This is my neighbor Jenny. She’s 17 years old. While growing up Jenny’s favorite toy was Barbie. Sometimes Barbie’s boyfriend Ken would fall ill, and Jenny would take care of him. When she got a “Barbie Dream House,” Jenny would spend the day playing clean up or cook food for Ken. Never once did Jenny play with a Barbie that wasn’t done up with plastic makeup. If Barbie looked her best for Ken, Ken would be happy, and Barbie would be happy too. Jenny grew up looking at her dolls thinking they were the most beautiful toys and internalized that, “if I look like this, I’ll be the most beautiful girl and once I’m the most beautiful girl I’ll find my very own Ken!” So, when Jenny was just 13 years old she would sneak into her mother’s bathroom and cake on whatever makeup she could find. Then when she was a little older, she would watch YouTube tutorials to master her makeup looks. The more makeup she put on, the more she hid her face. She thought that without makeup people wouldn’t see her as beautiful. So, when Jenny is out and about you’ll never see her not looking like the perfect doll.
The photo used for this assignment relates to the subtopic of “The ‘Two Cultures’ of Childhood” in Unit 5. Jenny represents that “gender schemas become part of self-identity, influencing children’s preferences, attitudes, and behavior as they strive to act (or in this case, look) in socially appropriate “masculine” or “feminine” ways.” Playing with toys associated with a certain gender thus influences gendered stereotypes. “Barbie and her legion of imitators represents feminine ideals and encourages such activities as pretend shopping, grooming, and accessorizing.” When Jenny was exposed at a young age to the idea that makeup makes you beautiful, she stopped seeing her true natural true beauty as beautiful. In the photo the natural side of Jenny’s faced is shown in black in white to represent her hiding and subsequently forgetting her identity, which in color is underneath contour, overlined lips, and fake lashes.
5 comments:
While looking through the entries, this photo really stuck out to my eye. My assumption was it was somehow related to make up, a girl’s self-image, and how she saw herself due to society’s guide lines. I thought the image was going to discuss beauty standards and how society has the standards on how a female should be made up and always looking their best. I was correct. The image displays the idea that the author portrayed to the full extent. They used the color aspect of the photo to display two sides, the emotional part too. The two-toned image shows her natural without make-up. But the other half then shows how society portrays “beauty”. She has on a full face of make-up, up to the society standards. The black and white half shows that she is upset with her natural beauty and that society says no make-up is not the correct way for a female to look when she goes out. While the colored image shows her made up with make-up, how society says she should look. The author talks about how Barbie influenced her life choices, make-up and the feminine caretaker role. It is displayed on the photo in words “Barbie” on the made-up side to express the idea of how Barbie influenced her look. They also talk about how social media, such as YouTube, influenced her look. She relates these things to society, and how society has this standard, feminist beauty standard, the caretaker role that women should partake in.
Sarah M ^
From: Cassidy
This photo stood out to me because I can relate to this concept. Society has a huge role on girls and have certain expectations on how we are supposed to look. The colors between the two pictures do a great job on explaining the message of the picture. Another thing you could say about the black and white colors is how she feels about herself. Looking at the picture I get this serious mood from the black and white side. She wants to be happy with herself, but she can’t unless she has makeup on her face. On the color side this could also show how much society has an impact on girls. For example the fake eyelashes are not a necessity for a normal beauty routine, but since society has engraved that into our minds girls feel like they must have them. If girls have their full face done with makeup then they are automatically accepted by society. Another thing that caught my eye was when you stated that Jenny would start putting on makeup by the age of thirteen. This is important to explaining the message because it makes you think how much toys can have an impact on little girls such as “Barbie’s”. Girls are growing up with these expectations that they need to look like the average Barbie doll. I think it is sad that at such a young age girls are expected to have the perfect body and need to know how to do their own makeup. Girls often forget who they actually are while they are trying to be accepted by society. It was important to include the word “Barbie” to tie the message together. Another thing I got from the picture is how Jenny is centered in the middle. To me this is creating a message that she is society’s center of attention.
From: Alexis
While looking through all the pictures, this one stood out the most. Society has a really big impact on women and on how they should act or how they should look. Society makes women think that they need to cake their face up in make-up to look beautiful and not show their natural selves. There are a lot of women out there who put on so much make-up because they think they are “ugly” when they don’t have any on. While reading this, it says that the girl is thirteen and wearing make-up. It also says that her playing with Barbie's made her want to start wearing make-up, because since Barbie looked her best for Ken, Ken was happy, so Barbie was happy. This is important because this show how much of an impact Barbie dolls and other toys may have on children. Barbie dolls are showing that you need to dress up and that you need to put so much make up on to make a man happy when It shouldn’t be that way. This picture does good explaining that. The black and white shows that she does not like her natural beauty and the colored shows the Barbie written in the corner, and how she had to put on lipstick and fake eyelashes and eyeliner to feel more beautiful. This displays the idea the author described and explains how society has a huge impact on the image women and even children’s expectations in life.
From: Alexis B.
I really love this photo and the meaning behind it. It does a wonderful job at showing the differences between the “norm” and the beauty “norm” that women face every day in society. Mass media shows us their definition of beautiful women all day long, but what defines beautiful? It seems like the standard is becoming more dramatized every day. Women don’t wake up with full lips, perfectly sculpted cheekbones, and voluptuous eyelashes. As someone who has grown up bombarded with the very media that controls my self-image, I have conformed. I see a lot of myself in this photo when I look at it and after reading your explanation I see that it is an issue that many girls face when growing up. From a very young age (grade 4), my mother started doing my makeup for school. I started to develop acne at a very young age which is why I guess she felt the need to cover it up so that I could fit in. I will never forget how it made me feel and from 4th grade until now, I have never attended one day of school without foundation on my face. Of course, I have added to the amount of product but even on my “light” makeup days, I cover my skin. This photo also does a great job with using creative elements to show the underlying message. The black and white side shows that the natural side of the girl’s face is recessed and not considered “beautiful.” The colorful side really shows off the bold lip, full eyelashes, and chiseled cheekbone. The attention drawn to the colored side shows how society is gravitated toward their standard of “beautiful.”
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