From Kaitlyn W.
I choose this picture because the picture shows an older person, such as the child’s mom, showing her how to cook/bake. Now to everyone this seems ridiculous because a child at age 2 should not be learning how to cook/bake. I took many pictures of my niece baking, but I choose this one because as you can see she is not even paying attention, she is looking forward; this shows she doesn’t care. Someone is helping her stir the brownie mix, but she just is not interested. She is in the kitchen because that is where all baking happens, but in the picture you can see the oven, microwave, and toaster; I choose to have those in the picture so you can tell that we are in the kitchen. Overall, I chose to take the picture the way I did (more from the back and side) so I could show the viewers all the details in front of the child.
8 comments:
I think it is okay to let children participate in cooking when they are that young. Yeah she probably doesn’t care about what’s going on at the moment but everyone knows a 2 year old gets into everything. So most likely she does want to help at one moment because she is interested in what mommy is doing (she is just trying to be like mom). But on the other hand this does show that girls and women are in the kitchen most of the time doing the cooking, doing the things that “women are supposed to do.” Like when men and women were starting to share jobs in the community. Women would do men’s work but men would not do women’s.
As innocent as this photo may look it portrays a lot about girl culture. Starting with the fact that the mother is teaching her daughter how to bake, this is a basic gender role that is played by women throughout culture. But when I look at this photo I cannot help but to relate. Like Kaitlyn said the little girl is not even paying attention. As I grew up I never once cared about cooking and baking, no matter how much my mother pressed it. Now 20 years old my boyfriend always wants me to go take cooking classes and learn to bake. My response has always been “you come with me.” Of course he thinks that this is ridiculous because “men don’t cook.” The other thing that I noticed about this photo is how the mother is guiding the girls hand on the mixing spoon. As if this was an implication that it is the mother’s duty to guide and teach her little girl the duties of a woman.
This picture of the mother and daughter cooking says a lot about how women are portrayed. It relates back to the separate sphere ideology...saying that it’s the women’s job to do the cooking and the household chores. This reminds me of my childhood because I used to always help my grandma bake and even though I was too young to know what’s going on, like the girl in the picture, I still wanted to help. On the other hand my older brother always threw a fit when he had to help because he would always say "girls are supposed to make the food not the boys," which is a typical stereotype in today’s society.
I think this picture is very interesting. I think in my personal experience with children, especially little girls, they are constantly mimimicking their mommies. I would bet this little girl asked her mother if she could help her in the kitchen, but just like any other 2 year old,her attention span is limited. She is easily distraced, thus the reason she is not focusing on what she is mixing. It probably does give her the idea that baking is for mommies only.I can only assume it is a little girl because she is wearing purple and her hair is long. Lastly, this makes me reflect on the social idea that women are to be domestic,and that their purpose is to cook and clean. This little girl already has an idea of her future role in life.
This photo really demonstrates how society sees women and which roles should be played by women. The little girl in the photo is being taught at a very young that her place is in the kitchen, even though it is obvious she does not have any interest in what’s going on at all. Small children’s attention spans are very fleeting so I am sure that at some point she was interested in baking, she sees fellow women doing it and wants to imitate them. It is just giving her a look into what she will be expected to do when she gets older, just like she will be trained later to think that she should have motherly tendencies and be able to cook and clean sufficiently. I noticed that this picture employs the separate sphere theory; women are homemakers meant to stay in the kitchen while the men go out and do the real work. To address what the photographer said about the photo; I think that starting to show a child around the kitchen at age two is fine, but she should not only be learning about things in what is considered the women’s sphere, she should learning about things men are typically expected to like; such as sports.
This photo shows how females get their skills in the kitchen. At this age, the mom is probably just trying to get her daughter to work on her larger motor skills and the daughters primary interest is most likely being rewarded with getting to lick the spoon when she is done. But the photograph still shows how important domestic skills are taught to daughters by their mothers and it is never to early to start teaching them.
I like how the picture shows what our society's typical women are found doing: cooking. And yes, you can never start too early, but must it be slaving away in the kitchen. Maybe she lacks attention in the kitchen because she would rather be somewhere else doing something nontraditionally expected of her, like playing sports. Children should not always be forced into doing whatever their Mothers like.
I like this picture alot because when our children we teach them how to cook and clean and pick up after themselves. But we dont realize we might teach one child more then the other. Like the girl in this picture. So this was very nice i liked it.
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