Growing up a girl in our society, you become the victim to our cultures gender norms. being raised with with my sisters, but also having a lot boy playmates. I became quickly aware of the vast differences in which we are raised. As young children we learn how to play with the opposite sex and how our society expects us to act and communicate with one another. That is what I had the children portray in this picture.
In the photo, the little boy is holding on to the little girl. He tries to protect her or "save" her from what they see as danger. I wanted to incorporate gender normal toys that boys and girls their age would typically be playing with. In the article, The "Two Cultures" of childhood, the author talks about the typical behaviors and mannerisms that boys and girls have. In this photo I had that portrayed by the way they stand, the boy, grabbing on to the girl, trying to make a more intimidating face, by showing teeth, also with feet and arm out. the girl on the other hand I had show a more "soft" or "dainty" positioning by; shoulders shrugged, legs together, hands down and having her give a warm smile. By having the children the center of the picture, but also not take up much of the photo, I'm showing the importance they have to our culture. Although children are young and small and may not understand everything, they still play such an important role in our society's Gender norms. Child watch and copy so many things they see and hear. This is the time where children really start to develop as individuals and learn how to communicate with each other and will a lot of the time, without knowing, learn practice expectations our culture has for them based on their gender.
eye contact with the camera was also a tooled I used. I wanted it to show how boys and girls would feel about one another and the others role they play in the story they tell. for the boy, although he is holding on to her trying to "save her from danger, the focus with the boy, is not on the girl. it's on the monster they face and the "mission" they are on. the girl on the other hand is all about her savior, because in her eyes, he holds the most importance. In the little girl's eyes, it's not that she is gonna be safe that is important, but that he is the one saving her from danger.
Work Cited
Rudman, Laurie A., and Peter Glick. The Social Psychology of Gender: How Power and Intimacy Shape Gender Relations, The Guilford Press, 2015, pp. 59–63.
1 comment:
From: Myranda Johnson
Speaking in basics we see a young boy protecting a young girl from gruesome witch. This photo displays the expected gender actions with how young boys and young girls play. The boy being the knight with his stake and the girl as the damsel in distress turned into the boy while he protects her from the danger.
With the boy, we see he has direct eye contact with the witch in front of him, asserting his dominance, with his teeth bared out, and his stake held high ready to fight; following the gender script for boys to play with an act of violence. Also with the boy his stance with his legs matching the width of his shoulders adds to his dominate stance due to him taking more literal space; but also translates to symbolic space due to him completing all the acts of saving; while the girl stands with her legs together and hands in front of her body shifting the main focal point to the boy.
With the girl, her focus is completely off of the danger in front of her symbolizing her trust in the boy’s ability to save her; by not looking at the witch she comes off as completely submissive to the acts of the danger in front of her thus solidifying the idea that she has complete trust that the boy, her knight, will save her from any impending danger. Shifting back to her stance she appears smaller than the boy due to her legs close to being over lapping and her hands together; as the boy symbolically took up more space to display his importance on defeating the danger the girl symbolically takes up less space to show that her involvement in defeating the danger is nothing more than for the boy to have something to protect.
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