Pictured in the photo is one of my sisters Lauren, age 12, doing her makeup in her room before school. She says she loves doing her makeup every day, but because of cultural pressures to conform to society’s view of femininity, she does not feel very comfortable leaving the house without it. The center of the photo is not quite focused on her face, but the primary focus of the photo should be the myriad of beauty products scattered across the dresser. Lauren spends at least 15 minutes in the morning doing her makeup. In our culture, the more time Lauren spends on beautifying herself before an event means the more she will fit in with the gender scripts set for young adolescent girls.
Gender scripts are encouraged in children even before they are born. Still at age 12, Lauren is constantly feeling the need to make herself look “pretty” or keep up with the trends of clothes and make up. In “The ‘Two Cultures’ of Childhood,” it is stated that “Gender schemas become a part of self-identity, influencing children’s preferences, attitudes, and behavior as they strive to act in socially appropriate ‘masculine’ or ‘feminine’ ways” (Rudman and Glick, 59-60). Gender schemas encouraged by the culture of adolescent girls have certainly influenced Lauren, she unintentionally tries to meet those expectations every day. She may think it is a part of her personality to love make up and want to be “girly,” but those personality traits are a result of being influenced by female gender scripts since before she was even born.
The photo shows Lauren off center doing her make up in front of a messy dresser covered in different beauty products. The purpose of positioning of the photo in this manner was to emphasize the amount of products, time and effort that is required to uphold these unrealistic expectations that are placed on young girls in American culture. These gender scripts are encouraged and most of the time forced on children so they will fit into the socially constructed box that represents the unrealistic view of what femininity “should be” in adolescent girls.
Works Cited
Rudman, Laurie A., et al. "The Two Cultures of Childhood." The Social Psychology of Gender: How Power and Intimacy Shape Gender Relations. The Guilford Press, 2015, 59-63.
2 comments:
From: Jennifer
I think Abbey’s photo perfectly displays the harsh gender norms that women and girls are expected to follow. As Abbey pointed out, the rather large array of products surrounding her sister emphasized the amount of time and products required to live up to unrealistic expectations. I also think it represents the beauty industry and how it thrives off young naïve girls like her sister who believe that these products will somehow make them more beautiful. I also noticed that her sister, the focus of the photo, is in the center but is also much smaller as the photo is zoomed out. This represents how women and girls feel in the eyes of society without a variety of beauty products. Girls and women feel small because they don’t fit the ridiculous beauty standards that are imposed on them. The products are also arranged in a disorderly fashion, this represents the inner workings of the beauty industry; the products create a beautiful, organized façade while the person wearing those products are facing some sort of inner turmoil whether it be conscious or unconscious. These girls may either be facing issues of self-identity or insecurity and might be actively using beauty products to cover it but other girls who may not be facing these same struggles but the mere act of using these products prove that they think they’re not good enough without these products because society has led to believe that they aren’t. I also believe that the white wall around Abbey’s sister represent innocence and the tapestries on the wall could also represent some entity trying to cover up the innocence of young girls with eye-catching décor that these girls believe they must use or must fit in and be accepted by society.
From: Nastaran
The sad part about these norms is that there is constantly reinforcement in the society. If you watch any TV program or show you won't see a female actress without make up or some unrealistic figure. If you scroll through any social media site it is impossible not to come across some type of post about make up or workouts or similar things that suggest what is normal. If you go to the shopping malls, again these norms are portrayed in the form of photos of supermodels or mannequins with unrealistic physiques, and all these reinforcements impact adults let alone adolescents. So no matter what the values and norms within a family or rules of the household, the society makes these acceptable and normal.
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