HD 300 Early Childhood Themes and Life Cycle Issues

I went into this class with quite a bit of knowledge of the life span and I
was well acquainted with Eriksons stages from prior classes. I was especially
familiar with Eriksons earliest stages, in this class I was able to dig deeper
and expand my understanding of all of Eriksons stages and where I fit into
them. I took this class my first semester at PO and I was getting used to the
atmosphere of the school. In the past Ive been a bit of a wallflower in class,
saying very little and absorbing information just so I could pass the tests. I
chose PO because it was different; there were no test and engaging in class
discussions were a must. I forced myself to get out of my comfort zone and
talk to people that I normally might not talk to.
I consider myself a very liberal and open-minded person in general,
especially when it comes to gender, Im not the girliest and I like to challenge
the idea of what it means to be female. My parents raised me with
traditional views of what men and women should be/should act like so Ive
rebelled against those ideas my whole life. In HD300 we watched a video
about people who are intersex, that video challenged my ideas of gender and
the role it plays in our lives. Prior to that video I didnt realize how prevalent
it is, I guess thats because Ive never met anyone (that I know of) with that
condition. Even referring to being intersex as a conditions feels wrong to
me now since people dont refer to being male of female as a condition. Im
someone who hates being put into categories but that video helped me
realize that I accept my gender categorization with ease. I may not be girly
and Im rough around the edges but Im still comfortable with identifying

HD 300 Early Childhood Themes and Life Cycle Issues

myself as female. Watching that video I heard people speaking from a

different perspective that I had never really considered, the perspective of
not being comfortable identifying with either gender. Some people in the
video advocated getting gender taken off birth certificated and other forms
of identification. They compared gender to race, saying that race/ethnicity
used to be listed on identification but no longer is and that gender should be
taken off as well. At first it seem like a radical idea but the more I thought
about it the more I agreed with the idea. Why does everyone have to
squeezed into a couple of categories Nothing in this world is black and white,
yet somehow in our culture we have a limited view of what gender is.
This idea of gender stuck with me the whole semester. When it came
time to choose a topic for our research papers I already knew that I wanted
to explore gender in some way. I didnt know exactly what aspect of gender
to focus on so I distributed a short survey to about 30 people (friends, family
and co-workers) asking everyone to separately list characteristics they
considers female and characteristics they considered male. The last question
was to identify whether or not they think that they fit into their assigned
gender category. I got a lot of typical answer: men have penises and women
have boobs, women are nurturing and men are strong/providers. As I started
narrowing my research topic focus we started reading a book called All Gods
Children. The book told the tale of the Bosket family starting form 5
generation back, it was a powerful and unforgettable book the shows the
impact that the cycle of violence, poverty and oppression had on this

HD 300 Early Childhood Themes and Life Cycle Issues

particular family. Most of the focus was on the males of the family, this spark
my fascination with the male experience in our society.
Finally I read a book called Lost Boys, for the class and it solidified that
I wanted to research the male experience. In Lost Boys the author
interviewed various males in the juvenile system. Many of the boys he talked
to had committed violent crimes and to the untrained observer might seem
like monsters. He got to know those boys and took the time to learn their life
stories and what he found out was that they werent all monsters with no
conscious; many of them were just lost little boys. They were boys who grew
up in rough situations and many of them were mistreated/neglected by the
adults that should have taken care of them.
I learned great deal doing my research paper, I focused my research on
how males are socialized and develop their sense of gender in our Western
culture. One of the things that I learned in the course of my research was
that for many being masculine is the viewed as the antithesis of a female.
Being a female that considers herself a bit of a feminist, I dont often take on
the male perspective, this research paper gave me a chance to consider that
perspective. Also I have an adolescent nephew and doing this research
helped give me a deeper understanding of the expectations placed on him
from peers and society.
I used my time in HD 300 to get out of my comfort zone by meeting
and opening up to new people, I also practiced being a more active
participant in class discussions. I was able to deepened my understanding of

HD 300 Early Childhood Themes and Life Cycle Issues

Eriksons later life stages and identify what stage I fit into. My ideas of
gender and the labels we attach to it were challenged which ended up
having the biggest impact on he in this class.