From: Cait
Addison is a very interesting
little girl. She is almost three years old. Raised in a household with her
younger brother, her mother used to be a Ravens cheerleader and her father
holds several Maryland powerlifting records. The roles her parents play seem to
be very gender segregated, but she herself displays a mixture of both. She
loves football and she loves to wrestle. She’s the most rambunctious and
demanding child in her daycare center and loves being the center of attention.
Her parents both said they try not to push gender roles on her, as she was in
the background playing with her toy kitchen and her baby brother wore her
hand-me-down pink fleece.
So does that mean her parents don’t
know what they’re saying when they say “We try not to push gender roles” or
does that mean that Addison shows preference to these colors, toys, and other
typical feminine ideas? The gender schema theory proposed by Bem, as mentioned
in The “Two Cultures” of Childhood, suggests,
“children learn gender schemas from their social environments, but they also
willingly adopt and exaggerate distinction between the sexes” (Rudman and
Glick, 59). I interpreted this with Addison to mean, “I am raised in a
masculine household with masculine ideas but naturally gravitate to feminine
qualities.” Her infant brother is too young to care that he is wearing a pink
fleece, but the gender schemas and influencing factors, mentioned by Martin and
Ruble, will eventually become a learned part of self identity, preferences,
behavior, and differentiating the masculine from the feminine (Rudman and
Glick, 60).
The photo I took was meant to show
contrast between the two cultures of childhood, as well as the male dominated
society we are a part of. Addison is wearing a white flower dress that’s been
slightly picked up by the breeze blowing outside. The white color as well as
the floral represents her innocence and her femininity. The blowing dress while
she’s outside is another representation to childhood play. She’s wearing a pair
of her fathers’ old beat up sneakers. These were purposefully chosen to be the
shoes I intended her to wear to contrast such a tiny being to the reality of
adults and the overall domination of a mans world, as well as the differences
between boys and girls. This shows a difference because as stated in The “Two Cultures” of Childhood “boys’
toys are hard and sharp and girls’ toys are softer and sweeter” which clearly
applies to more than just toys (Rudman and Glick, 60). She’s in the shadow of
the brick wall looking at the sunshine, which to me represents the different
way boys and girls play as well as the natural segregation that they put
themselves through (Rudman and Glick, 61).
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: Ayisha
Hey Cait! I loved this picture and all of your interpretations of it. I have a couple interpretations of my own that I would like to share. :)
In this picture we see the bottom half of a young girl who is wearing what seems to be a rather odd outfit. She's wearing a floral dress and male running shoes that are clearly too big for her.
The fact that this image only shows the bottom half of the girl's body and doesn’t include her face portrays the fact that girls are often seen as bodies instead of actual individuals. In this society we live in we teach girls that what you look like is more important than what you bring to the table in terms of intelligence, athletic ability, or any other form of skillfulness. The floral dress this young girl is wearing represents what a female is “supposed” to look like, what a female is “supposed” to wear. And lastly, the male running shoes represent this young child’s natural inclination to do what society deems as “boyish” or “male-dominant” activities, such as running, sports, etc. The fact that the shoes are obviously too big portrays the idea that females have a hard time filling “male roles” or matching up in many different ways because we as females are often seen as inadequate in the workplace and often have to work twice as hard to be seen as equal to men. And as it is portrayed in this picture, all of these ideas, cultures, and struggles are pushed on girls right when they come out of the womb.
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