"A father and his only son got into a car accident. The father died but the son survived and was taken to the hospital for minor surgery. The doctor came in and said, "I can't do any surgery on this boy, he is my son.' How is this possible?"
Think about it........ alright, got the answer?
A very rational solution is, the doctor is the boy's mother!
Yes, why is this a "riddle" at all? Since it doesn't take a genius to know that if a "parent" is not a father, then that person must be a mother of a boy! But how many of us was obscured by it and scratching our head to find the solution at the first few second? I believe majority will do that. Undeniably, most of us (or the society) have a general stereotype that a "doctor" is a male.
All these is related to one type of stereotype that is grouped under "gendered occupation stereotype". Society in general will have a perception that some profession such as "police officer", "doctor", and "airplane pilot" are male-dominated. On the other hand, profession like "nurse", "beautician", and "flight attendant" are female-dominated. Moreover, this is the general perception of some very young children according to a research done by (Davidson, 1997).
(The reflection above is written based on an article that I read from this site:
Imagine this, if one day you go for a facial treatment but a male beautician come to serve you. What is your first impression? You will feel weird served by "him" right? Isn't it? Unavoidable, the stereotype is deeply implanted into us.
Who actually taught the children about the concept of "gendered occupation stereotype"? How a (or any) stereotype if formed? It is actually shaped by us! It is media, educators, parents, elder brothers and sisters that injected these perception into a child. The child grows up and in turn contributes into these chain. It is us! WE actually contributed our part! Sound pretty scary, right? Feel like being caught after doing something bad. :-)
Here is a video of interviewing children regarding gender role, enjoy watching.
I agree with you totally. People like to stereotype a job just because a majority of a gender is in that particular job. If a guy wanted to be a nurse, people will laugh and think he's gay. If a girl wanted to be a mechanic, people say girls can't fix cars.
ReplyDeleteYes, the gendered occupation stereotype. I think I am also affected by this kind of "stereotype- flue" because I didn't immediately get the answer correct.
ReplyDeleteBut come to think, besides jobs that are very energy consuming, female have conquer into many jobs that are originally dominated by the males. For example Doctors,politicians, engineer, lawyer and many more.
On the other hand, male also start taking jobs like beauticians and teachers, etc.
Everyone have their own special skill or talent. If media continue to support gendered occupation stereotype, the next generation will be bound by it and the country will lose talents. Thus, the country will never be improved.
This "riddle" is nice. It exactly show "gendered occupation stereotype. Yeah, people still have this kind of thinking that the professional is always male. When going for the doctor on operation, people tend to find male doctor rather than male. Even in some tv series like gray's anatomy, leverage and others, the best doctor is always male. This show how this kind of stereotype is so deeply implanted in our mind.
ReplyDeleteYou are right. I took a few seconds to wonder who's the doctor. And it is true that stereotype has been implanted into us since we were young from the parents, media, teachers and the school text book too.
ReplyDeleteAnd based on the video posted in the end of the post, the children already have the stereotype implanted into them by telling the one to have a clean house and to take care of the children is woman and guy to go for work. This is incorrect because the woman and guy nowadays appear to be vice versa as the woman go for work too and the guy take care of the children and clean the house and many other things too.