The Road to Womanhood

From: Adilia

My photo assignment is based on the article “the two cultures of childhood”, specifically on girl’s culture. In this context, culture can be defined as “different activities, interaction styles, and social rules” (Rudman 59). From an early age, girls and boys learn to differentiate from the opposite sex. Through categorical thinking, kids learn to make sense of the world classifying people as either males or females. Later, the process of gendering goes beyond people to the creation of gender schemas. According to Laurie Rudman, gender schemas are “cognitive associations of different attributes, behaviors, objects, or social practices with ‘male’ and ‘female’" (59). These ideas of gender come from our social environments including the media, school, work, family, churches, and so on.

For this assignment, I have put together different photographs and used different techniques to show how girls eventually turn into women. In the corners, I have placed little “girly details” to show that we are surrounded by gendered objects. Many girls dream of becoming a princess or a queen next to their beloved king or prince, that is why I have placed the crown in the upper right corner. Also, I located the quinceañera in the center because in the Hispanic culture it symbolizes the end of a girl’s childhood and her beginning into womanhood. In one of the photographs, there are four girls’ including my sister, two relatives of a bride, and myself dressed as bridesmaids right before the wedding ceremony starts. The reason why the photo is meaningful is because I was part of the bride’s “honor court” for several weddings during my teens. I was able to see the traditions repetitively, in all the weddings I attended unmarried young girls were always chosen to be the bridesmaids. Even though things have changed with the pass of the years, marriage is still a powerful subject in our society. Traditionally, marriage symbolizes the union between a man and a woman. There are two photos of my mother in her wedding dress and I chose it because for many girl’s it is part of their transition to become a woman (can be considered as an achievement). The words around the photographs are very strong in their meaning because if we hear them we can certainly agree that they are connected to what it is to be feminine. 

Through this assignment, I have been able to analyze the effect of the girl culture. Family is one of the institutions where we learn a great deal of our values, morals, and expectations. Our social environments help shape our character, help us build a self-identity. But up to a point, it can end up hurting our girls, that from an early age learn what is expected from them as females. They learn to like pink, princesses, acting cute, sweet, and that they are weak. The road to womanhood can be tough when a girl does not conform society’s standards. Girls learn what they should like or not like if they want to be considered feminine.

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.