Unit Post: Childhood Socialization and Disney
Childhood socialization starts when we are born. Itâs traditional that you're either given all blue if you are  a boy, all pink if you are a girl, or if you had one of those parents who wants it to be a surprise, all âgender neutralâ items which are green and yellow. As they grow up though, we socialize children or teach them things to prepare them as they become older, but ever notice which things we make more prominent to boys versus girls?
At a young age, little girls are going through the toy store and are given the following options: Barbies (fashion), pretend play (cooking, house chores, nurturing babies, etc), and crafts (makeover items, cooking actual food, and jewelry). For boys the options are: science and discovery (chem set, telescope, dinosaurs), electronics (robots, video game consoles, race cars), action figures, and building sets (construction, hardware, building blocks).
This is quite offensive honestly.  We are teaching at a young age that it is only girls who should be responsible for all the house related chores and raising children, oh and to learn how to be pretty. Then guys, well itâs all about math and science, getting to focus on hobbies, and going into the military or some other service job to act as â heroes.â
All of these things we are taught as children, set the stage for when we are older. Iâm a Computer Science major, and in most of my classes of about 40 students... there is only a max of 5 girls (including myself), I've yet to have a  CSE class where there were ever more than 5. Usually, they are always the same group of girls whereas the other guys, I only ever recognize maybe half of them from previous classes.This is fucking PATHETIC.
This is a comic that we talked about in class. The sad thing is how really true this is! Maybe instead of fashionista items, Barbie should come attached to a chem set. Personally, I wish I could say that there are really more women in math and science fields but it simply isn't true. The reason? Well... keep reading.
The reason is due to childhood socialization. One reason I probably didn't end up in another field was due to my dad making me learn how to use a computer at the age of 5 and telling me he was only going to show me how to do something once and that I would need to be able to do it on my own the next time (installing software, getting online, etc). Often, he would give me new games so I could practice math and learn about experiments that were virtually simulated. He even got me a Barbie doll that connected to my computer. Since then, I've always had a love for computers.
Talk With Me Barbie. I remember LOVING the idea that Barbie was working with me on the computer too. Sadly, she was really expensive at the time and ended up being discontinued. I think though, if it had been cheaper, it would have enabled girls to develop an interest in programming.Â
Back to that webcomic, yeah, girls are rarely ever given the opportunity to find FUN activities relating to math and science. Which then creates a lack of interest when in school. Hence, the fact that when they are older, they don't choose careers that deal with math and science.Â
Oh so computers, this brings me to say.... remember the original Sims game? OMG! Best game EVERRRR. I remember finding out about this in elementary and said it was perfect because I loved playing with Barbie dolls, but, didn't like how much space they took up, expensive, etc and was getting to that age where others girls my age didn't play with them anymore. Essentially, The Sims game was just like playing with Barbie dolls, but, it was acceptable for BOTH guys and girls to play this game. So how come we make it that Barbie dolls are really only a girl thing and that action figures are only a boy thing?
Aside from toys though, the actual media that children watch/read can make  a large impact as well. One of the big players in the source of that media is Disney. Unlike many other sources, Disney is a global player. They are seen in some form by children all over the world. I'm pretty sure they could go ahead and take over the world starting with the children if they really wanted to.
This means they have powerful impacts on children. However, looking over their movies, there isn't a lot of diversity, almost all leading female roles in movies play as the damsel in distress that is looking for love, motherâs are most of the time non-existent or are killed off early in the movie, etc. Itâs pretty much the same movie but with some variables changed such as location.
However, there is HOPE! It was announced on April 2nd that the sequel to Finding Nemo would be Finding Dory. This is going to be a huge step for Disneyâs subsidiary company Pixar who has only had 1 female lead (Merida from Brave).
Another big change I also really love is Disney is attempting to change the idea of what a princess is. They are trying to get young girls to understand that anyone can be a princess, and that being a princess is not about being rich, wearing fancy dresses, and finding love. Being a princess is much more! I would tell you now, but, that would ruin my mini media, so go check it out here!
So what does this all mean in the end? It means we need to change how we socialize children because they have real effects for when they grow up. We need to start learning to get rid of associating things with gender and just letting kids BE kids. Maybe we could start by changing up the color schemes in the toy aisles, changing the way we sort the toy aisles and can we get rid of the tags of calling a GI Joe an action figure? Seriously people, it's a freaking doll dressed up in military clothes, Barbie can dress up that way too! This all goes back to disrupting hegemony. To changing the cultural norms of masculinity and femininity.Â
