From: Michelle
We live in a culture that makes it hard for some to determine who or what they want to be. This starts at a very young age. For example my daughter's uniform for a football game is quite different than that of her brother's. Every Saturday morning their routines before the big game are very different as well. It starts with my husband getting our son ready. This includes a couple of tosses of the football in the backyard and some tips on how to be a better player. My husband applies the black war paint under the eyes and he is told to go get em'. My daughter on the other hand is dressed in a skirt, her hair is pulled back in a pony tail with a beautiful orange and blue ribbon. She is told to smile and cheer her brother on. In a rare occasion when someone in our culture gets their assignment wrong, eyebrows are raised and rumors are started. Many times feelings are hurt and sexual assumptions are made. Parents will talk amongst themselves, kids will tease and local news stations will make stories out of this phenomenon. Ultimately people will want to know how does this happened and does the child have a confused gene. The parents of this child will usually have to explain the reason for the reversed behavior before the public will acknowledge the behavior as acceptable.
2 comments:
I agree with everything said about this matter. Children grow up learning what activities are for boys and which ones are for girls and if you go against the “norm” you are picked on. Looking at this picture took me back to when I was a kid. I was a cheerleader for a short time and all my guy friends were playing football. At that time I was a big tomboy. Always playing with the boys, playing sports, getting dirty, and not wanting to be a cheerleader. However, all of my girl friends were cheerleaders and the league would not let girls play football. I did play basketball at that age and the team was boys and girls. Some girls that I was not friends would call me gay or just plain weird. Being picked on a lot because of being a tomboy was hard but I did what I liked and if other people did not like it then oh well. I am sure there are a lot of kids out there that either are unhappy because they do what they do not like, because of “norms”, or because they get picked on for doing what they like. It is a lose-lose situation and kids will always expect other kids to do what they are taught is standard for their gender. Whatever happened to doing what makes you happy? I guess following others and not being yourself is more important to people.
I think that this picture is funny because there is another picture of an older couple who are doing the same thing. Its funny that the same picture is taken but the ages are so different. I think that those 2 pictures show what traditional america looks like. Its also weird that these socializations just keep getting passed on form age group t age group.
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