From: Kristina
This picture is my neice Averi. It portrays how little girls are influenced to be like their mothers or other siblings by wearing jewelry (pearls) at such a young age. Averi is not quite 2 years of age in this picture and already knows how to wear a necklace. In this picture, she is wearing a dress (that she picked out along with the necklace) and also has her hair up in a pony tail just the way she wanted it. Gender based toys and interests mold's a child's gender instead of letting them decide what gender to be. If a 2 year old boy was playing with jewerly, it would immediately be taken away and replaced with a truck or a baseball. My picture attributes gender based cateogories between boys and girls happen at such a young age.
8 comments:
I remember doing the same thing when I was little. I loved playing dress up, putting on makeup and doing my hair exactly like my Mother. I used to walk around the house on my tippy toes all the time because I was pretending I was wearing high heels like my Mother. I do remember my family encouraging me to be girly. They always had me wearing all the pretty dresses with the matching shoes, necklace, socks, hair clips you name it I had it. Girls will definitely be looked at differently if they don’t go along with that ideal image of how a little girl is supposed to act.
As soon as a mother is pregnant the first thing people ask is whether or not it is a boy or girl and once people find out it is a girl they go out and buy all pink stuff for the baby. Once that baby gets a little older people are still doing the same thing… buying little dresses for the girl, putting makeup on her, giving her jewelry. Culture programs girls to be girly. We don’t really have a choice.
I agree! When I was younger, I always played in my mother's clothes and makeup. When I was younger my parents always made sure I played with the "girly" toys and my younger brother played with the "boy" toys. Now that I am older, I notice that my younger cousins always play in my makeup and clothes.
Gender based toys are a big deal that starts the molding the roles children play as they grow up. This little girl is only doing as what she thinks she should be dressing. As the author brought out, if a boy was to do the same, he would be scollded. So we can see that even at a very young age, children learn what is the right gender role to play and make sure they follow that script so as to please others and not be left out.
All little girls do this when they are young! They see their mom's dress up and wear jewelry! From a young age, little girls see the positive attention that their daddy's give mommy, and they want to emulate that behavior. The title of this picture is very creative, girls at that age are very possessive, everything is ''mine, mine,mine!" It is if the little girl wants to make sure that that jewelry is her's!
This photo really shows how gender roles start at such a young age. This little girl is not yet two but already knows what to put on to be a girl. Since her parents didn't take the jewelry off her neck she now knows it is ok to wear them. What is little girls was to have a toy truck in there hands would it go the same way as it did in this photo?
I think it is so funny that at this young of an age, little girls just like this one know exactly what they want to look like, wear, etc. They have picked up on the subtle cues and hints of society that deem things girly, pretty and all around appropriate for girls. Part of this I think is due to the fact that females are so much more so conditioned to think about their presentation, how others are perceiving them in the world, and to act accordingly.
We see little girls who want to be like there mothers all the time. It seems as time goes on, the younger children start wearing make-up and start wearing jewelery. In some particular cases, the mothers are almost forcing there children to grow up. If you have ever watched the show Toddlers and Tiaras, the kids are wearing make-up and fancy dresses that are not appropiarate for the age. Most of the time, it is the mother who wants the child to dress and wear make-up on the show and almost want their kid to grow up faster than they should. The picture posted is a perfect example of a young child are trying to dress like her mother. Great post.
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