Simple Fustration‏

From Amanda,

From early childhood children learn conversation rituals. In the chapter "Development of Gender Relations" the "two cultures" section talked about the differences between girls and boys.  This photo demonstrates the roles children start learning at a very young age and the perceived lack of communication that takes place when the rituals are cross-gendered. Although they try to emphasize sameness they don't realize that they are building conversation rituals this young.  Boys use conversation to establish status but never have full direct eye contact.  They tend to face forward or side by side, their full attention is almost never all the way in the conversation.  On the opposing side, girls are more likely to be fully focused and have direct eye contact with one another.  Girls start conversations to use the ritual of engaging the listener with eye-contact to establish similarity and connection. Society teaches young girls to be more subtle and be the caretakers while young boys are suppose to be tough and reinforcing male characteristics.  When you put two different gender/cultures together the communication breakdown occurs because the two are taught to converse in opposite ways.  I chose to put an older couch in the background to show how long these traditional roles have been around.  This is the view most adults have when interacting with their children. This picture is at an angle intended to convey the perspective of Brandon having more control.  Neither Brandon nor Ashley are looking at the camera but he dominates the photo because he is more centered and up front.  Notice Brandon is wearing a deeper blue colored attire because the culture phenomenon associates boys with blue to represent masculinity.  He also implies boys can be messy by having pudding all over his face.  The impact of these rituals have on young children is shown in this photo.  Brandon is playing a video game hooked up to the television and is paying no attention to Ashley.  This causes her to become extremely angry and frustrated.  By his focus on the toy we can see he has learned from older males that it is not acceptable to have his attention on the speaker.  Ashley is looking him directly in the eyes trying to capture his attention as her hands are on the video game as well.  Her facial expression shows that girls and boys don’t use the same approach or style when interacting.  Brandon is in a more relaxed position not caring what Ashley has to share.  It is typical for young boys to put on a front so they are not teased.  We see Brandon playing with the toy but we do not really know if he is listening also.