Have you ever heard “children do whatever they see, or they say whatever they hear!” It is harmful to see the four years old girl knows what is snapchat, what is filter, what is fashion. How did she learn these? isn’t it too early? I like parents and especially young parents are taking childhood away. When I was a kid we didn’t have all the technology and social media and of course, I didn’t know what filter is. I think filter is like a mask. It makes you look perfect, gives you some makeup, some shadow, but it’s not you anymore. It makes you far from YOU. The four years old girl told me if you don’t have a snapchat filter you can’t take a picture of me. Even she knows which filter she wants me to use. From very young age she learns girls should have makeup to look perfect if she doesn’t, she doesn’t look good enough to even take a picture. This photo perfectly demonstrates how the society teaches gender roles from a very young age. In the article “The two Culture of childhood” The kids start understanding the separation between girls and boys from very young age. They characterized them by activities, interaction, style and social rules. By the category they understand what toys they must play, what color they have to choose, and to which group they belong. According to Carol Lynn Martin and Diane N. Ruble in the article “Pattern of Gender Development” Infants as young as three to four months of age distinguish between categories of female and male faces, as demonstrated in habituation and preferential looking paradigms. The car seat is a symbol of child and safety, but in this picture the four years old girl doesn’t look like a child anymore. She is drowned in the adulthood life. She chose “make up” filter which is associated with adults and is normally used to make them look better and to coverup imperfections, but kids don’t need any makeup because they are beautiful, and they don’t have any acne or spots to cover. The picture has a black and white filter which is a symbol of “separation between two things”. First it shows the separation of gender like male and female, the black and white filter wants to show us this separation and see how it make us too far and opposite from each other. The second, is “fashion” and how fashion influence us even from young age. Kids should play with each other without any category for toys, color, or fashion because they are only kids no matter what their gender is. They shouldn’t learn how pose for photos, or how they must look to be accepted, with or without make up. there shouldn’t be any rule for neither boy or girl because they are just kids.
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.
Martin, Carol Lynn, and Diane N. Ruble. “Patterns of Gender Development.” Annual review of psychology 61 (2010): 353–381. PMC. Web. 22 Oct. 2018.
1 comment:
From: Katie
This picture is a perfect example of the kids growing up today. Young kids now a days have all platforms of social media including Snapchat, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc. When you look at the photos these young kids are posting, they all have filters on them and you never see a normal photo without anything on it. The filters that these young kids (mostly girls) are using make them look nothing like themselves. They use this to look socially accepted by their peers, and to boost their self-esteem and self-confidence. The social norm for girls is to wear makeup and to have clear skin. Also, with beauty norms and presented in this photo, it is more acceptable to have longer eyelashes. I think this filter makes you look like you have longer eyelashes, however it is a little hard to tell in this photo.
To me, the black and white filter over this photo represents trying to look older. It reminds me of older films that were presented in black in white. So, having that casted over this little girl shows that she wants to look older and more mature then her age. I think a lot of young girls wear makeup to not only fit in with their peers, but to also look more mature and older. Also, I like how the red lips stand out and is the only color in this photo. The red lips are very bold, and it was the first thing I saw when I first looked at this photo. The lips bring attention to the fact that girls wear makeup at such young ages, and these filters are an easy way hide your true face just like makeup does. Finally, the girl is looking right into the camera, which to me represents power. She is socially accepted by her peers when she puts filters on top of her photos and is now considered good-looking and confident.
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