The media has been a big part on how children and especially boys put on a front and this “tough guise” on how they are supposed to look and act. At a young age, children are exposed to several different types of media that encourage boys that there is only one way to look and act. In the photo you can see how media is affecting the boy. Gender roles are learned through reinforcement, punishment, observation, and imitation. A lot of what children learn through media is by observing for many periods of time and then trying to imitate. Young boys learn how to adopt this “tough guise” because if they don’t it can lead to society outing them and making them feel different. Society pushes images of masculinity and attracts young children through the media. C.J Pascoe says that masculinity is not a homogenous characteristic that any boy possesses simply because they are male, but rather understood as practices that youth may encounter due to societal influence.
For this photo I used a couple of techniques that can show the representation of masculinity in children’s media. The blurred-out face through the reflection of the mirror is symbolism. It symbolizes that the boy is so focused on becoming the man in front of him that he’s lost sight of what is really important. By centering the strong figured man in the center of the photo it shows how the man is the center of attention and the boy is merely a “pawn” trying to compare himself to the strong man. Even in the background there is fictional character on the wall that adds more expectations to the boy. The mirror shows how important it is for the boy to look like these two strong figures although. The boy is submitting into these gender norms by trying to become what society thinks is normal for a man to look like. The boy in this picture is my younger brother. I came up with the idea while “The Two Cultures of Childhood”. Shows and movies nowadays are having a really big impact on children and not just only toys.
2 comments:
Charles
This photo hits home in a way that I also feel those influences. The poster in the background is that of someone who is supposed to be a hero, someone who uses his strength and talents to help others and save people. A role model that men are supposed to try and protect those that can’t protect themselves. Where that is a good thing to try and help others it can have negative effects. If a guy can’t help or protect is he even a real man? This adds to the wrestler in the middle who is very muscular. He is commands respect probably out of fear of getting beaten up. Hess in charge purely because he is the strongest and all other men are lesser than him as a result. But should that be what guys need to strive for anything? Absolutely not. People in general shouldn’t have to be physically strong to be treat well. Yet both images say otherwise. The blurring of the of the boy’s face I think also could say that he doesn’t see himself as a man yet until he meets those standards of being strong and tough. As well as his back turned to the camera can reinforce this as well as a sign of submission. That he is not ready to face the world until he becomes bigger and stronger. When he feels stronger (if he ever does) then he may face the world, or in this case the camera. As a guy myself I find this a very accurate personal issue and that how I grew up thinking.
Having the picture of the WWE wrestler, and the superhero behind it showed how men are portrayed in the media. In class we had the discussion of how both wrestler’s and action figures/superhero’s over the years have gotten increasingly more, and more muscular. This putting more pressure than ever on young boys, and even men to obtain that type of body, and you captured that very well with this photo.
Post a Comment