Gender Socialization

For my participant observation I decided to observe the spring breakers and retirees on Fort Desoto Beach on the Gulf Coast of Florida. There were instances of males displaying typical male behavior and females displaying common female behavior, as well as females and males displaying the opposite gender’s traits and behaviors. More often than not though, the behaviors displayed were neutral.

The first thing I noticed when walking along the beach was a strong tendency for children to play near their mothers. Smaller children were either playing with or being watched by adult female figures, while the men more typically played in the ocean with other adults, or napped in beach chairs off to the side. There was only one instance that contradicted this theme: a father was bent down near his small daughter, pointing out to the horizon and explaining the workings of the tide. At first this seemed odd, but then I realized that he was displaying the male tendency to rationalize things. In the past, it was not uncommon for the men to impart worldly utilitarian knowledge to their children. Upon further inspection, there did not seem to be a mother or wife around. I was curious, so waited a bit longer before moving on. Without much hesitation, the child ran back to a beach towel covered by an umbrella while the man followed. On the beach towel that the two were approaching, a woman was watching over a resting infant – it was apparent that the mother took responsibility for the younger baby, while the father watched the more active toddler.

Another major theme on the beach was the men’s tendency to carry heavy objects, such as water coolers, sun umbrellas, and other similarly heavy items, while the women mainly carried lighter things, such as towels and sand toys. This rule was only broken if the group visiting the beach only contained women. Another common and frequent gender attribute was the women’s tendency to adjust, fiddle, fix, and play with their bathing suits. Men, on the other hand, did not touch their bathing suits once, even when their trunks were sagging with water and slipping from activity.

Men were typically the ones in charge of designing and building sand castles, while women were responsible for collecting sand and taking pictures. The only instances that contradicted this were when a group consisting solely of women decided to make a sand castle or when children were building sand castles. Other instances of “manly” ingenuity were an elderly man (in a g-string) who solved the predicament of not having any one to play Frisbee with and a man who figured out a unique way of flying a kite. The man playing Frisbee solved his problem by throwing his Frisbee into the wind; successfully creating a boomerang effect, and the man flying the kite engineered its string through a fishing rod so that the kite could go higher while still being relatively easy to pull (reel) in.

Next to the beach there was a station where one could rent bicycles, tricycles, and other recreational locomotion devices. Every time a family wished to rent something, the oldest man in the group would be the one to pay (unless of course, as with the carrying of heavy objects and the building of sand castles, the group was comprised of only women or women and small children).

Besides these things, there was also an instance of “chasing” in which a young man proceeded to grab a handful of wet sand and throw it at a (similarly aged) young woman, who, in turn, ran away as he pursued. Besides the two participating in “chasing,” there were four others in this group, two men and two women, all in their twenties. Many flirtatious exchanges occurred – each flirtation specific to each gender. The women played with their hair, the men grabbed the women and pulled them closer. The men picked the women up and spun them in circles or threw them in the ocean, and the women giggled and threw their arms around the shoulders of the men.

It is obvious how males and females interact with one another (flirtatiously, with a lot of sexual tension). I was also fortunate enough to witness how females interact with other females and how males interact with