This is a photo of my 16-month-old son Quentin. The focus of the photo is my son playing with women’s accessories and make-up, not your “typical” toys for boys. However, being a single mom Quentin is often around women and observing things that women do. After reading the “Two Cultures of Childhood,” I chose to use this as my topic. The “two cultures” created by gender segregation is partially a result of the toys and activities that young boys and girls are exposed to. In my son’s situation, he spends the morning time watching me put on make up and doing my hair and therefore has found interest in make up brushes, hair brushes and other bathroom accessories. I often get comments from my brother and father such as, “he’s going to be gay,” or “Quentin stop being a girl.” The bottom line is, Quentin would much prefer a make-up brush over a toy truck any day. Although Quentin is at an age where he is not interacting with lots of other children, based on what I have learned growing up, if he continues to find interest in these things he will likely be made fun of or seen as “deviating” against gender norms.
I took the photo in front of a mirror because this is usually where my son likes to bring the things he has gathered from my cabinets. I wanted to focus more on the things that were sitting directly in front of him that he was interested in. If you notice in the back you will find more “masculine” toys, or “normal” toys for young boys such as a tee-ball set, truck, and lacrosse stick. I wanted these items to take up less surface space in the picture to show that they were less important to him. I also chose this picture because of the body language. Quentin has an “I don’t care what you think” attitude on his face. He is more worried about learning and exploring, not what “culture” of childhood he is fitting in to.
I chose the title, “My Child’s Culture,” because my son has his own unique way of having fun and being a toddler.
3 comments:
This picture got my attention instantly! As a single mother myself my son was the same exact way and I have also got the same comments from the males in my family like "he going to be gay" because of what males see as manly or masculine because of how they themselves were raised to believe determines male or female behavior. But as you mentioned also, that's what they observe the most being around females. I think how you put the "Boys toys" in the back ground was a good way of showing that he has the "boys toys" but shows the most interest in what he see the most which is the make up and hair brushes normally known as "girl stuff". It is a great example to show that children go off of what they are shown. if a boy is told and shown to like certain toys like trucks, action figures, sports, the boy will grow up to show most interest in those things. But in situations like a single mother yes we could show our boys these things but they will still observe the so called "girl" stuff and see nothing wrong with being interested as well because they are not born to know gender roles they are learned traits and this picture is an amazing example of that. GREAT JOB:)
This is a GREAT example of how media, society and we as parents play a huge role in gender socialization. My little girl would do the same exact thing except with little boys’ toys. Children are taught what they should and shouldn’t play with according to their gender. But, being a parent I’ve noticed that something as simple as a cardboard box, with no decoration, no girly colors and absolutely no content in it could entertain my child as I’m sure it is the same with other children. I love how you set him up turning his back to the “norms” which are the masculine toys in the background. When others see my daughter playing with blocks or cars they have never said that they could see her turning out to be a lesbian, but I have heard, more often than not, people constantly saying that little boys playing with feminine items would turn out to be gay. This also supports the concept that media and others portray to young boys that they should be strong, masculine, heroic, etc. and any boy or man less than that was a “fag” or “weak”.
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