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Everyone has their own favourite game when they were a child. The one that stands out the most for me is hopscotch. If it was before school, after school or play time in the evening, I never got enough of this game. Hopscotch has been played for thousands of years. Before it became children’s game, the Roman soldiers used to play this game to assess their strength by carrying heavy equipment (Studio3Music, 2010). As compared to children’s court today, their court was 100 feet long. The children imitated the soldiers and drew out their own small court and played the game (Studio3Music, 2010). Now hopscotch is known as more of children’s game than the Roman Soldiers strength assessment test. In this paper, hopscotch will be closely looked as a child’s play and how the different factors that influence children to choose their leisure activities according to their gender.

Hopscotch is the easiest game for children to stay engaged in. The simplicity lays with in the hands of the children and how they set out the court. The court is made up of linear and two lateral squares of ten squares, where each square is numbered from one to ten (Singha, 2010). In order to play, a marker is required and it’s a stone or coin, since they can easily slide on to the floor. Each player takes turn in this game. By carefully tossing the marker on to the first square without letting it bounce out of the square that is being aimed at or from touching any line (Worsham, 2010). Player skips the square with the marker in it and hops with one leg on to the next single squares and straddling on the lateral squares that are numbered plus the player must return back to the beginning with their marker in hand (Worsham, 2010). The player must continue with this routine until the player is unable to maintain his or her balance, skips any squares or if their foot touches the line then their turn is over and have to wait till their next turn. The player that completes the whole game board by following the rules is the winner.

Generally, this game was played by boys, but with historical alteration it is more focused on as girl’s game. Hopscotch allows adolescence girls to play in a small group or dyad with very little competition (Reifel, 2001). They tend to follow the rules and play non physical, but turn taking games (Goodwin, 2006). Also a theory that can be imply is the difference theory, which states that cooperation and balance within the girls group permits them to assess their body of language to their goal (Pierce, 2009, (Ch4)). On the other hand, boys enjoy playing in large and very competitive groups. In addition, hopscotch is a game that requires more oral communication between the players because “the point of the game is to find someone in the wrong so that those on the sidelines get a turn.”(Goodwin, 2006). Hopscotch is played around the world, but with slight modification depending on the country and it’s culture.

Furthermore, many of the kid’s TV shows teach the kids their gender differences. When I babysat my little niece, I would put on any random kid’s show and they all illustrated that girls can do boys job and boys can do girls job. Yet, they still stuck to stereotype and showed girls hop scotching and boys playing tags. In addition, searching hopscotch on Google revealed only girls images playing hopscotch. This shows how the society perceives certain game to be played only by certain gender. The mass media is one of the important mediators along with family and peers that shapes an individual’s gender role in a society (Tuschi, 2008). Although many of the things that children learn today is from the TV or the computer, but media cannot be blamed for it completely. The material that we observe is the same material observed by the production crew that has seen experienced and lived by it. Sometimes, it is the only way that one understands its value in the society.

Hopscotch was one of my favourite childhood games. It has helped me tremendously throughout my life. Learning to obey such rules and speaking up when something isn’t right has helped me be the person that I am today. With that said there is definitely disparity between how girls and boys behave. Children mimic their parents as well as the parents tell them how they should behave according to the society. A father tells his boy that he must protect the family and he must stay strong at all time. The little girls play tea parties, help clean and imitate putting on makeup such as their mothers.

My parents have always been very protective of me. While growing up with an elder brother, I was always asked to either play with him or to stay in his range of sight. I would play with few of my girl friends at school, but at home I would play wrestling, cricket or carom with my brother. I could say that I grew up to be more of tomboy, but I was always in touch with my feminist side.

This assignment has taught me that gender segregation will always take place. It is not always because of their traditional values and norms, but it is how boys and girls are subject to behave in the society. The gap between these two genders is that “gender is a social construct specifying the socially and culturally prescribed roles that men and women are to follow.” (Mead, n.d.). I remember when I was a child, it was all right with my brother if I played with him at home, but playing with his friends was a big no. They would address me in a little girly tone stating that I was physically incapable of playing their fast paced game and I should just play with my dolls. Thus, I believe that stereotype in the society will never go away. The isolation between the two genders will always remain there no matter how much anyone tries to break those stereotypes.