from: Erin
This photograph was taken in a department store and is obvious evidence that gender socialization begins at a very young age. The first clothing rack, which is clothing for young girls, consists mainly of the color pink. However, the clothing rack in the back of the photograph, which is little boys clothing, is mainly blue colors. I used value to emphasize the overwhelming presence of pink in the young girls clothing. While there is an overabundance of blue in the boys clothes, the girls clothing on the rack seen in the picture, as well as the other girls racks that I did not capture in the photo, consisted almost completely of all pink, while I found not one spec of pink in any of the boys clothing. It is not just colors that help to shape gender socialization in infancy, it is many things such as the toys they're expected to play with and the gender roles displayed in the media that children are constantly exposed to. It is almost impossible for children of today to be brought up without somehow being influenced by society to believe that women are associated with certain stereotypes, and men others. What makes the color pink associated with femininity and the color blue associated with masculinity? People, especially children, are constantly influenced from our society and the gender roles they portray and are getting false information and are therefore ignorant. In no way is there a relationship between a particular color, the types of toys children play with or the activities children participate in and that person's sexuality. The amount of gender socialization occurring in our society is overwhelming and the fact that it is begins at the time of our birth is a problem that needs to be addressed and worked on to change.
2 comments:
The picture that Erin took of the children’s clothing is a prime example of gender socialization at a very early age. When people buy things for little babies before they are born it is mainly blue for boys, pink for girls, and yellow for the unknown. Babies are always dressed to represent there gender because as an infant it is sometimes very hard to determine what the gender of the baby is without knowing. A lot of times when a baby has the wrong outfit on (boy clothes on a girl baby) the mother gets very upset if you mistake the babies gender, but how are you suppose to know when its not obvious? I mean blue is for boys and pink is for girls right? But who made those rules and why do they apply? Why is it that boys shouldn’t wear pink and girls shouldn’t wear blue? Erin’s statement about the picture is very true. Why do we differentiate the way that we do?
wow...its crazy how conditioned we are to these things. It takes a picture for us to realize how incredibly strange and split our society is. I mean no wonder why our country is half and half about decisions of homosexuals, abortion, immigrants...we cant even wear neutral colors. We are so ingrained with this idea that we have to be one or the other at such a young age, that we are not capable of seeing two sides of a story later in life. why cant we be both? I mean, i wear pink, but i think that I'm pretty well rounded. Maybe if guys wore a little more pink, they would be open to other forms of change.
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