The aspect I am picking of myself is gender.
My family consisted of my dad, mom and 4 sisters growing up. Three of my sisters
were older than myself. In my family there were no boy chores or girl chores. There were no boys in my family so us girls did everything. Mowed the lawn, feed the animals, wash the car etc. Everything was equally divided to get things done. My personality shows this today. I believe that there is nothing a male or female should not be able to do.
My mom showed us the importance of a close family. We did so much together and went to each others events and activities. My mom always does traditional things for the holidays. Making my own traditions are very important to me. I am passing that same sense of value on to our girls. I feel my mom did a wonderful job at showing me the importance of family, tradition and caring. I want our girls to have that same feeling of its purpose. I believe my sisters and
especially my mom are were most of my gender “self” is from. I didn’t have problems adjusting to the socialization when it came to my family.
For me school was a big learning experience. I always had friends that were boys and girls. After school we would play basketball, kickball and all kinds of games, with all the neighborhood kids. Once we were at school, I was suppose to play with only the girls on recess, PE classes were divided into boy, girl and you weren’t suppose to talk to the boys. I was hard for
me to go from everyone together to separation of gender. Middle and high school was when I noticed separation was less frequent. PE classes were mixed, girls and boys would sit together at lunch and it seemed OK to have friends of the opposite sex. I didn’t adjust to the norm of gender separation well. I did whatever with my friends whether they were male or female. I was sometimes teased for being a tomboy or for having a crush on a friend. I was glad when the age of separation was over.
Media was not a issue for me when I was young. We didn’t have a TV for many years. I wasn’t into reading, we didn’t have the money to go to the movies, and my dad ruled that radio station than, like the TV remote is ruled today. When we did finally get a TV, I was probably in 5th grade and we were only allowed to watch certain shows. I remember the Sunday night
Disney movie, and Saturday morning cartoons, but that about it. I am more influenced by the media now.
Women on shows today have careers, making good money to support themselves and
there families. Magazines show the perfect dinner, the perfect house, how to’s on being a super mom and how to improve your love life. Everywhere is pressure to be better, perfect.
The media has made me at times question myself. The media has the most effect on my “self” today. We are bombarded with success and failure, love and hate, marriage and divorce, peace and war. The norms in my life are definitely not norms for the women in Afghanistan and the values that I cherish are not that of the women who live across town. I know this because I
see it, I hear it, and I read about it every day. My personality is in question, not only by others who I come into contact with but by me as well.