This is a picture of my daughter climbing in the trees. I chose this picture because it reminds me of the joy and innocence of childhood. It also shows that she steps out of the girl culture and into what is traditionally the boy culture of climbing trees. I have always encouraged her to be who she is and to embrace her passions. She is passionate about Math and Science and stopped wearing pink when she was 4. She wears her colors, blue and green. Her identity is not steeped in traditional female behaviors, and she is not concerned with what people think of her. She has not identified her behaviors as being female or male as described in the gender schema theory.
I chose her stance of looking into the woods and holding onto the branch because she is approaching middle school soon. I have tried to protect her from media images and have not pushed her towards traditional gender behaviors. As we discussed in class, however, school and peers are part of the factors that shape children's gender roles. I feel as though she will be entering the peer influenced and scrutinized time more in middle school than elementary. She now has friends who share her values, and they support each other in gender neutral behaviors, but middle school is a totally different animal.
The woods are the unknown influences on her gender behavior, roles, attitudes that I cannot control. As a parent I can only influence her so far. I haven't guided her toy choices and didn't force her to wear dresses but it would be nice for church once in awhile!
Her hand holding onto the tree tells me that she will hold onto her innocence and being true to herself, but the woods are ahead of her and there are some paths she will have to navigate on her own.
3 comments:
I really like how this photo represents the two cultures of gender and the pressure to conform to gender norms in relation to the unit. To me the symbolism really stood out. The first thing that grabbed my attention was the title. “Holding on…Letting go” is a powerful and emotional scenario that children and adults go through. Particularly in this photo I think it’s refereeing to the girl in the photo moving from childhood to adolescents. You want to let go of your childhood and grow up but still hold on to the things that make you special even if society says it’s wrong. Here you have an adolescent girl wearing colors that society wouldn’t normally choose for her to wear, doing a activity that again isn’t typical of young girls all while standing in what appears to be a maze of trees. I feel that the trees could represent the chaos and confusion that adolescents go through when trying to find their identity while still trying to have friends and be accepted. At this crucial age it’s easy to get lost or caught up on the different “branches” of what society tells us to be like. The fact that the girl is looking upward has me thinking that she has a look of curiosity or wonder on her face, suggesting she’s not sure of what’s ahead but not afraid to be who she is. She doesn’t seem to be ashamed about not conforming to the norm and the fact that she’s not gripping the tree could suggest that she’s ready to enter the craziness of what lies ahead of her by holding on to what’s special about her and letting go of what others think.
This photo demonstrates the differences in gender cultures very clearly. Boys and Girls are usually encouraged to fit into a certain gender norm. Needless to say, it is less acceptable for young girls to be climbing trees. I enjoyed the way that her daughter was wearing blue toned clothing. Blue is very strongly related to male interests but she goes against those normalcies. I also saw the fact that her daughter was in the corner of the picture looking out into an area filled with trees as a metaphor for the obstacles of challenging the societal gender norms. She has a long way to go and many “trees to climb” before finding full acceptance.
This photo reminds me of my life; when I was young my parents tried to protect me from the media images and now that I am a parent I find myself doing the same thing! I absolutely agree with everything said about this photo. The setting of this picture is an excellent choice and I too see the woods as a part of the unknown influences, whether they are good or bad. However, as a parent we try to raise our children to be, what we are taught to be, culturally accepted; and that can be also known as a “gentleman” or a “young lady”. The title of the photo stood out to me too, “Holding on…Letting go”, because sometimes no matter what the gender schema theory says, we are socially groomed to stay within the box. If we do not, we are pushed back into the box by
other influences such as peers, teachers, and religious groups. Indeed children learn adult roles through several powerful influences. Parents are no only the ones who impact their children, so Maureen, don’t feel
like you haven’t done enough! We all have to find ourselves, and
sometimes that entails not being exactly “inside” our culturally
designated box. In fact, today, media is said to be a more powerful influence in children’s lives now than parents are. That is truly scary! Therefore, this photo is a spectacular portrayal of holding on and letting go; for that title can be defined in many ways by this one photo.
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