For this assignment I have chosen the topic of the elements
of childhood that are gendered. The first element of childhood that is gendered
is the fact that little boys are taught to always be tough and not to show
emotion. I showed this in my photo by having my 2 cousins pose with there arms
flexed to show their muscles. I also told one of them to look serious or tough.
Little boys are raised to always be tough and not show emotion because that is
what “boys” are supposed to do. Meanwhile we raise little girls that it is okay
to sow emotion and cry. Also, that boys will come to their rescue and protect
them. Both little girls and little boys should be able to show their emotions
and be tough. I also showed the element of raising boys to believe that they are
tough and to feel powerful by taking the photo from down low at an upward
angel. So that the photo makes the audience feel like they are looking up at
them. The next element I chose to show was the color of their clothes. I had
them were blue because blue is labeled as a boy color and the color that people
associate a boy with, when you have a baby boy people bring blue balloons, blue
clothes, blue toys, and more. From the minute people find out the gender of a
child elements of their life are gendered. Boys should be able to like pink and
girls should be able to like blue. Although when a little girl likes a “boy
color” it isn’t that big of a deal but if a boy likes a girly color then
something is wrong. The last element I
have chosen is the fact that one of my cousin’s shirts says “How I role” on the
front in letters that look like dirt rolling down his shirt. This is another
example of elements of childhood that is gendered because when people think
about little boys they think energetic, messy, dirty, athletic, and more. That
it is expected that little boys be dirty and that is okay. But with little
girls they are expected to be clean and calm. Elements of childhood that are
gendered is a real thing in life that most people don’t notice and are oblivious
too. In my photo I really tried to capture this aspect by the poses of the
kinds, what they were wearing, and how I took the picture.
Citations
The "Two Cultures” of Childhood
X a Famous Childs Story
1 comment:
From: Lydia
In Hannah’s photo, she displayed her two little cousins acting out the traditional gender role of boys being tough. She was trying to show the elements of childhood that are gendered, such as clothing, color and how children are supposed to act. She used creative elements such as the boys’ faces, the camera angle, and color to show her point. I thought their faces came across very powerful. One of the boys is smiling which is contrasting the ‘tough’ pose he is acting out, which spoke to me. To me, it stood out because I was expecting when looking at the photo, to see a boy looking tough. The boy at the front has more of a tough face, but it almost looked forced, which to be showed the idea of the ‘tough guise’ being a disguise. I liked the contrast between the two boys’ faces. To me, it seemed like one boy was showing the disguise and one was acting more natural. I also liked how Hannah talked about the colors. She wanted her cousins to wear blue to show that that is the traditional color for little boys to wear, and how immediately even from the time the baby is born, boys are represented by the color blue. Something else I noticed was the motorcycle on one of the boys’ shirts. A little boy’s shirt would never have a unicorn, a crown, or any other ‘sparkly’ or ‘girly’ object. Most boys’ clothing has an object representing masculinity – in this case, a motorcycle. That element stood out to me, because it was just one more element that added to the image.
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