4. Reading Prompt : Rubin et al
We are phasing into the science section of the course. I would like you to address questions one and two on page 577:
Who is the audience for this article? How do the language and structure reflect the audience? Also look at the organization and comment on why the sections are separated and the functions of each section.
Why do parents focus so intensely on the gender of their newborn babies?
Who is the audience for this article? How do the language and structure reflect the audience? Also look at the organization and comment on why the sections are separated and the functions of each section.
Why do parents focus so intensely on the gender of their newborn babies?
posted by DrEmmerling at 1:36 AM
20 Comments:
1. This article is written for the scientific community. This could include doctors, researchers, and psychiatrists. Because the readers are expected to have a scientific background the text is written for that sect of people. There is jargon that could be understood only by someone who was familiar with the topic or area. The article is set up in a very experimental way. The data is included along with charts reflecting patterns found in the data. This is because in order for a statement to have credibility in the scientific community it must be backed up by legitimate research. The sections represent the scientific method which includes hypothesis, observations, procedure, data, and conclusions. Because this is an international method upon which the ideals of science are based, the idea the researchers are presenting will be taken more seriously when it is in this format.
Parents have certain expectations of how their baby will act based on it's gender. Most parents want a girl who will fit into the social definition of how a girl behaves. The same goes for boys. Because our society has such strict gender roles, it shouldn't be surprising that they are imposed from the time of our birth. This makes those roles almost intuitive, which is why it is so hard for our society to step out of the boundaries that are formed by gender roles.
1. This piece is science based, and addresses the concerns of the scientific community. This piece is by far the most formal of all the different types of writing we have read in class. The language used in the piece is often not defined, but seems to be common knowledge to the people that the piece was written for. There are charts and descriptions of the data gathered that are somewhat complicated (for a non-scientist like myself) to interpret and all around I thought that it was hard to really grasp all the ideas that the piece was trying to show.
2. I think that parents focus so intensely on the gender of their newborn babies because we live in a society that is very gender-based. If parents learn of their child’s sex before the birth than it seems like they are almost relieved to be able to tell all their friends so that they will receive lots of pink jumpers (if it’s a girl) or blue jumpers (if it’s a boy). From birth, parents are ready and waiting to show their children their place in this society. Parents’ want their children to be “normal” and to be able to be successful in our world, so they want them to easily fit into the gender molds that have long been standing. Until the child can really make his or her own decisions, than they are living into the sex-typing that their parent’s and our society as a whole has decided for them.
This article is mostly written directing towards those in the scientific area. As I read it I realized that this piece was like no other that we have been assigned to read. It is very informative and much of the language used is medical talk that includes data and statistical charts and what not. This is seen a lot in medical publications in order to obtain credibility from their audience. Showing statistical evidence gives the writer and the topic a little more credit.
Ever since the moment that a baby is brought into this world they are automatically shoved into this gender base society by their parents and nurses when they are wrapped in the stereotypical blue blankee for a boy and pink blankee for a girl. From then on many childern are forced to fit the mold of their gender from both their parents and society.
Jessica Ryan
While reading this article I noticed specific instances to make me realize that it was written, not for humor, but for content. The author uses facts and sources to prove the point that mothers and fathers relate to their infant, not by size, weight, etc, but by gender. Parents are more likely to refer to their child as cute or beautiful for a girl than for a boy (boys = aggressive or active).
First, there is the hypothesis of the study, then how the study was run, then the conclusion. The text was formatted this way to give a clear overview of the study in an organized way.
Finally, I think that parents focus on the sex of their newborn baby to identify with them. Babies are not responsive which causes anyone to identify with them by their gender.
This was an informative article that tried to show statistics on how parents usually consider stereotypical characteristics to describe their child as. Even if they have not had much interaction with the baby.
The audience seemed to be people involved in the sciences, or people who like to keep up with statistics.
I sometimes like to think that parents choose to define their child with what is typically known to be the personality of a female or a male because they do not know much of the new family member. For this reason, parents might choose to go for the general knowledge of what a baby girl is, or what a baby boy is like, until they begin to discover the personality of the new individual.
I do not support this way of thinking, but that is one of the things that come to mind when I try to understand why is that parents are very interested in their baby's sex.
The audience for this article is most likely the scientific community, and possibly specifically for psychologists. This can easily be inferred from the structure of the piece. The experiment strictly follows the requirements of an unbiased experiment, and provides a good amount of scientific data. Also, the article is structured in to different sections, each of which serves its own purpose. There is a section for the introduction, outline of procedure, experimental data, and discussion. Each of these subsections is very specific and does not discuss anything except for its direct subject.
I do not think the results of this experiment are very surprising. The gender biased characteristics that parents give their newborns are only based on what society says are ideal characteristics for that gender. Parents simply want the best for their children. They want their children to fit in perfectly to society, and it's much easier for an adorable, gentle girl to fit in than a strong, rough one. Who can blame them for trying to put their child in the best situation possible? This stereotyping, however, is very limiting to the actual child. If they wish to be something different than the default characteristics of their gender, they will have to work pretty hard to shed the labels that have already been put on them.
This article is mainly focusing on parents and there view of masculinity an femininity among their children. Its is directed toward a scientific audience. The language in this article uses many fact based quotations, graphs, statistics and scientific language.
Each section is broken up to express a totally new way of looking at the material being described. In a scientific study you are not going to put the procedures portion of the scientific study before the statistics. Each subsection sets up the next section. That is why it first gives you an abstract to give you an idea of the study. It than tells you how they went aboout the study, and so on.
Parents focus so intensely on the gender of their newborn babies because gender is a truly distinctive charachteristic, it can only be a boy or a girl, nothing else. Distinctly labeling it a boy or a girl automatically sets a standard of how the young baby should act.
The audience for this article is obviously within the scientific world. Clearly utilizing the general parameters for a lab, the author is using 3rd person passive voice, past tense to express his/her findings. The different sections in this lab are equally important. The purpose (abtract) introduces the topic and prepares the reader for what he/she is about to embark upon. The method and procedure inform the reader about the methods used to determine their results. The results and the data, allow the author to prove his/her validity in their finding by giving exact numbers and results, etc. Finally the discussion is a section which is used to use all the information found and make a concrete argument which disscusses and analyzes all the finding which this experiment merited.
The genderizing of newborns is an interesting aspect of human nature. I think that parents want to treat their child a certain way at birth according to their gender because they are aware of the fact that when they are older they will be expected to act a certain way, due to their gender. A father might not care if his son is gay or straight but I feel as if it is nearly impossible to treat a boy and a girl exactly the same. Inherently men are stronger and women are more emotional. I do not think that our society should be extreme in the way they differentiate between boys and girls but the hormones and biological aspects which contribute to being a man or a womyn effect the way people/parents view their children.
As has already been stated above by several different readers, this article is most definitely intended for those in the scientific community. Unlike other articles in which there may be a small number of facts that are used to argue and back up a conclusion, this article is simply ridden with statistical charts and figures of data analysis which are used to make that much more cohesive of an argument. Unlike other things we have read, say, the editorial or a movie review, there is no sort of humor present within this reading, not because scientists are not funny people (although some might disagree), but more likely because any sort of attempt at humor would probably be seen more as a compromise of scientific integrity as opposed to a device used to make the piece more readable.
As for parents being so concerned with the gender of the baby, I believe that the first sentence of the final paragraph puts the whole idea into a greater sense of purpose. It states that the process of socialization has already begun it’s process at the time of birth “when information about the infant is minimal” (576). The parents focus on their child’s gender is so intense mainly because tat is really the only way that the infant can be easily identified. It has not yet been socialized into the world and does not have any unique personal characteristics, and therefore is most easily identified with it’s own gender. Young infants, especially newborns, look so similar to one another that being able to identify by gender is made even more important.
I have to agree with Brett on the grounds that this audience is someone in the medical world, and the set-up is very similar to that of a lab layout. The seperation of the paragraphs is used as an emphisis as to what the purpose of the lab is, and the data that goes along with it as well. The writing requirements/expectations of a medical arguement are more along the lines of straigt and to-the-point, which can seem boring, but it gets the idea across. This is completely different from literary writing, not only because of the paragraph seperations, but also the choice of words. The fact that there are many references to the statistics shown is a clear indication of this medical audience as well.
About the parents focusing on the gender of their newborns.... umm, i thought the experiment was quite interesting, but i feel that this sort of behavior should be considered sub-concious. The only reason the parents focus so much on the gender of their baby is becasue that is how society is designed to work. Honestly, who says they want their little girl to be strong, not cuddly, and plain? The idea of what a little girl should look like is programed in our brains, and it is socially unacceptable to have a "manly" little girl. The identification of "lesbians" and "gays" are just recently becoming slightly accepted, but it isn't what parents train their children to be from the start.
This article is written with a scientific purpose and therefore is directed towards scientific readers. The words chosen and the set up of the data found from the study aren't really eye catching or exciting. The writing is straight forward and bland to simply get the idea across.
I think parents act differently about their sons and daughters becaue that's just how our society views the sexes and that's how they were raised. Its funny because people will assume a baby has certain characteristics after knowing the sex even though babies all look the same, but thats just the way we think.
The language of this piece was the driest so far, clearly designed for communicating with the scientific community. This dry language made it very difficult for the average reader to comprehend, however, this is what is to be expected of pieces of this nature. The scientific jargon, charts, and data are very informative, if one knows how to correctly and effectively read them. A good piece, but difficult to grasp.
The need to know the gender of the child is one created by the demands of not only society but also one of common need. I personally would like for the sex of my children to be a secret, but the need to know arises when considering: what clothing to purchase for the baby, what style to decorate the room, etc. Having a newborn is difficult enough without having to worry about things of this nature. As a result of knowing one’s own child’s gender, people are also concerned with the gender of their friends’ children.
The intended audience for this study are the readers of the American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, and more generally the scientific community. The scientific community, which is made up of doctors, psychiatrists, researchers, and other similar professions, are expected to understand the technical terms and scientific jargon used throughout the study. The format of the article is similar to that of a scientific journal, containing such sections as an abstract, methods, procedure, results, and a discussion section. The abstract acts like an introduction paragraph in an essay. It presents the purpose of the study and how it will present findings to support an argument. The methods section discusses the conditions in which the study was conducted. The procedure section does exactly what is sound like, it details the procedures that were executed in the study. The results section presents the results of the study and includes a table of results for those readers who only wish to skim the article for number based results. Finally, in the discussion the author draws conclusions based on the findings of the study which support the intitial argument in the abstract.
I believe the parents focus on the gender of their newborn babies because the want their children to lead successful lives. In todays gender-based society, fitting into specific gender roles is very critical. Parents dont want their children to become pariahs, so they begin gender stereotyping their kids from the moment they are born, with the hope that their child will "fit in".
This article was obviously written to be read by educated readers. The language used is fairly complex and someone without ample education may have a hard time understanding the contents of the piece. The use of specific terms relating to gender socialization and other scientific studies suggests that the writer assumes that the audience he is writing for is already familiar with these things.
The composition of the article resembles that of an experiment. The writer presented a hypothesis about gender socialization, then followed up by describing his research methods, data collection, and analyses methods. Breaking down each step clarifies the purpose of the article. As a reader, I felt that this reading focused on the way that gender is ascribed due to social expectations. While none of the babies were much different from one another physically with the exception of gender, it seems odd that parents are so willing to assign their newborn traits that are in reality not indicative of the infant's true behaviors and traits.
The piece that we read for this blog was definitely geared toward a scientifically based crowd. It assumes that the reader has a certain level of scientific competence and is able to understand all of the terms and language that is used in it. This article contains charts and data which are mingled in with the results and short paragraphs. It uses hard facts and data in order to make it's point and ensure that the audience will understand it.
Parents have a strong connection with the gender of their babies. I think that it is because from knowing the gender then they think that they can know what to expect. They assume that certain things will be true of their children based on their gender and it is also a dream of some parents to have a boy or to have a girl so it can either dissapoint them a little bit or be their dream come true.
The article is geared towards those in science fields. The text is molded to fit their backgrounds which means using correct jargon. statements are backed up with research. The scientific method is also employed in the paper helps to organize the information
Parents are very gender oriented. Whatever gender they end up with they want them to fit the social norms which stiffle the child from the beginning to exploring themselves
This piece was definitely written for the scientific community. The use of language, the data, the topic, etc., are intended for a group of people with a medical or scientific background. This article was more formal than other pieces we have looked at in class. It is similar to other medical publications I have seen-they are formative and contain data to prove what they are arguing. Sometimes the data and graphs are hard to understand and take some time to look over.
It is true that when a baby is born, there is major focus on the gender of the baby. Why is this? Because it is very distinctive and is the only real known characteristic of the baby, right when it is born. From moment of birth, the gender is of great importance to the parents because they want to raise it correctly in order for he/she to fit well into society. Because gender roles are so stereotypical and distinctive, parents are very concerned about raising the child correctly.
1. This article is written for a scientific audience. It is easily implied because the reading contains vocabulary that was not easily grasped by regular readers. The reading appears to be a written lab on an experiment on “Parents’ view on sex of newborns”. It has it purpose, hypothesis, method, procedure, data, results, discussions, and conclusion. The structure which the text is presented is strictly serious and to the point. In fact, there were no humor or personal inferences in the reading.
2. Parents focus on the gender of their newborn babies because society has gender expectations. Society forces the hospital to state a sex on the birth certificate before the baby leaves the hospital. As a result, the parents always want their children to fit and be accepted by their society. Therefore, the identified gender at birth helps the parent’s plan how they are going to raise their children. For example, if the baby is a boy than they will treat him differently so the baby boy will grow with male characteristics and the vise versa happens when the baby is a girl.
This articel is written towards and audience that has a medical background because it uses medical terminilogy that i am not familiar with. this peice contains a lot of information. For example, it contains charts, graphs, and statistics that stongly supports the written information. not really knowing much about the medical field it made it difficult fot me to get the main ideas of this promp.
Question 2
i believe that parents find it very important to know their babies gender the minute they are born because our society has made up the expectations of always labeling the child, either as a girl or boy. parents mostly feel more comfortable and satisfied when the know the gender of theri baby before it is born. the reason is because that way they are able to tell their friends that theyare having either a boy or girl. form their on the parents mostly begin to receive either pink or blue stuff.
This piece targets the international scientific community. The structure leads it to be read by people in that field that might possibly be interested in furthering this research.
Traditionally, parent would like a little boy and a little girl. They reflect their parents. Every Parent has a view on how their child should be raised. They, more often that not, will want them to turn out like the parent of the same sex. Doing this starts when they are very young and will continue throughout education where peer pressure will keep it coming.
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