From: Erin
This is a picture of Owen. Owen is a three year old boy and this picture was taken in his bedroom. As you can see in the background Owen’s most favorite superhero is Spiderman. When asked why he likes Spiderman Owen replied “because it’s Spiderman, he kicks butt and saves everyone from Venom (the evil super villain)”
Previously this week I was babysitting Owen, when he got to my house he was dressed in his Spiderman costume. He ran through the door, he came in looked under the table, under all the chairs and under my bed. I asked him what he was looking for and he turned around and replied “I’m looking for the bad guys.” Owen clearly learns gender roles from his toys and cartoons. From Spiderman Owen learns to be tough, to fight bad guys, to protect his family, clearly taking on adult roles from what he has learned from a cartoon.
In the background are just a few of Owens large collection of superhero costumes, some comic books, a child size pool table, hot wheel cars and a Spiderman blowup boxing toy. All of these are typical boy toys. There was not one doll in his room. These toys imply stereotypes that boys must act brave, never cry, to be courageous, and to fight for the good man kind. I chose this particular portion of Owen’s room because the toys seem to over crowd the area, this shows how largely of an influence these characters, toys and things are in his life.
3 comments:
He has a cute smile on his face and I bet you if he stubbed his toe he would cry in a heartbeat. The most important things in Owen's life are not these toys, cartoons, superhero costumes or even his comic books. It is his parents, they are the ones that will influence him with every decison that he will make in his little three year old life.
Boys and girls are not known to play with the same toys. Boys have more aggressive toys such as superhero costumes where they pretend to go save the world and fight off bad guys. Girls are known to have dolls and play nicely with one another in a non-destructive way. Boys and girls gender roles can easily be defined by the toys that they play with.
This picture shows how boys are influenced by the society. As young as Owen is, he already knows that he should be like superman who has a lot of powers. And by being superman, he learns to be strong, a rescuer, and an aggressor.
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