In contrast to girls, boys have a much more narrow range of acceptable social behavior. This causes young boys to be socialized in a very small box. Jason Katz calls this the "tough guise". Even at infants society wants us to identify babies as male or female; this being blue for boys and pink for girls. In this photo there is a young baby boy who is completely surrounded by influences of male culture in various stages of life. These influences range from toy trains to violent military video games. The crib represents the small box that holds all of the expectations and social norms of males. The toys in the crib are very gender specific to the early socialization of boys; the dinosaur, trains, and fighter plane. The football represents how boys play together. Experts say "they exhibit preferences for different kinds of physical activity" and "show a stronger attraction to rough and tumble play." Also, no sport in our society is considered more manly or American as Football. The video game, Gears of War 3, is a popular shooting game that emphasizes the use of cover and squad tactics in combat situations. I choose this game because games like this one help instill the violent culture in which men are expected to have. The crib also contains the DVD "Rocky" a character who is one of the most famous and recognizable representations of men in American media. Even the teddy bear which can consider the least masculine thing in the crib is still dressed as a baseball player. This shows even the softer toys in boy culture still ultimately push for those expectations of being tough, strong, independent, and athletic. The tie hanging off the crib is to show the future hopes for him. The tie itself is it represents success, and power in the business world that many men strive to achieve. Lastly, I choose to put the photo in black and white because unlike girls, for boys their expectations are very black and white. In contrast, it is okay for girls to be a tomboy. There is not positive reinforcement to boys who do not fulfill their gender script whether it is not showing emotion, playing with traditional girl toys, or exhibiting feminine characteristics. It truly is black and white script boys: either you are a man or you not!
8 comments:
This picture is very impressionable. It clearly shows the significant gender role that boys and men are expected to follow. The child is surrounded by strict criteria of what it is to be a man in our society today from the football outfit, aggressive video game, and tie to set him up to be a successful man. The angle of the picture looking directly down on the child and the crib or “box” he is confined in, I perceive as the pressure that boys and men feel to fit in to the gender role given to them to be strong, successful, and adopt the “tough guise” and the narrow limits there are to be considered a “real man“. The amount of the photo that is taken up by the child is also significant to me because the child only takes up a small portion of the photo while the rest of the photo is taken up by the expectations of his gender and what it means to be a boy or man. The overbearing expectations consume him and are literally taking over by repeatedly presenting what it is to be a man and ultimately influencing what the child will possibly become.
This is a very well thought out photograph. Clearly, the small crib which the baby is contained in shows the entrapment of masculinity. The objects inside of the space do a great job of depicting things commonly associated with men and masculinity. Each object is a very obvious association with masculinity, which works well for the overarching theme of the picture. These objects seem to surround the child, being the only influence on him. These influences would likely affect the child if he were to grow up around them and have parents which reinforce typical masculine ideals. There is no color in the picture, only black and white, indicating the clear distinction between male and female separate ideologies.
One of the significant elements of this picture is the size of the crib that the child is sitting in. It is an effective way to show what little room men have to move around in when it comes to how they’re expected to act and behave. The fact that the crib is crowded with “manly” items adds to the idea that men don’t have much room to move around. The darker colored items are also a way to show how a man is taught to act. Darker colors are associated with men, so by surrounding this infant with these colors at such a young age, he is being taught to like them. The size of all of the items in comparison to the infant also plays a big role in how the picture is interpreted. The fact that everything looks so big makes it all look very important, indicating that all of these things will play an important role at some time in his life.
This photo is absolutely perfect in explaining Jason Katz's ideas on the "tough guise" and the box that we hold men in. In this photo you see an infant, a time in a person's life when they are completely innocent. In the crib you find things that are all related to the way that we socialize boys into men. There are sports related objects, video games, a tie, and a teddy bear. The sports related objects are all in turn symbols of being tough and manly by playing sports and having physical strength to do so. The video game - a violent one at that - shows how boys are socialized into violence so much so that they are linked to violence and people do not think twice when they commit violence. The tie is a remnant object of a high powered career that is assumed that most men will have. If this crib was that of a little girls, we would likely not be thinking of her future career but probably of her wedding day. The most gender neutral object in the crib, the teddy bear, is still given masculine attributes by being dressed as a baseball player. The shape of the crib as a box represents the metaphorical box that we place men into and expect them to not step outside of. We tend to scare boys from deviating from masculine activities by making them fearful of not fitting in or being a victim of verbal or physical violence. The objects in the crib are literally closing him in and taking over him, suggesting how overbearing society has become in subjecting boys to these stereotypes at such a young age. Finally, the black and white of the photo shows that there are no fine lines when in comes to the gender scripts of males, they may not deviate or they will literally suffer consequences.
This picture and the title are perfect. It shows that self full filling prophecy that men "have" to be in blue and they can only play with certain things. This baby has no clue what is going on but he is already set up to be a "man." From early the early stage of childhood to an adult everything is already set up for him. The baby does not have a choice on how society will view him if he ever steps out of this "tough guise" and that is how I see this small crib, as box that even though he is to little to move out of it, this crib will follow him forever on how people "have" to look on masculinity.The toys around the baby represent masculinity to the very best, the movie Rocky and even the teddy bear whom is dressed up as a baseball player. The picture even has a tie which represents success in the future, maybe in business where this baby is expected to hold power, simply because he is a man. I enjoyed this picture very much it was very well set up.
This picture clearly illustrates how in our seociety gender really does set everything in a category.For example, the baby boy right away is expose to sports with his ravens clothing.Also video games and a tie basically showing the gender roles of boysand girls. The black and white in this picture really makes me think that society is in black and white.Because when they set these gender differences it is as though we are suppose to follow these. And in society when we do not then we get looked at a lot different. For example, when boys play with girl toys and girls play with boy toys. Right away in our mind this is not the way it should be.
This photo shows how early children learn their gender roles in society. This is just a baby and already they are bombarding him with everything considered "male-dominated". This child has no idea what is even going on or what any of the stuff means, showing how much gender roles are affecting our society today. You usually cannot mistake a male child from a female one because everything for male babies are blue while everything for female babies are pink. All of the stuff in the baby's crib seems like it is suffocating him, showing how much gender roles are being enforced. The baby is completely surrounded by things society wants him to like.
This photo is adorable! It is a complete representation for “Tough
Guise”. When I was pregnant with my son, I completely stuck with the gender norms that were culturally accepted as “boy toys”; not to mention the colors that are linked to boys, for example blue, white, and brown. The color of this picture to me stands out because with most boys, it’s black or white; and tends to be no “gray area”. Girls tend to be more negotiable with things. The football stands out to me for
the simple fact that to the majority, when the word football is mentioned, men are automatically associated with it. It is very true that stuffed animals for boys seem to be more masculine these days. I
thought the tie was a nice connection to your picture because when boys go to their adult stage in life, it is statistically proven that most go into the business field. I enjoyed your photo and conquered with
numerous points that you described.
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