In “The ‘Two Cultures’ of Childhood”, the author expresses that from a young age, girls and boys are conditioned to associate with certain roles. These gender schemas are perpetuated through child socialization and the types of toys that are marketed to them. The more children play with others of the same gender, the more segregated the two groups become even though both boys and girls play pretend games and play with miniaturized human figures. Adjustments are made to these activities and toys to further emphasize the differences between boys and girls. Boys tend to be rougher with one another and utilize role-playing to assert dominance. Even their toys are aggressive and portray tough, active figures. Alternatively, girls are much more passive and take on more domestic, familial based roles. Girls’ toys are delicate and soft.
“In one study, researchers transformed a pastel “My Little Pony” by shaving the mane (a soft “girlish” feature), painting it black (a “tough” color), and adding spiky teeth (for an aggressive demeanor). Both goys and girls classified the altered pony as a boys’ toy, and most of the boys (but not the girls) were extremely interested in obtaining one.” (Hort & Leinbach, 1993, cited in Martin, 1999)
Even though it was the same toy, the small changes that were made to the toy was able to completely change the demographic of the children who wanted to play with it.
These toy and activity preference reinforce differences between the genders and the differences are carried out into adulthood. Men are seen and expected to be strong and powerful while women are seen and expected to be caring and nurturing. Furthermore, men are more dominant while women are subordinate. It is as if women are living in the shadows of men,
In my photo, the two objects displayed are two piggy banks. The piggy bank in the foreground is shaped like a soccer ball while the other is a pink pig with princess decorations on it. Although they aren’t toys, they’re still two items that serve the same purpose but are much different from one another because of the gender they’re being marketed towards. The one that looks like a soccer ball is clearly marketed towards boys as boys are more expected to enjoy sports, especially a contact sport such as soccer. The other piggy bank is pink (a stereotypically female color) with princess decorations because girls are expected to enjoy being dolled up and being a damsel in distress waiting to be rescued by a boy (subordinate). I chose to put the soccer ball piggy bank in the foreground to represent boys as being dominant while girls are in the back, living in the boys’ shadow.
1 comment:
From Alana:
I personally love the picture and topic chosen for Jennifer’s photo blog. I also chose to base my picture on “The Two Cultures of Childhood” where I showed how toys are being gendered and creating stereotypes to segregate boys from girls. I think I like this choice of topic and picture together because I don’t think many people look beyond just the toys being issues. Jennifer not only gave an example of a toy that was changed so it would go from being a girl’s toy to a boy’s toy, but she also focused on other factors that separate genders such as something as simple as a pink piggy bank for a girl virus’s a soccer ball piggy bank for boys. One example of how items are gendered besides just toys is the options when shopping for boys’ clothes vs. girls’ clothes. While little boys’ clothes just have an airplane, firetruck, or dinosaur on it a girl’s outfit will be covered in flowers, leopard print and ruffles that is covered in sparkles. Ruffles and sparkles? On a baby? HELLO PEOPLE, did we forget that our baby girl wants to be comfortable too. One last final and great example of gendering items is when a few days ago I was walking through a five below and came across a few girls and boys “Guides to Life”. Upon analyzing the covers of the books, I was so baffled and ashamed in the authors. The girl’s book was titled “How to be Gorgeous: smart ways to look and feel fabulous” and the boys was titled “How to be a genius: smart ways to get SMARTER”. Okay, so what you’re telling me is that females aren’t mean to be smart and that boys aren’t supposed to care about their personal appearance? What kind of world are we living in. For those people out there in the world who continue these stereotypes of how a guy versus girl should act, let me remind you that without the difference in a few physical features, and the way we dress, or the way our voices may sound we are all the same kind of human, living and breathing with a heart and brain. No one gender is better than the other and no should be told how to live, dress, or act.
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