What are Gender Roles and Stereotypes?
Keep Safe Stay Cool defines Gender Roles and Stereotypes as attitudes about how females and males should act and think. Most of us grow up assuming that gender roles and stereotypes are natural ways of being or behaving, so we generally don’t question them. From the day we are born we receive messages about male and female gender roles. We learn about them through a number of ways. A good example of stereotyping gender roles is to think about how babies are colour coded, girls in pink and boys in blue for example. The kinds of toys that little girls receive give messages about feminine traits such as; dolls, dress ups and fairies. The kinds of toys that little boys receive give messages about masculinity for example; cars, trucks and building blocks. Messages about gender roles and stereotypes can come from many sources. For example, the media, TV, magazines, war, books, marketing, sports, radio, fashion, commercial advertising, internet, fairytales and toys. Culture is a contributing
