Gender Identity

I remember realising about gender stereotypes at a very young age but didn’t understand the implications they had at the time. I went to a babysitter who lived just down the street from my house from before I even started going to school till I was old enough that my parents were comfortable giving me a key and letting me be home after school by myself before they got home from work. There were around 8 kids who also went to this babysitter, mostly boys and only a couple girls. I remember hearing the older boys complaining that our babysitter Penny was really mean to the boys but really nice to the girls and that she favoured them over us. One day one of the older boys asked Penny why she was so mean to us and nice to the girls and she replied “You boys are too rowdy and loud, the girls are nice and quiet.” This was a stereotype that stuck with me for many years of my childhood, that boys were wild and poorly behaved while girls were polite and well behaved. I didn’t realise till I was much older that this was a gender stereotype and wasn’t always true.