1. 1. “Gay people usually grow up under the purview
of straight and sometimes torment them by pressing them to conform” (Son 370).
This quote
is useful because it demonstrates that parents pressure their children into
conforming to their specific standards. Parents teach their children what is
the “norm” or what is “normal”. For example, most parents teach their children
that what is “normal” is to be straight and that family is composed of a mom
and a dad. However, that is not only the case and children get confused and
even feel tormented when their identity does not fit the standard line of
thought. Even though parents do not necessarily mean to pressure their children
into fitting a specific model, they tend to do so by instilling them their own
values and beliefs.
2. 2. “My brother wanted a red balloon. I wanted a
pink one. My mother countered that I didn’t want a pink balloon and reminded me
that my favorite color was blue. I said I really wanted the pink balloon, but
under her glare, I took the blue one” (Son 374).
This is an
example of how parents influence their children’s tastes and identities. The
mother clearly knows that his son wants a pink balloon, but she forces him to
choose a more “fitting” color that better suits society’s expectations. On the
other hand, the child really wants to get a pink balloon, but he feels
pressured by his mother’s look and decides to just conform with her demands.
This proves that making children conform to specific standards negatively affects
their identity and drives a wedge between familial relationships, in this case,
mother and son.
3. 3. “There are reports dating back to the
mid-nineteenth century of men cruising other men on these blocks, looking for
casual sex, more long lasting relationships, or even just camaraderie of shared
identity at a time when that identity dared not speak its name” (Johnson 200).
Being gay
was unacceptable during the nineteenth century. Gay people were greatly
discriminated and were even subject to pills and treatments to try to heal
their disease. Since children were little they were taught t that being
straight was the only rightful path. For this reason, these people did not have
much support from their family. This fact caused them to look for emotional
support elsewhere. In this case, they all went to Oxford Street to find other
males with the same sexual orientation as them. Hence, obligating children to conform
to specific norms drives them away from the family.
4.
4. “Parents commonly
dress their baby girls in pink and their baby boys in blue. Although there is
research showing that children prefer the colour blue to other colours
(regardless of gender), there is no evidence that girls actually have a special
preference for the colour pink.” From Vanessa LoBue and Judy S. DeLoache, “Pretty in Pink: The early development of
gender-stereotyped colour preferences,” British Journal of Developmental
Psychology 29, no.3
Even before
babies are born, parents are already instilling gender constructed ideas on
their children. The clothes and the objects in the nursery will signal whether
the baby is male or female: boys wear blue and girls wear pink.There have been
experiments conducted that demonstrate that children in general prefer the
primary color blue over pink. However, there is no concrete evidence that girls
have an inclination towards pink. As babies age, they become aware of what the
colors blue and pink signify thanks to how they were raised. Even though
children regardless of their gender prefer blue, girls have to conform with
pink because that is what they learned from their family.
People might think they are raising their children in unique
ways. But the truth is that parenthood is socially constructed; it is the
result of general ideas present in the media or passed from generation to
generation. Parents might not realize there are implanting stereotypical ideas
and obligating their children to conform to the way society is. Parents
basically teach their children what to say, how to behave and what is
acceptable.
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