From: Michelle
Most people
would say they are in the wrong room. Where does it show that the kids switched
rooms? It's not directly labeled with whose room it is. This is 9-year-old
Alison and 7-year-old Alex. Our society would assume which room belongs to
who because of the socially constructed "cultures of gender"
that is usually exaggerated in childhood. Alison belongs in the room
with pink walls while Alex belongs in the room with blue, but in
the photo, they appear to be in the wrong rooms, it just doesn’t
look right in people's eyes. If it was informed that these kids are in
their own rooms then this photo would draw more negative attention rather than
positive solely because society has constructed set expectations and
roles in a way, it creates rules to how a girl and a boy should act. Looking at
the photo of Alex in a pretty-pink room with a huge doll house
hugging a teddy bear, he will most likely be instantly judged over a photo
without even knowing who he is. Femininity in boys have always
been extremely looked down on as girls who may be more masculine are
usually acceptable to an extent. The fact is, the audience who may be viewing
this photo is correct, the two kids are in the wrong rooms, but no one
would think Alison’s favorite color is blue (Surprise, her favorite color is
blue). Society pressures boys to present themselves in a certain way which
is usually masculine, dominant, or more aggressive rather than passive. Society
“punishes” the boys for showing feminine characteristics, this starts at
childhood and this causes pressure for the males that femininity is a negative
thing which is a completely unhealthy message to be giving to the children.
This photo is in fact 100 percent staged. Interestingly enough, Alison enjoyed
acting on the role as a boy while the boy did not want to hold the doll when he
was asked to for the photo, instead he insisted he would hold the teddy bear
rather than the doll and reacted by abusing the doll and throwing it around. We
agreed to let him hold the bear for the photo, when positioning for the photo
Alison looks up comfortably and plays with the “boy” toys while Alex stands far
back of the room tense and obviously looking uncomfortable. I asked, “Alex, you
are kind of far for the camera” He responds, “I don’t want to be seen holding a
doll.”
1 comment:
Sarah M
This photo is a great example of society’s gender roles. The artist takes a photo from this angle to display both rooms. The one room is pink and the other room is blue. Society would say the pink room belongs to the female and the blue belongs to the male. If you look closer you can see that a female is in the blue room while the male is in the pink room. Society would say this is bad, just like the artist was portraying. She states that it just doesn’t look right in society’s eyes, because society has these standards that females should be attracted to the color pink only because that’s a feminine color. While boys should be attracted to blue since that is a masculine color. Her picture portrays that these standards shouldn’t exist, and that males and females should have the right to enjoy and like whatever they want. The artist then says that kids are punished when they play with the opposite gender toys or like the opposite gender stuff. That is seen a lot today in our society and again her photo displays the fact that kids should not be acted negativity upon if they want to explore the opposite gender toys, or like a masculine color, or a feminine color, and that they shouldn’t be yelled at if a boy picks up a Barbie doll or take on a feminine roll such as cooking. Gender stereotypes like these exist in our society today and they should be broken.
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