From: Rachel
Above is a picture of a note my dad received in the mail
last week. My brother’s friend,
Tyler, who is about 25 years old, borrowed something of my dad’s and mailed it
back since we live far away from each other. With the package he wrote a “thank you” note. After thanking my dad, at the bottom of
the note he wrote, “P.S. Don’t hold this green paper and envelope against me!”
What is wrong with writing on green paper? Does writing on green paper make you
less manly?
This picture demonstrates “The Two Cultures
of Childhood”. In the society we
live in there are certain gender roles girls and boys are supposed to
follow. Girls are supposed to play
with Barbies and be pretty while boys play with trucks and get dirty. Bright
colors are associated with girls because bright colors are pretty and pretty things
are associated with girls as well. Since girls are associated with bright
colors, boys are associated more with dull or basic colors, such as black or
navy. Even at the age of 25, Tyler still considered it “girly” to write on a
bright colored piece of paper. For
Tyler to leave the P.S. note at the bottom meant he needed to reassure my dad
he was still manly. Writing on a colored piece of paper or a white piece of
paper does not define a person.
However, most people feel the need to express how girly or masculine
they are. Some people feel if they are any less of the two, then they would be
made fun of.
2 comments:
This reminds me of our reading and class discussion on social construction. When talking about Categorical Thinking, it was explained that due to different forms of socialization, people have tendencies to want to, figuratively speaking; take traits and characteristics associated with gender, and put them in separate boxes. When a person steps outside of their box and attempts something associated with the opposite gender (or anything outside of what’s been determined “normal” for that matter) surrounding society is often disrupted, and may discourage these notions from taking place.
As you state in your essay; “Even at the age of 25, Tyler still considered it “girly” to write on a bright colored piece of paper. For Tyler to leave the P.S. note at the bottom meant he needed to reassure my dad he was still manly.” Though stereotyping obviously affects both genders, it is sad that it seems men are so often shown much less leniency in moving outside of their box than women.
I find this funny but fitting to our unit. I believe that men are more worried about fitting into the group then women are which is expressed in this picture. Seeing that a man wrote on a “green” card and made it a point to say don’t hold it against me is just mind boggling. This is so crazy to me because green is a mutual color, meaning it’s not either a guy or girl color but for him to think that someone would have something to say to him about it is even worse. This picture just goes to show how much society has influenced us to think that if we do something outside of out “norms” then we will be made fun of.
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