"Start Seeing Diversity Video" Blog: Gender, Gender Identity, and Sexual Orientation

Having awareness of the existence of sexism after the previous course Perspectives on Diversity and Equity and this course so far, I pay much more attention to what people try to convey in their conversations regarding gender or sexual orientation and to what the world around us reveals to us, including media, books, diverse cultures and so on. Then I find out that homophobia and heterosexism permeate the world, even the world of young children, including books, movies, toys, stores, culture of early childhood centers, and schools. For example, at school, I can hear a girl say "Boys cannot use pink markers because pink is for girls" or "You cannot be daddy because you are a girl". Or, in a book, the female are usually described as a nurse, a teacher, an assistant of a certain job, a house-cleaner; and the male are set as a doctor, a scientist, an astronaut, a breadwinner and so on, which show gender bias and stereotypes. Moreover, hardly you could see in a book a daddy and a mommy are two women or two men. It seems that children are "protected" to be what they "should" be, stereotypically. However, trying to preventing children from recognizing gender diversity and contacting with family diversity will do no good to children's gender identity development.

Some people believe that early childhood centers should avoid the inclusion of books depicting gay or lesbian individuals such as same-sex partnered families, which prevents children from learning more about family diversity and makes children learn sexism in a covert way by excluding those books. As stated by Derman-Sparks and Olsen-Edwards (2010), "children's comments and interactions reveal the influence of family and societal attitudes about gender behavior, coupled with children's own developing attempts at understanding the world (p.92)." Therefore, before I communicate with people about the disadvantages of avoiding the inclusion of books depicting gay or lesbian individuals, I would listen carefully and respectfully to their perspectives of sex orientation. Then I would tell them my understanding of their views and of healthy sexual development in the preschool years. I would assure them that "sexual orientation does not develop from the activities children do, and that it is based in a child's particular biology (Derman-Sparks and Olsen-Edwards, 2010, p.95)", including book reading regarding gay or lesbian individuals. To show respect for family diversity and create opportunities for children to discuss values, experiences, and bias, the inclusion of books depicting gay or lesbian individuals should not be avoided.

Reference:

Derman-Sparks, L., & Olsen Edwards, J. (2010). Anti-bias education for young children and ourselves. Washington, DC: NAEYC.