Codes of Gender

From: Jessica

The photograph speaks a million words, through faces/senses, background and symbolism. My bestfriend had her quince on March 16th 2024. Growing up she never liked wearing girly clothes or makeup. Her mother constantly reminded her that her gender role was to be pretty everyday and presentable in order to find her future husband. In my culture our quince is very important, it resembles us becoming women and opening a future to a beautiful mother or housewife. In mexico it shows that the female is now available for marriage. In the picture my bestfriends smile looks forced, her parents are happier than ever but deepdown she feels uncomfortable. The background in the picture was meant to show that they are now living in paradise because their daughter is now a woman and can start the future they dreamed of her having. Her dream is to go to college and travel the world, but unfortunately our culture wants a mother who can cook and look after their kids.

Tough Guise

From: Phillip 

My photo was an attempt to capture the “tough guise” that we covered in class. Being a cisgendered male, I felt that I had the most experience with this topic and would be able to effectively use different photography techniques in order to demonstrate a deeper meaning to a photo. The strategies that I ended up taking advantage of in order to complete this assignment include symbolism, camera angle, and lighting. For context of my picture, I recently lost my dad to his fight with cancer after a 2 year battle.

                 

The first strategy I used, and the most significant in my opinion, is symbolism. In my picture my father’s urn is meant to represent emotional loss, strain, and strength. Placed in parallel to the urn was a dumbbell which is intended to represent more physical strength, and traditional masculine strength that men are expected to have. I feel that in accordance with “tough guise” men are never meant to be emotionally strong but should be emotionally absent while remaining as physically tough as they can be. In the picture it is a more minute detail, but the dumbbell was placed so it was approaching the camera but did not overpower the foreground. This was to demonstrate the outwards appearance of physical strength men need to always have on to avoid being mocked, but behind that strength there is just as much emotional work that needs to be done. Just because a man can clearly go to the gym doesn’t mean that he can easily handle great loss, and that is what my picture is meant to represent.

 

Another strategy I used is a little more point blank in nature, and that is the camera angle. The picture was taken with the subject directly in front of both subjects. This was done intentionally to demonstrate how men are expected to take on all of their struggle headfirst and should not view any thing as greater than themselves. It also demonstrates that men shouldn’t ignore their problems, because that would be cowardly. Facing adversity headfirst is the only way to deal with your problems, despite how healthy it is.

 

This final strategy I took consideration of is lighting. This holds by my design the most obscure meaning behind my photograph. There are a couple reasons I chose to light my picture the way that I did. The first one being that when people traditionally think about time, they think of it moving from left to right. In my photo the greatest source of light is coming from the right side of the photograph and that is meant to signify that you can only be happy once you are past your struggles, which is in my opinion how the worlds worked should the tough guise not exist. However, this assignment would not exist without the existence of the tough guise. That brings up the second layer of the lighting in my photo and that involves where the shadows are being cast. The harsh lighting casts a shadow on a majority of both the urn and the weight. Only about half of either subject is illuminated and that shows how it is only acceptable to show a portion of your struggle and most of your coping should be done in the dark, away from others, behind closed doors so nobody knows about it.

 

Assess Gender-Based Differences In Toy Advertising: Princess Vs. Superhero

 From: Indigo 

Playing with toys are a large part of one’s childhood. From dolls to building blocks, children play till their imaginations dwindle, and the days end. Yet, these toys are seemingly divided against one another, through advertisement and packaging. Toys have become gendered, with boys seen building and destroying whilst girls dwell on their appearances and on their fake maternal instincts. Toy advertisement, and toys in general, are gendered in such a way that children are divided and harmed in the process.

Using my photo, I conveyed the difference between the two aspects of gendered childhood via toy advertisement. When walking through the toy aisles of the store, I walked into the “boys” aisles first. They were flooded with superhero and building toys. The aisles are colored dark blues and black. Meanwhile, a few aisles over is the “girl” toy department looked remarkable different. There are aisles of princess’ and baby dolls flood the space. The two photos shown compare the aspects of childhood. Both show dolls, yet they’re portrayed differently. One section of dolls are seen as more masculine “heroes”, while the other aisle is speaking of princess’ and more feminine dolls. The two are both playing with dolls, yet on opposite ends of the spectrum, on two sides of the photo.

Toys used to be ungendered, and instead were just played by whomever and produced with no intended gender. Until the 1940s, when toys took a turn. Toys became gendered in order for companies to make copious amounts of money from more wealthier families. The companies at hand thought that if they advertised their toys, and toy sets, to wealthy parents, they’d end up buying them all for their children (Maas). These companies depended on families buying into the binary and forcing their children to conform their playtime to it. Toy companies paid to advertise to these families, knowing their pockets would be filled from parents forcing their children to conform.

Companies conform to binary centric ideas through their products, and the packaging surrounding them. LEGO is a brand that notoriously submitted to this conundrum, especially when it came to young girls. For decades, LEGO was advertised and sold to young boys, who could build and destroy their creations. Then in 2013, they established sets of pink LEGOs intended for girls. They made them domesticated, and made it seem that girls should just be baking and hanging with one another (Abadi). They faced backlash, from this, since they were perpetuating harmful stereotypes around girls and girlhood. This showed how harmful the advertisement was deeply rooted in their company, since they couldn’t even create an adequate toy for girls, or just simply stop gendering their previous products. Companies have no clue how to advertise their products without some sort of binary in place.

Toy companies have perpetuated the binary using advertisements since the 1940s. they force boys and girls into it, by making boys builders and girls beauty obsessed and domestic. These companies have harmed children with their copious amount of ads, to the point that I, a consumer, can walk into a store and realize the vast difference between the select aisles. They keep children apart, rather than let them create stories of their own, and live without these stereotypes surrounding them.

 

Works Cited

Abadi, Ponta. “Kids Toys: More Gendered Than Ever.”  Ms. Magazine, 05 June 2013. https://msmagazine.com/2013/06/05/kids-toys-more-gendered-than-ever/    

Maas, Megan. “How toys became gendered – and why it’ll take more than a gender-neutral doll to change how boys perceive femininity.” The Conversation, 05 December 2019. https://theconversation.com/how-toys-became-gendered-and-why-itll-take-more-than-a-gender-neutral-doll-to-change-how-boys-perceive-femininity-124386.

"Justice" League

 From: Connie

 

From a very young age, boys are brought up idolizing superheroes and senses of power or control. In Laurie Rudman’s “The ‘Two Cultures’ of Childhood,” she explains how dolls, for boys, are commonly referred to as action figures due to their ability to fantasize fighting or toughness (Rudman, 61). Obviously, this can also be said for dolls for girls, such as Barbies, as they can also perform action-packed sequences if our imagination desires. Unfortunately, this is not a common practice due to societal and cultural ideas affecting how children play.

The Smurfette Principle, coined by Katha Pollit, describes how in the media, it is the standard for there to be a group made up of mostly males and only one female. Furthermore, this female does not have the same amount of importance and tends to just fit sick stereotypes. Pollit best puts it as “boys are the norm, girls the variation; boys are central, girls peripheral; boys are individuals, girls types” (Pollit, 2).

In my image, it is clear that the majority are big powerful men, with Wonder Woman being put off to the side. All of the male heroes are covered in armor, but Wonder Woman? She’s all skin to show her real ‘power’ in society: her body. These superheroes are only ever being showcased for the male gaze, which is easily seen in Wonder Woman’s short shorts, corset, and thigh-high boots. How is that comfortable to fight in? It's quite possibly the most inconvenient costume for battling, but who cares right? This underscores the objectification of female characters and their subordination to male counterparts.

I also use different camera angles to showcase the importance of each superhero in this line-up. Clearly, the men are being looked up to because they symbolize power and confidence. On the other hand, Wonder Woman is being looked down upon because even though she is a superhero, she is not above her peers because she is simply there to show a strange form of diversity as she “exists only in relation to boys” (Pollit, 2).

Lastly, I wanted to use color to further depict how the women in these groups are overlooked. The walls behind all these heroes are blue, while the floor is pink. It is very common for the walls of a building to tell a story and be more important than the look of the flooring, as floors are only ever walked over, but walls are looked at and admired. These females are constantly being walked over because they are sidekicks or secondary, explaining why the floor needed to be pink in this image. The walls are blue and bright showing male dominance in groups of fiction, always being idolized, looked up to, popular, and primary.

It becomes very clear how many groups in media, television, and toys are examples of the Smurfette Principle when you first learn of this topic. Not only is it very easy to find these specific groups, but it is difficult to show the opposite, as the opposite is not often popularized or successful.This is not only an issue of children's toys or media; it is widely seen in mature films and productions. We as a society eat up this idea, without knowing, which only makes it even scarier to know we blindly support an idea that is so clearly harmful to one's self-image and self-worth growing up and being grown.

 

Works Cited:

Rudman, Laurie A., et al. “The Two Cultures of Childhood.” The Social Psychology of Gender: How Power and Intimacy Shape Gender Relations. The Guilford Press, 2015, 59-63.

Pollitt, Katha. “Hers; The Smurfette Principle.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 7 Apr. 1991, www.nytimes.com/1991/04/07/magazine/hers-the-smurfette-principle.html.

Games and Gender

 From: Nick

For my topic I chose to represent the gender-based differences in toy advertising. Though with the current digital era I chose to delve into a little more specific space and chose to use the covers of videogame cases. As video game hard copies as a media are still in large variety and utilize their covers as additional marketing/advertising I thought it fit well enough. In the image you find three games for the Nintendo Switch (a console marketed toward a family audience), two games Murder on the Orient Express and Ace Attorney Apollo Justice, both being detective/mystery solving games (often considered a male fantasy), on either side of Animal Hospital a game where you take in hurt animals (both real and fictional ones) to treat and take care of them (often stereotyped as feminine). This is done to represent the market of videogames being primarily being focused on male consumers as both Ace Attorney and Murder on the Orient Express have a male lead on the cover while Animal Hospital only has a small dog a cat and a unicorn (often tied to femininity or being “girly”). Another reason for these games being selected is that detective themes are often marketed towards boys as that profession is stereotyped as masculine as the role has power, and while Animal Hospital while a veterinarian is stereotyped as feminine because of the role being nurturing. The chapter the “Two Cultures” of Childhood in the book The Two Sexes: Growing up Apart, Coming Together states “Gender schemas define ‘masculine’ as rougher, tougher, and more active while ‘feminine’ as nicer, softer, and more passive. This theme carries through to gender stereotypes applied to adults including associating strength and power with men and warmth and nurturance with women” (60). I feel that this picture shows that there has been progress. It was difficult for me to find and orchestrate a possible picture as videogames have progressively become more inclusive and less strictly gendered. Though I was able to find a disparity it took some time, and an argument can be made that the disparity is not rooted in the games themselves but rather how we treat them. Though I did select two games that would be more traditionally male marketed there is no marketing that explicitly alienates any other individuals along the gender spectrum.

 

Work Cited:

 Maccoby, Eleanor E. The Two Sexes: Growing up Apart, Coming Together. Harvard University Press, 2003.

Gender Based Differences in Toy Advertisements

 From: Natalie

 

This photo shows examples of the highly gendered toys in modern toy stores. The sharp contrast between the brightly colored packaging and the beige background represents the appeal to children and the normality of them. The toys stereotypically geared towards young boys are in the front with bright “masculine” colors including varying shades of blue, black, and red, following the gender schemas (or codes) that boys are represented in darker colors (The “Two Cultures” of Childhood 2). The toys stereotypically geared towards girls, however, are in the background with packaging that has lighter colors including white, teal, pink, and purple, following the gender schema that girls are represented by soft pastels (The “Two Cultures” of Childhood 2). Gender schemas are guidelines for how people should organize the world around them, they not only influence children’s appearance and behavior, but also how they interact with people of the opposite sex (The “Two Cultures” of Childhood 1). The composition of the toys combined with the slight blurring of the background toys shows how masculine schemas show boys as tough and assertive while girls are shown as soft and passive. Even the images on the packaging mirror this by showing the boys doing physical activities and one of the girls (in the toy vanity set) focusing on her appearance. Even in the packaging of the same toys there are clear gender specific elements. The “boy's” bowling set has a boy chucking the bowling ball at the pins from far away with the camera centering him in the shot. The “girl’s” bowling set in contrast, has unicorns instead of bowling pins and a rainbow ball instead of a standard bowling ball. The girl in the image is closer to the pins, shows a gentle underhand rolling motion and is not the center focus of the image. The combination of coloring, subject, and composition of the packaging reinforce how gendered play is taught to children. Boys are taught not only to be rough and assertive, but also that it is appropriate to be aggressive in play. Meanwhile, girls are taught to be gentle and considerate in play (The “Two Cultures” of Childhood 4). This kind of advertising promotes the segregation of play in children which then “allows and encourages girls and boys to develop separate social worlds... (The “Two Cultures” of Childhood 1)“ discouraging skills for interaction among all children. This dangerous polarization of culture then can carry on into adulthood, which promotes stereotypes and reinforces adult gender roles.

Perfectly Cute Vs. Perfectly Violent

From: Jasmine 

My goal in taking this photo is to capture the difference in advertising between young boys and girls in the toy industry. We see the toy marketed to boys being dangerous, a wrestling brand one showing two buff men fighting next to the motorcycle. On the other hand, the girl's toy is a baby wrapped in pink and domestic duties, the player feeding and cleaning up after the doll which makes noises that a real baby would. Boy’s toys are “active and tough; aggression… a strong theme”, girls' toys are “domestic… assuming family roles” (Two Cultures). The motorcycle is about hurting people and doing violent stunts, and the doll is about being soft, calm, collected, and doing nurturing duties. These toys are meant to reinforce the roles assigned to the sexes by traditionalists, to teach children about the gender binary and reinforce it in their heads while they’re young and impressionable. The line on the backing wall that cuts between the toys represents the gendered divide between the two sexes in advertising, with the white and blue backgrounds being respective colors of that gender. Normally the girl color is pink, but white is also acceptable, representing the purity that is asked of women. The white area leaks into the blue to show how girls are accepted to leak into traditionally male things, but not the other way around. You may see young girls playing with male toys, but you most likely won’t see a boy playing with girl toys. The statement I want to make here is that these toys should not be gendered, there shouldn’t be a line separating the two to begin with. Children should be allowed to play with whatever they want, what they would have most fun with. The unnecessary gendering of these toys just reinforces harmful stereotypes and stamps out creativity and possibilities. Children should be allowed to let their minds flourish and to decide what toys they want to play with, whether it’s something traditionally masculine or feminine. We shouldn’t have this gender binary in toys to begin with.

 

Work Cited

The “Two Cultures” of Childhood (Canvas)

Photo Assignment

 

From: Ava

I chose to capture the topic of unrealistic beauty standards on adolescent girls. I took a picture of my niece Emma (5) in her mom’s bathroom playing with the makeup on the counter. She’s staring at the mirror, thinking a million things that she can’t communicate. At as young as five, girls are already trying to change themselves. Most of this change comes from girls seeing the standards put on the women in their lives and adopt the norms as their own. The look on Emma’s face almost illustrates defeat; she shows how even when she tries to fit into the norms, she still doesn’t feel good about how she looks. Girls keep getting younger and younger when they start coming to the realization that society has specific views on what a woman should look like; Emma still holding a stuffed chick shows how young she still is, and how this unnecessary pressure of looking a certain way impacts her ability to grow up with a healthy mindset. Another important factor is the number of products that are on the counter. The surplus of products just re-enforces the idea that young girls and women need to go out and get any product that says it will make them beautiful.

Strong but Insignificant

 From: Julia

The subtopic I chose for my assignment is how in cartoons and shows made for children are mainly made up of all male characters. Quite often, there will be one girl character in a group of all boys, who are the stars of the show. This is called the Smurfette Principal, which refers to how there is a singular girl Smurf in a group of boy Smurfs. In many cartoons, the Smurfette Principal is evident. Not only do we see it in shows such as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Sesame Street, which are shows that are a little bit older, but also in newer programs. Paw Patrol is a good example since it features a group of heroic male dogs and only one female dog. The lesson that is taught is, “boys are central, girls peripheral”(Pollitt), meaning girls are not as significant as boys; they are just background characters most of the time. I portrayed this in my picture by setting up toys that presented as male closer to the camera and the toy that presented as female farther away from the camera. In my photo, I used foreground/background, scale, and lighting.
Although they are all wrestlers, the ones in the front are male and the one in the background is female. I placed the male wrestlers closer to the camera to signify their importance, since typically wrestling is a male-dominated activity. The singular female wrestler is positioned in the back because she recognizes that she is not equal to the male wrestlers, even though she is still part of the group. She has accepted her position as being the less important one, knowing she will always be a passenger car in a group of train engines(Pollitt). I also used scale to show the significance of the male characters over the female character. Although the figures are all around the same size, I had the male wrestlers appear larger, looking confidently at the camera(spreading their arms, putting their hands on their hips, etc). The female character on the other hand appears to look smaller, signifying that she is unsure if she is allowed to join her male counterparts up in front. Lastly, I used lighting to not only make the characters stand out but to also set the mood in a way. Since the male wrestlers are supposed to be the stars, they have the most light on them, and the female wrestler has less light on her to show that she isn’t as important.

Pink vs. Blue Society

From: Arden

In the U.S. culture, most of children’s clothing are very distinctive between genders. Feminine aspects such as pink, floral prints, and skirts are assigned to the “girls” section while masculine aspects such as blue, monster truck shirts, and gym shorts are assigned to the “boys” section. Stores and malls all over the U.S. sell clothes that are gendered, ranging from infants to adults. Since this is the case in the U.S. culture, why are girls assigned to wear pink and skirts and boys wearing blue and baseball caps? Children in the U.S. society are raised to not only to view clothing as fashionable, but a way to identify a child’s gender. As Laurie A. Rudman states from “Two cultures of childhood,” “Segregation both allows and encourages boys and girls to develop separate social worlds of ‘culture’ characterized by different activities, interaction styles, and social worlds.” (2015 p. 59).

I provide the photo of children’s clothes as an example to portray the two cultures of the socially constructed boys and girls. Clothes are the everyday attire we wear and what we see others wear; we also see children in public wear clothes assigned to their gender. In this photo, there two images of clothes labeled “girls” and “boys.” I placed both photos together to show the variety of differences between both genders. While taking both photos, I angled the image to look above the clothing and sign to show the whole scenery of the clothing section. This technique is a way to recognize how society organized this ideal of gendered clothes, and the way labels and layouts depict genders in every store. Another reason I wanted to use clothes in the store specifically is how the lining element captures the never-ending rows of clothes, not only to see the immense amount of clothing, but the amount of fashion and styles that are gendered. Only floral prints and princesses are seen under the girls' section while there are geometric patterns and sports clothing under the boys. There are clearer color differences of each gender’s clothing; for instance, girl clothing is pink, bright purples, yellows, delicate colors to express femininity, compared to boy clothing as blue, dark colors, greens, black, tough colors to express masculinity. These color codes are assigning their gender identity where girls are seen as soft and innocent while boys are seen as tough and strong, which ideally makes the boys look stronger than girls. The final element I captured was a big sign that labeled boys and girls as a symbol to consider. The sign is a crucial symbol because a sign like that placed over clothes gives an idea of what defines a boy and girl. It shows how society constructs the attributes and interests into separate categories and assigns them to the specific gender, which limits the child’s interest whether they know it or not.

Children learn gender roles at an early age, but they specifically learn constructed gender roles through clothes, toys, and treatment from society. Rudman introduced the term “Gender Schema” theory which means children adopt the ideal of distinctions between a male and female from appearances, behaviors, and roles. Rudman claims that “Gender Schema associates' maleness and femaleness with myriad different attributes, behaviors, objects, defining ‘masculine’ as rougher, tougher, and more active, and feminine as nicer, softer, and more passive.” (2015, p.60). Rudman also made crucial points from her article that “This general theme also emerges in the earliest associations with children make with each sex, such as which toys are for boys, and which are for girls.” (2015, p.60). Children will follow the appearance of their gender due to the ways parents dress them, how other kids dress, and especially how the public advertise gender codes. They will find this ideal normal and continue to dress how society has constructed gender and some will continue to follow those rules as they get older. The fact that some children will find that they do not have to follow gender codes, they will rebel against the norm and dress either opposite, non-exaggerating, or neither. Children who do not dress according to the gender codes will either be policed or bullied by society for not following gender norms. Children should have the free will to express their desires and interests in any clothes they choose. If a boy wants to wear a skirt, he should. If a girl wants to wear gym shorts, she should. If a child wants to follow gender norms, they should. Parents should let them figure out their own identity and respect their choices.

 

Citation:

Rudman, Laurie A., et al. "The Two Cultures of Childhood." The Social Psychology of
Gender: How Power and Intimacy Shape Gender Relations. The Guilford Press,
2015, 59-63.

 

Gender Scripts in Children

From: Jennie

From the time even before we’re even born until we die our lives are laid out for us in the way

that our gender is determined. If you’re a boy you’re automatically blue and if you’re a girl you’re automatically pink. Boys don’t bleed blue and girls don’t bleed pink. Our gender is something that we get to decide for ourselves, more specifically our gender expression. Being a little girl automatically means you play with barbies and babies and being a little boy means you play with cars and guns. The media pushes these toys differently to boys and girls to keep going with the gender stereotypes and roles that the kids will have in their futures.

My image shows a little boy looking happy playing with a Rapunzel Barbie and a stuffed dog in a dress. Typically, when you think of a little boy playing it wouldn’t usually be with a barbie doll. Toys that are advertised to boys are more aggressive and darker than the ones advertised to girls. Laurie Rudman’s article, “The Two Cultures of Childhood” made me want to take this picture of my brother playing with what are generally considered “girl” toys. What makes this picture that I took about my brother special is that he has 3 older sisters and we always let him play with barbies and we would dress him up “as a girl.” He really didn’t differentiate between boys and girls until he showed his dad and he told him it was for girls and he started going to school and interacting with other kids. “Most likely, children have learned to avoid being seen playing with toys associated with the other gender (Bannerjee & Lintern, 2000)”(Rudman, 60-61). When boys play with cars, computers, and guns it’s setting them up for higher paying jobs like programmers and engineers. When girls play with toys like babies, schools and kitchens it’s setting them up at such an early age to be mothers, homemakers, and teachers to where it’s hard to break out of that shell. “These different forms of role-playing reinforce traditionally gendered adult roles and the enactment of stereotypically masculine traits among boys.. and stereotypically feminine traits among girls” (Rudman, 61).

I tried to incorporate different creative elements into my photograph. Gaze is the one element I tried to showcase mainly. You can see that his facial expression is a very happy one and he’s not looking directly at the camera or the toys either. He’s happy knowing he enjoys playing with the toys but won’t

look at them because he hears what it means if he does. He also isn’t looking at the camera because he also doesn’t wanna face the fact and show people that he likes to play with toys that are considered “girl toys”. I also used the same and different in my photograph. The clothes he’s wearing are clothes that are considered “boys” clothes having lego ninjago on them and being blue. While the toys in his hands are considered “girls” toys being a barbie and a stuffed animal.

Everything all throughout life, starting in childhood is extremely gendered. From the gender reveal, color of the baby shower bags, to the toys you play with, to the job you get is all connected in some way.

Works Cited:

Rudman, Laurie A., et al. "The Two Cultures of Childhood." The Social Psychology of Gender: How Power and Intimacy Shape Gender Relations. The Guilford Press, 2015, 59-63.

Module 5 Project

 From: Brianna

In the image, you can see the separation between the sink. The separation indicates the difference in the expected beauty norm between men and women. The man's side is bare only containing a facial razor and cream as the most expected out of men is to have a clean face. On the other side you can see the women's side is full and contains makeup, lotion, and facial cleaners. Women are expected to have a clean look as men, but the difference is women are taught to alter their appearance with makeup to make them appear; darker or lighter, acne or wrinkle-free, a natural look, but with painted eyelashes and eyeliner. Both genders are required to look appealing, but the normal standards for men and women are different when looked deeper.

Priorities

 From: Sophia

Laurie Rudman’s “The ‘Two Cultures’ of Childhood” explains that children’s toys are heavily gendered and reinforce gender roles in children from very young ages. This photograph I took aims to show how some of these gender schemas taught to us by these toys stick with us and carry over into adulthood. Many toys for young women encourage women to act in a stereotypically feminine way, and encourage boys to act in a stereotypically masculine way (Rudman 61). Women are often given Barbie dolls, Polly Pockets, or miniaturized makeup kits, which can teach them to look up to idealized, unrealistically beautiful women, and plant the idea in their heads that they need makeup to be or feel beautiful. I centered the makeup and beauty products in this image to show that they are the most important thing in the photograph.

The article also states that “Gender schemas become part of self-identity, influencing children’s preferences, attitudes, and behavior as they strive to act in socially appropriate masculine or feminine ways” (Rudman, 59). Guitar playing is another activity that is seen as more masculine than feminine. The music industry, especially in genres like rock, is dominated by men, and women can sometimes feel discouraged from learning to play instruments that are viewed as masculine like guitar, bass, and drums, for fear that they will be perceived as less feminine. I am a guitar player myself, and it is one of my favorite things to do. I had to beg my parents for months to get me a guitar for my birthday, while my brother was given a drum kit for his birthday that he didn’t ask for and never plays. Even our parents, who we can sometimes see as unable to do wrong, can fall victim to the very same societal norms that we do. I asked myself while preparing to take this photograph, “Is creativity more important to me than beauty?” I would like to be able to tell you that it is, but because of the way women are taught to behave and think about themselves, I still find myself valuing my appearance over my intelligence or musical abilities. I placed the capo, tuner, and pick off to the side, and underexposed them to show that creativity in women can be overshadowed by their subconscious need to adhere to beauty standards. Even the guitar pick itself is inside a necklace, showing that the need to dress myself up in a very feminine way outweighs the desire to be seen as intelligent or creative.

The last creative technique I used in this photograph was the way the objects were placed. I wanted to show the beauty products haphazardly strewn across my desk, with the musical objects carefully stacked in the corner. I also chose my dirtiest, most beat up mascara wands, necklaces, and perfume bottles to show that deep down, they are not very important to me and I can’t be bothered to keep them clean or really take care of them in any way. This was done to show that in the back of my mind, the parts of my personality that show individuality, intelligence, and creativity take precedence over the beauty standards or societal norms that I feel compelled to obey.

 

Works Cited

Rudman, Laurie A., et al. "The Two Cultures of Childhood." The Social Psychology of

Gender: How Power and Intimacy Shape Gender Relations. The Guilford Press,

2015, 59-63.

Photo Assignment

 

From Lillian

This photo effectively conveys the idea that boys and girls are socialized differently through U.S. culture. Gender schemas are traits that help people organize the world better and also can contribute to how they act towards others (Rudman, 2015). They affect how people think in regards to sex and gender. Through gender schemas, it has become a social norm that girls participate in soft play, such as ballet, while boys participate in more rough-and-tumble play, such as play guns. That is represented in this photograph because the teacher and students are all female and a mother and baby girl is shown watching them in ballet class. Another concept shown in this photograph is gendered clothing. Girls typically wear clothes that are more delicate and promote their gender-stereotypes behavior such as imagination and delicate play. The photo shows girls in butterfly wings, which promotes imagination, a behavior more socially accepted in girls than boys.They are also in pink and purple skirts, which is a socially constructed principle (that pink and purple are girls’ colors) in order for strangers to distinguish between young children and treat them differently accordingly. According to Erving Goffman, gender codes are a set of socially constructed rules that clearly and quickly demonstrate the false binary, which is the idea of people presented as either masculine or feminine. The idea of certain “soft’ and delicate” activities, like ballet, having only girls in the class contribute to these gender codes because they promote gender norms through different creative play and gendered clothing (Rellihan).

I used the high angle to demonstrate the girls in the ballet class as small to show their lack of power against their social learning. Gender codes are learned from a young age by watching older significant figures, as well as society in general. Therefore, when you are that young, it is hard for girls to go against these norms, even if they would prefer to do something that is typically done by boys. The higher angle makes the girls look small and powerless, which they are compared to the strong gender stereotypes placed on them from a young age. I also put a mother standing in the background of the photo to show that the young girls follow the leads of their mothers, continuing the cycle of gender roles. The baby girl in the background is also learning the codes from watching her sister doing ballet. These figures being in the background of my photo show how gender codes are enforced throughout generations. Lastly, I used the pink and purple colors of the girls outfits and their bags in the background to show feminine colors that match with feminine activities, such as ballet. This also deepens the cycle of gender codes when, for example, clothes for ballet (leotards) typically come in colors that are socially deemed as feminine (pink and purple).

Works Referenced Rellihan, Heather. Codes of Gender. 2023,

https://aacc.instructure.com/courses/144980/files/15466936?module_item_id=4583014.

PowerPoint Presentation
Rellihan, Heather. The Socialization of Gender in Children. 2023, The Socialization of Gender in

Children.pptx: 2023 Spring Intro to Women's Studies (GSS-101-001) (instructure.com). PowerPoint Presentation

Rudman, Laurie A., et al. “The Two Cultures of Childhood.” The Social Psychology of Gender: How Power and Intimacy Shape Gender Relations. The Guilford Press, 2015, 59-63

Wow, You’re Pretty Strong, You Know, For a Girl

 

By Mary Grace

When I was growing up, I was always one of the strongest girls in the room. I was able to lift heavy from picking up my little brother and my other younger neighbors. I grew up playing many different sports which included having natural body strength and resistance. Especially when I started doing taekwondo. I was one of two girls in my class in elementary school and middle school who wanted to participate in martial arts. Other girls would see me as more manly than others and eventually once they learned the term, they thought I was a lesbian. Because out of all the sports I was playing, taekwondo was the least girly sport. Everyone would tell me, “Wow, you’re really strong...for a girl” or I would even sometimes get the occasional “You’re too strong for a girl”. As a young girl, I never saw it as a problem but eventually, it made me a little insecure because apparently girls aren’t supposed to be strong like a boy. We are taught these gender scripts at a young age of how men and women are supposed to act and be perceived by, rather than just being our own unique person.

Although I grew up with shows and movies with female primary characters, with some who highlighted their mental strength, there were no or very limited shows and movies with physically strong female characters, like Luisa from Encanto (2021) for example. I grew up watching older Disney Princess movies and Barbie, where the female characters would dress and act like a stereotypical girly girl and of course, be saved by men, fall deeply in love at first glance and marry them and have a happily ever after. the "Hers; The Smurfette Principle” by Katha Pollitt, she mentions how women are portrayed to be more a side piece to the male main character’s story. Girls would only be in plot to be visually pleasing to men or to be a “damsel in distress” to make it easier for the men to be the heroes. They are all stereotypical and physically perfect and “the more privileged and daring can dream of becoming exceptional women in a man's world – Smurfettes" (par. 8). As CJ Pascoe expresses his ideas regarding masculinity, he tells how Psychoanalytic Feminist Theorists say that masculinity is an identity formation caused by inequality. In other words, being masculine is tied to working hard, being the boss, taking initiative, and doing things for yourself in contrast to being feminine, which means being nurturing, selfless, and codependent according to society’s terms. (Introduction to Women’s, Gender & Sexuality Studies). So breaking society’s definition for masculinity identified me as less of a woman and more of a man, which confused me.

In my photo, I demonstrated my physical strength, while you can also see the mental determination on my face while I’m bench pressing the barbell. I purposefully angled the camera to show my whole outfit, my facial expression, and how I’m holding the weight up. I kept the room lit up to exhibit my happiness and add a glow to the scene. Lastly, I took this picture in my home gym, instead of at the Y where I normally work out to put all the focus on myself. I wore my taekwondo uniform top and my black belt to show how my determination and enjoyment of the sport eventually led me to pass my strenuous test and earn a big accomplishment, which a lot of girls I know, have never earned. As my bottoms, I changed into a skirt and heels instead of my uniform bottoms to explain that even though I am strong and I played a “man’s” sport, I am still feminine in my own ways, and I identify with female pronouns. I also like wearing makeup, doing my hair, and dressing up. However, because I am a black belt in taekwondo, that makes me more of a masculine girl. If I was not as strong, I would have never become as independent of a person because of a lack of needing help a lot. And that’s okay because I honor my strength, it gives me confidence, and it makes me want to show it off and highlight my individuality.

Works Cited

Pascoe, C.J. “Making Masculinity: Adolescence, Identity, and High School.” Introduction to Women’s, Gender & Sexuality Studies: Interdisciplinary and Intersectional Approaches, edited by L. Ayu Saraswati, Barbara Shaw, and Heather Relihan, Oxford Press, 2018, pp. 46-52.

Pollitt, Katha. "Hers; the Smurfette Principle." Hers; The Smurfette Principle. The New York Times, 07 Apr. 1991. Web. 24 Oct. 2022. <https://www.nytimes.com/1991/04/07/magazine/hers-the-smurfette-principle.html>.

 

The detrimental effect of beauty standards on young women

 

From: Berta

One Of the main causes of insecurities subside on beauty standards that have been built upon society, mainly targeting youth. In this photo I have decided to dive deeper into how unrealistic beauty standards, build upon insecurities on younger women, the way media and men thrive off of the insecurities of young women, and how it can negatively impact mental health on adolescent women. The main thing used in this picture is the idea of gaze, specifically the male gaze. I use the shadow of a man, overpowering the beauty of a woman. On the left I provide a picture of myself. A girl who is not dolled up and does not follow society's standards of what it means to be beautiful. On the left I am looking up, although more in an insecure and timid way, little confidence, and below the camera, emphasizing that I am below the beauty standards. I decided to keep my glasses on for the left side of the image, as it is one of the things society has belittles adolescent women for, not so much now, but definitely in the earlier days. There is a mirror in the background, which shows my reflection, although not the same one on the left side. This reflection shows a more confident girl, a version of me that has changed, and followed the path of least resistance, by wearing a dress, and looking more girly. On the left part of my image, my face is dull, serious, somber, as I am not showing any emotion, in order to portray how the unrealistic beauty standards that society has built has already caused me to see myself as less, and in that sense, unhappy and insecure. In my reflection, my face is more bright and cheerful, as I have complied with society's rules, and am now accepted, and praised. In the image, the shadow of a man is shown, looking at my reflection, analyzing what he can fix. In my reflection, it shows how men and society have caused me to change the way In look, this shadow of a man symbolizes power, and societal views, it is not merely just a man, but society in total, who have cause me and young women to change our image in order to merely be accepted and desired. Although in the reflection I have complied with society, I show myself in the corner, with less space, while the shadow of the man is taking up more space. This describes how even though I have changed myself for society, I am still looked down upon, because society will never be satisfied, as they always nick pick what the meaning of beauty is. The last part of the image I want to explain is the color. I have decided to use darker colors, as this image symbolizes my mind and inner thoughts. Even if I change everything about myself, I will always not be completely happy, as society will always have a way of bringing down young women, negatively impacting mental health.

 

"Preference or requirement? The Gender Binary in Childhood"

 From: Fune

            I have two younger siblings, a 10 going-on 11 year old brother and a 10 year old sister, named Jadon and Hillary. Both are noisy, energetic, curious, and always keep me on my toes with their questions and playful behavior. Taking them out to parks or to the store to get snacks is always a treat for the three of us. But when I began to fully understand how gendered childhood was I was surprised, but when I realized I was playing into it I was taken aback. Growing up, my brother and sister were very close, almost inseparable. They loved the same shows, games, food, toys, and everything you could imagine. But as they got older, their interests started to diverge, my younger brother started getting into Pokémon, Fortnite, and  Naruto while my sister started learning how to use makeup, do her hair, and paint her nails. When costume shopping for Halloween, my brother would always race to the boys side to look for the coolest weapons and “warrior” costumes while my sister would choose between being a witch or a princess. I didn’t think much of it at the time because I too was raised in the idea that “boys should do boy things” and “girls should do girl things” separate from each other. I always knew the toys children played with would affect their growth and reading The Two Cultures of Childhood  only reaffirmed this. But somehow I didn’t see it apply to my younger siblings, kids who did nearly everything together.

In my image I laid out their clothes and toys, symbolic of who they are and how our society’s idea of gender has affected them growing up. My sister’s side of the display consisted of her bright pink jacket, her navy blue shirt adorned with a smiling sloth holding onto a delicate tree branch, and topped off with her doll resting above the pocket. On the other side, my brother’s black coat covering his blue graphic t-shirt topped off with the sword and mask from his Halloween costume. In the middle, their sleeves join, representing their connectedness. I chose a top-down perspective as if they were posing for the picture looking at the clothes that expressed their identities, but I also chose this top-down perspective because it’s a top-down analysis of the gendered stereotypes they’ve been guided into as children. Another technique I chose is with the clothing chosen, they functionally have the same outfits but are completely different with the only unifying characteristic being the blue shirts within each jacket representing the similarities in their personalities and character. My use of these techniques is an attempt to play on the viewers emotions, using those clothes as a template for the young children in their lives, and to analyze how their clothing and toys make an impact on them, however inconsequential they may seem.

However, touching back to The Two Cultures of Childhood the darker side of the gender stereotypes are established. The cheap plastic sword my brother chose for his Halloween costume is evident of how boys are socialized to be more aggressive and violent, often leading into conflicts (Rudman 62). On the other side, my sister’s doll is evident of how girls are socialized to be caretakers, promoted through the grooming, accessorizing, and care of their dolls (Rudman 61). Competition and aggression are instilled in young boys while girls are socialized to be more submissive, cooperative, and express aggression and conflict not through personal means but through “indirect, relational, or social” methods (Rudman 61-62). The segregation of childhood through gendered means leads to devastating consequences. The promotion of aggression in boys leads to men overwhelmingly being the offender in violent crimes, with women often being the victim. As we proceed through our lives, it’s necessary to take a critical look at how the children in our lives are being influenced by the world around us and to do our best to make sure they can express themselves in positive and healthy ways free of the restrictions of the gender binary.

Works Cited

Rudman, Laurie A., et al. "The Two Cultures of Childhood." The Social Psychology of

Gender: How Power and Intimacy Shape Gender Relations. The Guilford Press,
2015, 59-63

Conforming to the Gender Schema

 

From Maura:

            For as long as I can remember, I envied girls who I thought were more beautiful than I was. Whether it was playing with makeup or dolls, I was playing a role of how I wanted to look or appear to others. And this was normal behavior for a young girl. From early childhood, boys and girls are socialized to learn, play and interact differently from each other (Rudman, 59).  My photograph is intended to capture how gendered codes of play can psychologically impact women throughout their lives.

            My photo shows me with markings on my face, indicating that I am getting cosmetic surgery, and I did my makeup to look swollen, bruised and bloody in post-op. The symbolism behind the makeup is that although I am getting cosmetic procedures done to improve and adjust my appearance, it’s quite dreadful to look at and fathom. The media targets young girls who are quite impressionable to believe that to be a woman, you must be beautiful. Corporations such as Disney Channel use animated characters (human and non-human) to have petite figures, batting eyelashes, thin waists and perfect hair and makeup to be the protagonist female character (Picker, 2002). And I never met a girl growing up who would choose to be Maleficent or Ursula in place of the princesses who juxtapose these roles. Despite the role I am playing in my photo, fresh out of surgery, I still have lipstick on and mascara. It is routine or instinct for a multitude of women to wear makeup. It is so normalized that it is not questioned why women do it.

            Another aspect of the photo is that I’m not looking at the camera, but am gazing away and appear to be in a daze. Both of these creative techniques give the subject of the image less power. When the subject is looking directly at the camera, the viewer of the photo tends to develop eye contact with the subject focusing in on the center of the face, establishing power of the subject. When the subject is not looking into the camera, the viewers eyes tend to wander to other parts of the photo. My shoulders are bare and the frame cuts out right below my bare shoulders, suggesting that I am not wearing clothes because it is not visible in the frame. The image is close to my face, but I am also off-center, which diminishes power of the subject as well. Plastic surgery is often used to even the symmetry of a face (Dr. Rodriguez, modified 2019) and because half of my face is showing more than another, the symmetry of the photo is off. Facial symmetry has played a paramount role in the body dysmorphia I have developed throughout my life. I had been self-conscious of my teeth since elementary school and my enamel grew in very yellow due to febrile seizures I had during infancy. I would get bullied and teased for my teeth so I begged my mom to have them fixed. Since fourth grade, I have had veneers on my front six teeth. But the problem for me got worse. I noticed my smile was crooked and to myself, I look like I talk out of the corner of my mouth. I thought I had a huge nose and uneven eyes. This relates to the topic because girls are given positive reinforcement based on their appearance. A survey in my Sociology textbook asked young girls if they were worried about their appearance. In a study conducted by psychology professor Stacey Tantleff-Dunn and doctoral student Sharon Hayes at the University of Central Florida, nearly half of the 3- to 6-year-old girls stated they worry about getting overweight. A third of those say they would alter a person's appearance like their weight or hair color (cconover, 2009). This is three to six year olds wanting to physically change their looks, which can be achieved through plastic surgery. There needs to be a shift in society and media, moving away from the niche physical appearance of girls that is perceived as attractive and start to represent girls in a more diverse way.