Creative Midterm - Children’s Fiction Reader

Children’s Fiction Reader: Hat Hang-Ups

When does gender stereotyping occur?  A study published in 2001 concluded that “children have been observed to display toy preferences with gender stereotypes at 14 to 20 months of age” (Serbin). Learning to gender-type, a process wherein gender-specific behavior can be distinguished, occurs when children are between the ages of two and a half and three.  That is when children take an active role in developing an understanding of gender, rather than being “passive recipients of socialization” (Ryle 131).  Also, according to Weinraub, children between 2 and 4 years of age “become aware that there are two categories of people – male and female – and they also become aware of the category into which they fit…[they] discriminate individuals in one category from individuals in another” (1493).  Thus, to expose the constraints of the masculine/feminine binary, we must seek to influence children in their preschool years.  That is why the target audience for Hat Hang-Ups, a primer for expanded notions of gender socialization, is children ages 2 to 5 years. 

Hat Hang-Ups explored the experiences of Bailey, a bunny who was expected to wear a purple hat because he was a boy.  However, Bailey’s hat simply would not stay on his head, demonstrating that gender norms do not always fit according to plan when they are based on sex.  In Hat Hang-Ups, hats were a metaphor for expected gender norms.  In keeping with this, the book’s title anticipates two interpretations.  The first meaning draws literally from the hats that become suspended in the tree as depicted on the book’s cover.  More broadly, the title refers to a slang definition of ‘hang-up’, a preoccupation, with the hats serving as a symbol of the cultural fixation on gender norms – a binary system of expectations for what a boy should do and what a girl should do.  The process of learning American society’s behavioral expectations for a boy and a girl, as associated with one’s biological sex, is called gender socialization (Ryle 128).

Three aspects of gender socialization were illustrated in Hat Hang-ups – these are the interactional, institutional, and individual modes (Ryle 128). First, interactional issues were portrayed when Bailey failed to connect with others in play, choosing instead to read in solitude, an activity specific to the girl bunnies.  Next, bearing in mind that one’s family is a primary socializing institution, Bailey failed to fulfill his family’s expectations.  This was shown when his father yelled at Bailey to wear the purple hat – a metaphor for his father’s angst with Bailey’s refusal to follow gender norms.  And finally, gender socialization acts on the individual, contributing to one’s “internalized sense as male or female” (Ryle 131).  When Bailey tossed-off his purple hat, he was rejecting the male persona:  a symbol of his internal strife from failure to individualize his expected gender role.

How does Hat Hang-Ups reconcile Bailey’s lack of gender socialization?  Bailey’s gender identity was not so unique; he learned that there were other bunnies that were unconventional – that is, the ‘hat’ did not fit them either.  The underlying premise of Hat Hang-Ups was that individuals are happiest when permitted to embrace a gender role that fits for them by not being frustrated by society’s preconceived roles for males and females. 

In summary, Hat Hang-Ups illustrated Dines’ reference to feminist and queer theory which “argues against the taken-for-granted notion that there are only two genders, corresponding to biological maleness and biological femaleness…both gender and sexuality are ambiguous, unstable, and too complex to fit into an either/or (binary) model” and that “gender has had to be reconceptualized, as unstable and multidimensional (rather than fixed by nature and binary)” (5).  The message of Hat Hang-Ups was that rather than be constrained by an expected gender identity each individual must recognize his/her uniqueness and pursue what fits.   Only then can individuals be truly empowered to make productive contributions to our society. 

Works Cited

Dines, Gail and Jean M. Humez. Gender, Race, and Class in Media.  Boston: Sage Publications, 2014.  Print.

Ryle, Robyn.  Questioning Gender: A Sociological Exploration. Thousand Oaks, CA:  Sage Publications, Inc.,  2012.  Print.

Serbin, Lisa, et al. “Gender Stereotyping in Infancy:  Visual Preferences for and Knowledge of Gender-Stereotyped Toys in the Second Year.”  International Journal of Behavioral Development. 25(1) 7-15. 2001.Web. 24 February 2015.

Weinraub, Marsha, et al.  “The Development of Sex Role Stereotypes in the Third Year: Relationships to Gender Labeling, Gender Identity, Sex-Typed Toy Preference, and Family Characteristics.”  Child Development. Vol. 55, No. 4. John Wiley & Sons, Inc. August 1984. Pp. 1493-1503. Web. 24 February 2015.