Now to begin the discussion on gender I wanted to start off with explaining that gender isn't always black and white. There are certain things that females tend to do and there are certain things males tend to do. Now that doesn't mean every guy or girl is the same and always does those specific things. Some females love to do more outdoor things or work on cars but that doesn't mean that they are any less female. Some males like to go shopping more or sit down and chat but that doesn't make them any less of a male. There can be some mixing between what males and females tend to do but those "stereotypes" or tendencies of each gender is what males and females tend to fall under. Many studies have been done to show that even young children tend to go to toys that have been made for their gender even when they are in the same packaging. Parents have even tried to make their homes a very gender-neutral environment and have noticed that the boys will still make guns out of everything and the girls will still nurture things they are given. My teacher told a story about how his sons would turn everything from food to barbie dolls into guns. And how his daughter would hold and take care of things like cars, fish, or other random stuff instead of playing with them how they are made to be played with. These examples show us that gender is known from a very young age, even without being shown how to act as a male or female.
The difference between males and females isn't just with how they act and what toys or hobbies they choose. Males and females also think differently (there brains are built and hardwired differently) and things affect them in different ways. Men use more gray matter in the brain which is the information and processing areas. Women use more white matter in the brain which represents connection between things. This is why men are able to focus and think about one thing, whereas women can focus and think about more than one thing. Women are constantly connecting things together and the smallest thing can remind them of something entirely different. Men usually focus on one topic before moving on to the next. Think about it this way, men have tidy boxes about things in their brain that don't touch or cross. Men even have a nothing box where they are able to actually think about nothing. Women are unable to think about nothing and their brain is like a tangled-up ball of wires where everything is touching and is connected to each other in some way. This helps to explain why males and female are affected by things differently. I particularly want to discuss an article I read about how girls are more affected by social media when it comes to things like depression (I will put the link to the article at the bottom of this post). The article really hit home with me because looking back I can see how as a young girl I was affected mentally and emotionally by social media and seeing how social media is negatively affecting my sisters. The article discusses how social media can cause girls to have low self-esteem, depression, anxiety, dissatisfaction with their weight, and sleep poorly. There are many things on the Internet and especially social media that can hurt teens, both girls and boys.
Thank you for reading my post and please feel free to comment!
The Article:
Evans, E. (2019, January 16). A new study says girls on
social media are more at risk for depression
than boys. Here's why. Retrieved from https://www.deseretnews.com/article/900050972/a-new-study-says-girls-on-social-media-are-more-at-risk-for-depression-than-boys-heres-why.html?_cid=Email-1&utm_campaign=030190d3f7-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2019_01_17_12_00&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Deseret%20News&utm_term=0_2e4a89ae88-030190d3f7-585673229
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