From: Angela
The book, "The Social Psychology of Gender" demonstrates the influnce that media has on todays society. One of the examples that the author explains is the gendering of toys and activies. The theme in toys and activies is that the people around that child reinforces the activities they decide to do and the actionsthey decide to make. For example, if a little boy wanted to play with a barbie doll the parents, media, and/or peer groups would not encourage that but instead make it be known that isn't what they should be playing with.
Another one of the examples that the author explains that corresponds with my photo is the topic, Beauty is a Beast. The theme of this topic is, "women are also eager to mask the naturalness of their facial features and expressions with cosmetics" In my photo, I have a four year old girl named Ella. As you can see she is covered up in pink. She has eyeshadow, eyeliner, mascara, and lipstick. The reason that I made Ella have a pink striped shirt, pink lipstick, and pink eyeshadow because that is what the society approves on for females. Pink ressembles girly, pretty, and cute which demonstrates the theory of the media encouraging types on things for children and this is what comes out as a result. The reason that I have Ella doing a kissy face is because that is what the media teaches girls to always be attracted to men and to basically be provocative. The setting of her hands is almost at a position to blow a kiss but is not quiet in that position. The reason I did this was because although she knows how to do a kissy face and blow a kiss to people, she doesn't fully know what she is expressing. It shows that any kid is capable on copying what an adult does but does not understand what they are really doing. Another desciprition of the photo that is really important is the fact that the background is blurred and darkened out. The reason that I made it that way is because I wanted all of the focus to be on Ella so that the rest of the distractments are gone and it could put all of the viewers attention to what the real problem is. I made the eye contact with Ella and the camera looking straight at each other. The reason that I made it that way is so that the viewers can know that this is what is going to happen to all the females that are encouraged to only associate themselves with the "ideal female" and that are also encouraged to not be a natural beauty to be accepted.
4 comments:
This picture explains why Beauty is really a Beast. I can see that we so easily categorize pink with girls. The pink represents a since of being feminine in the world we live in today. And also the little girl is wearing make up to dress her outer layer so she is more accepted into society. We as a whole have lost to passion of expressing natural beauty to one another. We have a fake since about each other when tend to focus what we put on our outside rather than believing in the inner we have deep within. Today were so caught up with being materialistic we forget to be ourselves. I like the fact that the background is darken and faded out so that the young girl has the “spotlight”. I say the “spotlight” because she females in general seem to need the main attention on them to feel good about themselves. They need an approval from the opposite sex to know that their doing their job. And their job is to please others to get a complete fulfillment.
I enjoyed how the photographer of this picture was able to display the differences in girls and boys toys/interests. In this picture a little girl is shown wearing makeup. Obviously she was taught that this is acceptable behavior for a little girl. It shows the societal pressures on children and parents alike that teaching your child opposite actions of gender norms could be crucial to social acceptance. The fact that pink is the dominant color in this picture shows that makeup is associated with femininity. She is also blowing a kiss showing that girls learn sexuality at a young age.
In this photo the photographer shows an example of what society thinks about feminism today. Viewing this photo the little girl is wearing the typical color that most girls her age would wear which is pink. The color pink symbolizes feminism and is normally worn by girls. The little girl’s makeup makes her look much older than what she really is. Society and the media have a lot to do with the way children are today. Her body language as you can see is very girly and also symbolizes sexuality. In the photo the little girl is blowing kisses, which she probably picked up from someone she’s around or even also the media. The photographer did a awesome job with the photo by focusing more on the child than the background.
If I had to describe this photo in one word, I would choose "Naïve". This little girl has so much to learn about life, and seems like she is only repeating what she is being shown; either by peers, family members, school, and of course the media. In class, Professor Rellilihan said that the idea of "creative play" for children is no longer enforced and re-creating stories is now trendy. I find this very true. This little girl was most likely raised wearing pink, for it symbolizes femininity. Besides that factor, she is re-creating what she sees. I agree that she is naïve to what is being sexy, but by blowing a kiss, that in fact symbolizes her gesture of sexuality. I like that she was the main focus of the picture, because indeed it shows the real issue at hand. This photo was an excellent choice and explicated your point.
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