When I saw my sister, Allie, getting ready for a dance at her school, I jumped at the chance to take her picture. The photograph she is holding is of her at age three. Even then, my sister knew what was considered gender appropriate in our culture. My mother recounted that Allie wanted to wear the maroon dress for the photograph session even though it was too big for her and carefully selected the necklace to go with her dress. Additionally, she was adamant about wearing her hair down. She wanted to look grown-up. Our text explains that this knowledge of what physical characteristics make a person seem male or female is developmentally appropriate for a child of about two to four years of age. Allie obviously knew she was female and wanted to associate herself with a feminine appearance.
Now, at fifteen years, Allie still enjoys dressing up and looking feminine. She likes to wear make-up and to have her hair down, and explained to me that she chose her top because of the way it fit her body and "made it look like she had curves". It is easy to see that her idea of what a woman should look like has changed little since when she first began learning about gender. She still, whether consciously or not, is drawn towards the feminine ideal: cosmetics, long, light-colored hair, and feminine clothing.
4 comments:
Awesome title!! And I know exactly what you mean- I have a 14 year old sister who looks like she's 16 or 17. She was different when she was little though- she was quite the tomboy. But the hair down and putting on jewelry and even a little makeup when you're three years old really does make you feel grown up- I used to steal my grandma's things. It's nice that her dance and the photo/blog assignment coincided :)
This picture does a great job showing how the girl in the picture is and has been gender socialized and the fact that it hasnt changed since she was three also shows that the affect society had on her to make her socialized is still affecting her in the same way.
This reminded me of the little girl next door who is three as well. She loves when I come over to watch her so I can do her hair, paint her nails, and watch Hannah Montana with her. It seems as though girls are starting to try and portray themsevles as older at even younger ages than I can ever recall doing myself. Little girls shouldn't have to worry about being "beautiful" at age 3.
I can relate to this picture because it reminds me of my little sister. It reminds me of all the times she trys to do the same things I do. She hangs out with my brother and all his friends alot, but still will put on make up and get girly with her friends. I also think this happens when younger siblings look up to older ones.
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