This girl is only eleven years old and does her makeup almost every day before school. Girls at young ages grow up believing that in order to look pretty or socially acceptable they must wear makeup. They learn this through movies, television shows, parents, peers, siblings, etcetera. In this photo, the eleven-year-old girl is watching a female youtuber doing a makeup tutorial. The girl is imitating what the youtuber is doing so she can get the same look as the female youtuber. Gender roles are learned through observation and imitation, and a huge part of this is learned from the media. Young girls see their favorite youtubers, famous actors, and their role models involving in certain actions, so they will copy that behavior. This is where girls learn beauty “expectations” and “standards” to follow so they can be socially accepted by their peers. Some of these “standards” include dressing a certain way, having your hair done a certain way, wearing makeup, shaving body hair, etcetera.
Also, in this photo you can tell that the camera angle is facing up toward her and that she takes up a lot of the picture. This portrays how she is socially accepted by her peers and how makeup makes a girl look more feminine. Almost all females learn certain beauty standard at a young age and try to fit in those standards as much as possible to feel pretty and beautiful.
Finally, the key part of this photo is the Barbie poster hanging on the wall behind her. The poster indicates that she grew up playing with Barbies and idealizing her because it is hanging on her wall. Barbies are considered a girl toy which is a perfect example of the gender schema theory. In the article, the “Two Cultures” of Childhood it says, “Reactions to novel toys confirm that children do not merely learn by rote which toys are for boys and which are for girls but extract general qualities that distinguish masculine from feminine. In other words, they have begun to learn a more general gender schema” (Rudman 60). At young ages parents give their daughters dolls and Barbies to play with just like the girl in the photo. Playing with these dolls portrayed what characteristics are considered “female” and what are considered “male”, which develops gender schemas. Barbie usually wears dresses and heels, wears makeup, has her hair done, and has a specific body figure. These characteristics are all examples of what girls grow up to think as feminine. Also, in the same article it says, “Gender schemas become part of self-identity, influencing children’s preferences, attitudes, and behavior as they strive to act in socially appropriate “masculine” or “feminine” ways” (Rudman 59-60). As young girls play with these dolls, they grow up wanting to look or be just like Barbie because that is what a beautiful female looks like. The girl in the picture grew up playing with a doll that has a full face of makeup and characterizes that as feminine. So, she starts imitating that behavior, so she can fit into her female environment.
2 comments:
From Adilia
In this photo, I can see different strategies being employed to show part of our “girl’s culture.” Something that really called my attention about the photo is how the room’s lighting helps emphasize the girl who is focusing on putting her make up on. Through this the girl expresses her desire to fit into the beauty standards. We basically learn how to act like a girl by watching the people around us, through the different institutions we are part of, which also includes the media. The cellphone is a communication tool; in the photograph, we can see how it symbolizes the media in general. The media has become so important for our generation nowadays that it is almost impossible to escape it. Having access to so much technology is both a blessing and a curse because although this has helped save many lives, it has also caused many deaths. Through our mobile devices, we are constantly reminded of our society’s standards for girls and boys. It is hard to try not to be influenced by the looks when you are constantly seeing people post photographs looking flawless on social media. Through the media, we get either positive or negative reinforcement for our behavior. The words on the poster say “love that style” which represents the positive reinforcement we get when we conform to society standards because it means we are playing the role of the girl right. I really liked this photograph because of the deeper meaning that it has.
From: John
You mentioned the way the subject in the photo takes up a lot of space, but I found it very interesting in how all the other elements of the image seem as if they’re pressing down on her, confining and forcing her into a predefined role. The angle and composition of the shot all support this feeling of oppressiveness, of being marginalized by the culture at wide and be forced into a box simply because of one’s gender. The majority of the image is dominated by the other elements in the room, while the subject is being forced off to the left hand side of the photo. Most of their body is offscreen; in other words, they are quite literally being forced into the margins of the image, which really helps reinforce the meaning of the photo.
Additionally, I found that the way the poster of Barbie is framed—in the right in center of the frame, right where the eye is most drawn—to give the photo a lot of impact and power, and really helps to convey the overall message of the photo. The text on the poster really drills down into the way society forces onto young girls the idea that they must always be concerned with improving their beauty and style: they can’t just be kids, they need to fit into a predefined beauty standard, even at a very young age.
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