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
2 comments:
From Sophia:
Hi Lillian,
I wanted to choose your photo to comment on because (as I’m sure you remember) we danced at the same studio together for a few years, and I was also a dancer growing up, so I understood first hand what you were trying to represent with this image. I remember what it was like to feel almost pressured to choose dance over other extracurriculars such as soccer, lacrosse, or softball, while my brother was discouraged from taking dance classes and pushed towards baseball. I think this photo adequately represents the ways in which boys and girls are socialized differently in our society.
At first, I thought the young girl in the back was a boy, and that the photo was showing a mother keeping her male child apart from the girls’ activity. Knowing now that she is a girl and that the picture is trying to show her being taught from a young age to participate in traditionally female activities makes just as much sense and is equally powerful. I also liked how you used the angle of the camera to portray the young girls as “powerless” against their acquisition of societal gender roles. The mother standing in the background also struck me as particularly powerful, as most of the reason I was a dancer my entire life was because it was what my mother wanted me to do. She grew up dancing and taught dance classes in her adulthood, and I was following in her footsteps, which is what you aimed to show with your photo. I thought you did great work with this assignment.
From Mary Grace:
Hi Lillian,
First, I'd like to compliment your work. You did very well on displaying how mothers like to live through their daughters and the concept of your photo was very well thought. As someone who has played many sports before, I remember that one of the first activities I did was dance class. When I was growing up, there were not any boys in my class and we were required to wear pretty ballet outfits. This picture demonstrates how as young girls, we are encouraged by our parents to participate in activities and make friends, and dance class is perfect for that. Dance class, particularly ballet, is gender-scripted. It is not common that two boys or two girls dance together like a girl and a boy would. The outfits and the style of the dance makes the dancers seem quiet, graceful, and dainty, which is a common expectation of how little girls should behave. This is why ballet is considered to be feminine rather than masculine. These girls are taught to be gentle, timid, and graceful, instead of playing baseball, lacrosse, basketball, ice hockey, and soccer, which are sport more boys get involved with.
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