From: Eman
In my picture I portrait on how boys
and girls are separate in an early age based on their toys. If you think about
it from an early age boys and girls are raised to like a certain type of toys
based on whether a boy or girl.
The article “The Two Cultures of
Childhood” the author discusses how boys and girls “are develop separate social
worlds or ‘cultures’ characterized by different activities interaction styles,
and social rules.” (Rudman Et Al). The article also does talk about how “gender
schemas associate maleness and femaleness with myriad different attributes,
behaviors, and objects, defining ‘masculine’ as rougher, tougher and more
active and feminine as nicer, softer, and more passive.” (Rudman Et Al). In my
picture you can relate it to the toys. Based on the boy toys you can see it is
more aggressiveness and a little harsh. Whereas in the girl toys you see how
they shop and dress up. Also shows how girls learn skills from home in the toys
they practice.
In this picture I show a boy playing with
his toys and a girl playing with her toys. The girls’ side you can tell
normally they play with dolls and have toys that are not aggressive. For boys
it a different case you can see. Boys are more aggressive like the gun he is
holding. This symbolizes the creative technique to the audience based on the
gender colors (dark colors like red and blue for boys and light colors like
pink for girls) of each side, what type toy it is portraying. Another creative
technique is the camera angle of this picture is from a bird’s eye view where
it shows it from an angle above the kids. The lines of the carpet represent the
gender normality. The framing space of this picture is it takes most of this
space. In the photo essay “Girl Culture” by Lauren Greenfield, shows girls in
different every situation they can adapt it.
Work 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: MD
Hi, Eman,
You’ve made good points comparing boys’ and girls’ toy preferences, but I would like to add some more creative elements and techniques. In this photo, you can see a girl and a boy with their toy preferences, but if you look carefully, there are similarities and differences. They’re both wearing shirts, but the color of their shirt differs. The boy is wearing a black shirt, which has symbolism or associated with power, aggression, and authority. This symbolizes men having authority over women in society. According to the “The ‘Two Cultures’ of Childhood”, it states that “aggression is a strong theme of boys’ play.” (Rudman, Laurie A., et al. 61) this associate with the black color symbolism. Meanwhile, the girl is wearing a purple shirt associated with creativity, peace, and ambition. Girls play with barbies, makeup toys, and other toys that express their creativity. Also, playing with these toys shows their ambition that they’re willing to learn how to feed the baby toy, dress up, etc. With this toy preferences, “role-playing reinforce traditionally gendered adult roles and the enactment of stereotypically masculine trait among boys (physical toughness, leadership, assertiveness) and stereotypically feminine traits among girls (gentleness, nurturance, warmth)” (Rudman, Laurie A., et al. 61). In the framing space, you can see how the boy is taking ¾ of the picture showing he’s more significant than the girl, just like how society is. In the foreground, which represents the front or center, the first time I saw the picture, the first thing I saw was the toys, which tells me the main message in this photo is the toy preference.
From: Lena
When I first look at the picture my gaze automatically goes to the differences between both boys and girls. The angle at which you took the picture from is a perfect angle to use when trying to show differences. Which in this case I feel that it further contributes to the distinct differences between what society thinks boys and girls should have. However there are similarities at play, both are shown with a toy cash register but the color difference, (the blue and dark colored one placed in front of the boy and the more colorful and bright register placed in front of the girl) further pushes the agenda of gender schemas which teaches kids discreetly on the gender roles they should follow and stick with. Even the choice of toys that are placed in front of the two children displays the gender schemas they both faces. The girls’ toys are more centered around qualities that they should have such as staying at home, taking care of kids, etc… Whereas the boys’ toys are centered around the qualities of being tough, aggressive and leaders. One thing I think is interesting, and I don't know if you did it on purpose, but having the boy and his toys take up more room in the picture symbolizes the problem of hierarchical structure society has today for male and female. Men are considered superior and women are under them, it’s shown through a lot of ways such as in the workplace, it’s more likely for a man who hasn't been with the company as long as a woman has to get a raise or promotion. Another way its shown is the pay gap women face, in the U.S for every dollar that a man makes a woman makes 79 cents. Overall I think the picture you chose to take, how you took it and what you wrote about it successfully explained the idea of gender schemes and how they are enforced.
Post a Comment