How gender affected my childhood – TDT

Gender grouping never appeared to make itself apparent throughout my childhood but looking back it was evident all along. In Primary there was always separate queues for lunch lines and we were nearly always dismissed first from class depending on what gender had stood the best or been the quietest. My primary building was designed in such a style which enabled the promotion of gender segregation as it was built with two playground; dubbed ‘the boys playground’ and ‘the girls playground’. The upper playground, which was the girls, was provided with a garden, a trim-trail and boxes of skipping ropes and hula-hoops. Whereas the lower playground, which was for the boys, was kitted out with football goals and not much else. Thinking back I would say this reinforced gender stereotypes as it implied boys were only into football while girls were encouraged to stick to activities which didn’t push them out of a ‘comfort zone’ that has been created for them.

The phrase ‘like a girl’ has come under great scrutiny in recent years with deodorant company ‘Always’ who fronted the ‘like a girl’ campaign. This aims to break the stereo type that girls are weaker and less able to take on the same tasks as boys. Through campaigns such as these this the aim is to prevent young girls from being ‘pigeon holed’ by their sex and not feel held back from doing anything they wish do due to the fact they feel the wont complete it to the same level as a boy.