Gender: Is It Just Girls?‏

From: Kaysha
The photo here is a representation that illustrates how gender is learned during childhood. In this photo nine year old Mariah is surrounded with toys that closely relate to her gender which is considered gender labels. Gender labels are used to link items or things with gender, such as girl in pink and boy in blue. Mariah is associating colors, toys and chores with girls. The pink dress she is wearing while she cleans, the blue makeup on her eyelids and mouth and her earrings depicts adulthood of women. During childhood young girls are taught to be sexy while they are performing household task or pink collar occupations. These girls rarely realize that their learning these roles that follow them into adulthood and become hard to unlearn.

The role Mariah plays is a well known universal role it’s the (mom). This role is associated with caregiver, housekeeper and chef which are linked to being a mother. In this image unlike most women, however nine year old Mariah is excited about her role as a mom. She has her dirty dishes, cooking ware, vacuum, dirty laundry, school work and baby doll. This shows that even if girls are not satisfied with their gender, like Mariah most girls her age understand that gender is permanent; she has learned gender constancy.

The background of the photo reflects the disadvantages and advantages that can be associated with being a girl. In the background there are many plants around her which symbolizes the environment. The environment which we live in believes that women should be caregivers; it also symbolizes what females go through during their lifetime to be liked by the public. The television is the media which encourages young girls to value things that have very little meaning or significance. The TV is off to reflect that it’s the media views of the ideal girl and not the viewers’ opinion on beauty. Then there are pictures that are on the top of the shelf, which shows how girls learn at a young age to be affectionate and have love for their families. It also shows that girls even into adulthood are encouraged to put family before their own goals. The window symbolizes the small amount of opportunities that are available to females because of gender roles, gender labels and gender schemas learned during childhood. As we can see in the photo the window is blocked by a curtain with only a little light shinning in. It too symbolizes the cause for girls at an early age to lower their abilities and to satisfy the needs of others instead of their own. Even though nine year old Mariah is able to fully understand gender constancy she is not capable of understanding that gender can someday affect her entire life. The socialization of gender is learned through fantasies; although Mariah is happy with her role its only pretend but in reality this role is the least ideal and all roles in this photo are associated to one gender (females)