Kimmel (1994, in Crawley et al 2008) has noted that surveillance of masculinity comes from other men – homophobia and the fear of being stigmatised as gay ensures that men carry out a specific masculine ideal, or adhere to a certain set of approved masculinities (Burt, 1995: 23). Similarly, Connell (1999) and Plante (2006) believe that adherence to gender norms is due, in a large part, to the fear of being labelled homosexual.


4.3 Mass Media and Advertising

Mass media plays a large, though not necessarily most crucial, role in promoting gender norms and stereotypes. Certainly, the degree to which media is influential depends on the society – media is likely to be more influential in city areas than in rural areas without television or radio access.

There are many forms of media, and most involve some sort of advertisement. Mass media can include television, radio, newspaper, magazines, music and books. Lindsey (1995), for instance, suggests that “[f]our decades of magazines promoting a standard of femininity associated with an almost narcissistic self-absorption”. Femininity is therefore associated with looks and fashion, and a woman needs to be interested in such things in order to qualify as feminine. Coles (1995), in her study of female bodybuilders, found that because female bodybuilders shape themselves as “masculine”, are therefore seen as threatening and insufficiently female, resulting in the emphasis on feminine attributes in their non-professional lives. Advertising, as studied by Goffman (1979), has strong influences upon our thinking and concepts of gender – advertisements include “gender displays”, which position men and women in certain gendered ways, which in turn influences our beliefs and ideas. Spade and Valentine note that the consumerist society of today reinforces gender stereotypes, where men buy cars to feel hypermasculine, while women are sold "a wondrous array of cosmetic products and procedures that are supposed to turn them into drop-dead beauties" (2008:219). Media therefore encourages both men and women to believe and adhere to certain ideas of masculinity and femininity. It acts as a surveillance tool, where individuals are constantly faced with expectations of a gendered body and so have the power to constantly compare their actual bodies.

We can see the power media holds when we look at books and movies that are banned – Chadwick (2002) points out that Radclyffe Hall’s The Well of Loneliness, written in 1928, was banned and put on trial when it was first published, due to its homosexual content, and the “inverted” nature of its heroine, the masculine Stephen Gordon. In Singapore, films with overt references to homosexuality are either banned or given an R21 rating, meaning that only adults above the age of 21 are allowed to watch them; while in neighbouring Malaysia, foreign music performers who hold concerts must ensure that their dance moves and costumes do not contravene the local modesty laws.

However, again, it is important to remember that mass media does not necessarily have a major impact, or is the major factor, in society’s concept of gender. As Holmes (2007) notes, there has been a never-ending debate about the extent to which media influences society, as well as the possibility that media simply reflects society.


4.4 State laws and policies

Laws criminalising homosexuality, or refusing to acknowledge the existence of transgender people and intersexuals, encourage society to disapprove or ignore such groups of people. In general, the paternal leave granted to men is much shorter than that given to women. This suggests to society that while women do require time to recover from childbirth and men do not, women should continue to stay at home to take care of the child. Maternity leave is not necessarily about the bodily well-being of the mother as it is the connection between the mother and child – breast-feeding, for example, requires the mother’s participation, and she therefore needs to spend more time with the child. The shortened paternity leave, however, emphasises the fact that men do not need to spend time with the child except for social and personal needs, and again promotes the notion that men should work to support the family while the mother is needed to remain at home for the child.


4.5 Religion

Major world religions such as Judaism, Christianity and Islam tend towards patriarchy and monotheism. As a result, gender roles are often emphasised – for instance, clergy cannot be female under Catholicism, and divorce is not allowed or strongly discouraged. Islam, in certain cultures, encourages women to cover their bodies and faces to protect their modesty. Even in polytheistic religions, strong gender role stereotypes may exist – the practice of sati in Hinduism, for instance, while legally outlawed in India, still continues to be practiced by some communities. The highly structured, hierarchical nature of some of these religions means that rules about many aspects of life are highly regulated. Gender, being an intrinsic part of society, therefore often falls under the jurisdiction of religion. However, while religion can be a strong factor in pushing society to adhere to the gender stereotypes, it is not necessarily always a factor. Several Christian denominations have embraced homosexuality and homosexual or transgender pastors, while many of these Christian denominations allow for women pastors.


4.6 Communication

4.6.1 Verbal

The use of language often works to divide society along gender as well. Language is gendered to the point where there are such things as women’s and men’s speech and language, and one sex should not use the other’s. For example, it is more acceptable for men to curse and swear, whereas women’s speech is socially more refined and reined in. In many languages, men and women even have different language patterns, such as Thai and Japanese. Lindsey (1995) suggests that “while women use language to negotiate relationships and establish connections, men converse to maintain independence and status in a society which is hierarchal” (p75).

Language also helps to reinforce certain gender stereotypes, such as the negative use of words like “sissy”, or often-repeated phrases such as “boys don’t cry” or “be a real man”. This can also be seen among youth in America, where the term “gay” is often used in a derogatory manner to describe something negative.

4.6.2 Non-Verbal

Women are encouraged to use their bodies in different ways from men. Iris Young’s (1998) study, for example, on the ways girls use their bodies to throw balls, deconstructs feminine movements as socially constructed, and emphasises the fact that the girls are taught to rein in their bodies and throw in a way that does not fully utilise all body movements. Girls throw the way they do, she concludes, because of cultural norms and what they are taught, rather than for biological reasons – they are socialised into throwing “like girls”.


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