From: Brooke
For
my photo, I decided to portray the beauty image standard and how it starts
making an impact on females at such a young age and how females are also taught
how to start caring for a family at young ages. In the article, “The “Two
Cultures” of Childhood” discusses that girls are thought as being “passive” and
“gentle” in contrast of boys that are thought of as being “rough” and “tough”. Gender
segregation and gender schemas are two socially constructed tools that
demonstrate the different realities that boys and girls live in based on what
they are socialized to play with, and how they are socialized to play. The
gender schema theory states that “children learn gender schemas from their
social environments, but they also willingly adopt and exaggerate distinctions
between the sexes and become part of the child’s self-identity”.
In
my photo, the main focus is of the little girl putting lip gloss on in the
mirror while holding her female baby doll. Using a female baby doll was an
especially important element due to the fact the females tend to play with
female toys and boys play with boy toys. In the photo, the young girl looks
excited to be putting on lip gloss as society is steadily encouraging young
girls to do so. I mean, if society doesn’t, who puts “play” makeup on the
shelves at toy stores? My photo not only portrays how the beauty standards of
females are set at a young age but also demonstrates the toy preferences in
children. Most children, male or female, play with human figurines when they
are at a young age. However, most boys play with G.I. Joes, action figures, or
superheroes and females play with barbies, baby dolls, and when I was little, a
Bratz doll. Most boys will play rough with their action figures and from my
experience, collide them into each other when one is the “bad guy” and the
other is the “good guy” and females tend to play house with their dolls, or groom
them by brushing/styling their hair while being overall gentler and more
charismatic.
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.
1 comment:
From Madeline
The picture you took is a great representation of societies control of what is considered being a girl and what is not. Girls are pressured into playing with toys that instinct maternal habits or focus on beauty. The lipstick she is putting on I think foreshadows how women should view makeup, which is necessary and a habit. Most girls wear makeup and most girls feel like they must wear it in order to feel beautiful which thus in turn turns into a habit of applying it every day. The baby doll is another great insight to the life women have. The culture used to be that women were expected to be stay at home mothers and caretakers of everything in the house. That is what was considered feminine and enticing to men. Baby dolls were an early start to teach little girls how to become just that. From an early age girls are targeted and groomed to fit a certain standard of how we should act and be. I like how the little girl is not looking at the camera because it adds to the innocence's factor of the picture. Also, how she is cornered in the picture adds the element of being forced to be that certain way of what is considered “girly”. The blue wall in the photo adds a great contrast to the pink color that is surrounding her. I think this adds emphasis on the fact that she in societies eyes is considered female, not male, and really spotlights this distinction. This distinction for example, is like yin and yang except girl and boy version.
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