Cook, Clean and Care

From: Emily

The little girl in this picture is 4 years old and has already begun to conform to our gender norms. In this, she is shown playing at centers at her school. She has chosen to play “house” with her fellow classmates. She is playing the mom and she is shown holding placemats for the table. She is also wearing an apron and chef hat to show she is “cooking” and caring for her friends/classmates who are playing her “children”.  She is the focus of the photo and takes up most of the screen because the purpose of this picture is to focus on how girls are only focused on or thought of as important when they are playing a domestic role. She is looking into the camera because she is seeking approval from society and seeing if this behavior is “acceptable”. The phone in her hand not only represents the domestic role she is playing while playing during centers. But it also represents how once a woman takes on this domestic role she is confined to the home and her most useful form of communication is a phone. She appears to be happy in this picture because society has praised this behavior and has been telling her since birth that being a stay at home mom will be so much fun and will make her happy.