From: Amber
Take a look at the picture, take a
closer look. What do you see? Boys in the back girls in the front. Segregation
of the two sexes. Little boys and little girls are always brought up different,
taught not to play with Barbie dolls or action figures. Understanding gender
and development of gender relations can play a big role in how we view this
picture. From this picture we see two little girls engaging in a playful
conversation; creating laughter, telling jokes, creating fantasy stories with a
toy bear or just having fun as little girls do.
The girl in the red to the left has her hands on her face like she’s
really listening and is intrigued by what she is hearing from her friend. As we look into the picture more we see a
group of boys in the background in a circle also engaged in, what seems to be,
another interesting story. Neither the
girls nor the boys are interacting with each other. Why is that? Well, to me the
angle at which this was taken, to me, shows the child hood fiction of cooties. The book states that “… children enforce norms
that minimize contact with other-sex peers…” With the two groups separated it
shows that they don’t want to be touched, we can also compare this to the
childhood game tag. They may not be running around but in the game the children
still don’t want to be touched. You see a group of girls who don’t want to be
near the boys because they think they might catch something from the girls and
vice versa. The book also states that girls most prefer same sex pairs and boys
prefer same sex play as well (pg. 56). From this picture we can also see
"Gender Segregation", where the textbook states that gender
segregation starts at a young age even as early as age two (pg. 57). With just the right amount of sunlight, it
brightens up the room, and shines a light on the moment of playful segregation.
Also the girl in the purple is holding a teddy bear, this may be part of the
story she is telling the other girl. Taking a closer look into the picture we
can see her facial expression as her mouth wide open and she’s holding the bear
as if she has an attitude like saying “whatever” while telling her story. We also
see that both groups are around a book shelf which could mean they're at a
daycare setting engaging in playtime. Last but not least we see a depiction of
their age and innocence, showing that girls aren’t interested boys and boys
aren’t interested in girls. As they get older these children will soon learn
how to engage with each other and socialize with one another.
1 comment:
From: Colleen
I think the little girls talking and sharing also shows the maturity in the young girls versus the boys. The boys are playing with each other kneeling down or standing up so not a totally relaxed pose like the girls are in. The girls mimic a kind of leisurely pose they may have seen expressed by an older sister with her friends or a mother with one of her good friends. The girls appear to be having a real conversation with each other. The girl on the right appears to be showing real interest by covering her face and looking at the other girl while she is talking. The boys on the other hand do not seem to be giving eye contact or even looking at each other. They may not even be playing with each other they could just be participating in parallel play. Which is when children play side by side by themselves rather than interacting and playing with each other. The picture also gives a good depiction of the separation of the sexes that comes at this age. The young girls are probably talking about the boys and how they have cooties. I think we can all relate to this photo and this stage in one point of our lives.
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