The above photo is a photo of a boy and a girl in their Halloween costumes. But, it is more than that. The girl is a princess. This is fairly common of little girls, to want to be princesses. But, what is a princesses role? The princess plays the role of a woman, which is being taken care of and has to answer to the King, and Queen. And one day she will have to answer to her own King. Most princesses don't have their own voice, they are told what to do, and what decisions they should make. They don't work; they are taken care of by the city that they rule. They really don't have a voice, but they always seem to be happy, just like the little girl in the picture. Princesses are from FAIRYTALES, which are not true. But, you have little girls watching these movies and seeing the roles that princesses play and they want to grow up and be a princess and be taken care of. It teaches children that it is OK to have someone take care of them, and if you are like Cinderella and you don't have the richest family, chances are you aren't going to have "Prince Charming" coming and wanting to take care of you. The princess wouldn't be in his league. It has happened, but it is not very common.
There is also a little boy in the above picture. He is dressed as a tough boxer. He isn't smiling and he doesn't look happy at all. He has the "dont mess with me" expression. That is what boxers look like, you don't see boxers smiling, and you see them as the tough guy. And little boys grow up seeing boxers on TV, which have muscles bigger than their head, and huge abs, and the meanest face possible. And boys believe that, that is how they are supposed to look. They think that is what the "in" thing is. When in reality if you look like that, you get accused of being on steroids. Other toddler boy Halloween costumes are all something that involve violence. There are police costumes that include a gun or a police stick, there were two different pirate costumes that included pretty big swords, a Spiderman costume that included abs, and other various Superhero costumes that included abs or some sort of weapon. These are toddler costumes, and they are the TOP selling costumes according to Factory Card Outlet. So we are teaching our children at a very young age that it is ok to swing a sword around, carry a gun, or that they should have abs to be more like superheros.
And society wonders why men have the highest crime rates, and why men muscles are getting bigger and bigger. We put this into children's heads at a very young age that it is socially acceptable.
The moral here is that our society is wondering why women have less paying jobs, or why men are more violent than women. Well the truth is that girls are taught the roles of motherhood, nurturing, and believe that they should live like a princess from a young age. Boys are taught that it is ok to look like your arm muscles are bigger than your head, and that it is ok to carry and shoot guns and carry a sword and swing it around. They are taught that since Ironman, Spiderman have abs that they too should have abs. They are taught that looking tough is cool.
And what they are taught at a young age, and what they are exposed to at a young age, depicts how they will grow up to be. This is true for both boys and girls.
6 comments:
I thought this picture was good, in that it showed how children are expected to have certain halloween customes because of their gender. It definitely shows how the media is influencing children in how they are suppose to be and what they are suppose to be. There is a lot more to it than just having a boy be a boxer and a girl be a princess, we must look at this with a critical eye to really understand the effect this is having in their gender socialization.
Great Picture. I like how you explained the the little princess will always have to listen to the king no matter if it's her father while she's young or her husband when she gets older.
Great Picture. I like how you explained the the little princess will always have to listen to the king no matter if it's her father while she's young or her husband when she gets older.
I think this picture is a perfect representation of gender scripts. These children are too young to dress themselves, so the parent plays a role in this more than she probably knows.
This is a good photo,i liked how you said that princesses normally don't have a voice, and how the boy has the tough guy look on his face and compared his look to a boxers ideal look of a tough guy.
I think this picture really demonstrates how children are socialized in our society. Boys are taught from a young age to act tough and aggressive. In many television shows and movies men are stereotyped as these violent and very dominant characters. It's characters like this in the media that children idolize and try to imitate, which is most likely the reason why the boy chose to dress as a boxer because it makes him feel tough like the men he sees in the media.
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