From: Megan
In our society children learn what is and what is not
acceptable for them to play with at a very young age. In “The Two Cultures of
Childhood” reading we are told that there is a “general theme that boys are
rougher and girls are sweeter, boys’ toys are hard and sharp, whereas girls’
toys are soft and smooth”. Boys are expected to pick a toy truck over a baby
doll and a girl is expected to pick a baby doll over a toy truck. When a child
is in a classroom and all the girls are playing with baby dolls, cleaning, or
playing with stuffed animals and all of the boys are playing with trucks,
trains, and Lego’s it demonstrates the traits that each gender is seen to have.
Girls are more comforting and motherly, whereas boys are rough and destructive.
The toys they choose correspond with those certain traits and also teach them
things that are important in our society in order to prove that you are a
specific gender. Unlike girls’ toys, which teach care-taking, communication and
style, boys’ toys relate more to things like building, being competitive, and
coordination. Children rarely ever play with a toy that is associated with the
other sex. Many parents steer their children away from toys that are not for
their sex, therefore, the child will never think it is okay to play with it and
will never actually play with it.
In my image, Roen (age 3) is interested in a toy that allows
you to do a dolls hair. When you see a toy that is pink and bright, you
associate it with a girl. I chose to blur the back ground to show a difference
in how he felt about each type of toy and that even though he is standing in
front of trucks, he picked the doll. He looks down in the picture which shows
that he is somewhat embarrassed because a boy playing with a doll is looked at
as not acceptable. Even though it is not accepted, he is still happy he gets to
play with the doll, which is why he is smiling.
I took the picture from above to look down on him to symbolize that
being a boy and playing with a baby doll is very looked down on. It is less
acceptable then being a girl playing with a boys toy, since boys are supposed
to be the “tough” ones. Why do we force children to play with certain toys
instead of letting them play with what they like?
2 comments:
From Starla: This image took my attention because of the blurred background. I like that creative technique it makes the image look better and even helps the contrast of colors. Doing it the opposite way by blurring out the toy in the boy’s hand may make the message even clearer by keeping what they should be playing with in focus and what they want to play with out of focus makes it seem like the person may be ashamed. The angle in the image is a great technique and helps the viewer understand what the image is trying to convey. She mentioned that looking down can mean he is embarrassed I also think that can mean that he may be sad because he cannot play with the toy he wants to play with. I also like the very dark colors that the boy is wearing, blue and black are more “boyish” colors. One thing that was not mentioned in the essay that I think is important is that parents are often harder on boys than girls when it comes to toy preference. If a girl wants to play with a truck that makes her a tom boy, but if a boy wants to play with a baby doll, I am sure the parents will be very quick to tell them “no honey you don’t want to play with that go play with this monster truck”. Overall, I love the idea and the photo, also the little boy is adorable.
From: Lexi
I think Megan’s photo really stands out. I like how she has a boy in the boy toy aisle but is holding a baby doll in the photo. People are most likely wondering why he wants a girl toy when he is a boy? There’re some people out in the world thinking that it shouldn’t be acceptable but why should a toy matter if the little boy is happy? The photograph is also taken from an angle looking down on the little boy as if everyone was looking down on the boy for playing with girl toys. The blurry background is what caught my eye because it shows how people shouldn’t pay attention to what “society” thinks boys should play with, instead it worries about what toy the boy is happy with. If the little boy doesn’t want to play with boy toys, no one should upset him and tell him that is it not okay. The toy that the boy is holding with is a doll and that could also represent why women AND men should both be one who takes care of the children, not just the women. Everyone thinks that boys are known to be the less responsible one and always playing rough, but that doesn’t look like the boy I’m looking at in the picture. It looks like the little boy wants to help take care of the baby as if he looks up to his mom as his role model when taking care of him.
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