The Society's Preferences

From: Mikaela

In this photo, you can see a guy who’s wearing a blue shirt (who do I call my little brother), with a car toy, and a PlayStation 4 (ps4). This may merely look like a plain picture, but there is symbolism. First, a car toy, this is showing the “The ‘Two Cultures’ of Childhood” where “children quickly develop gender schemas” and when they know how to differentiate between the toys and activities, other words “gendering of toys and activities” (Rudman, Laurie A., et al. 60). Boys tend to play with G.I Joe, cars, toy guns, etc. that shows aggressiveness, constructing, etc. Meanwhile, girls tend to play with Barbie, playhouse, makeup toys, etc. that shows nurture, home skills, etc. The car toy shows my little brother's preference of the toy, and when you play with cars, you must aggressively push and put force for the car to move and go to speed however you want to. This shows playing with the car toy shows roughness, and constantly being active by chasing and pushing the car, “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, and more passive.” (Rudman, Laurie A., et al. 60). Second, when guys play PlayStation 4 (ps4) video games, they tend to be competitive and continue to “one-up” each other on their conversations. This shows their interactive styles, and “boys are more likely than girls to construct and engage in overtly competitive games (often between teams of boys). As we can see, my little brother is wearing a blue shirt, when you think of color blue, we think of it as a boy color, as the society, and the environment we grew up has influenced us to think blue associates with a boy and pink associated with a girl. As you can see, the foreground is my little brother who is in the center and taking up space, which is the framing space, and it means he is significant, and dominating the picture, just like how men dominate society. His gaze is looking at us fiercely, which means he is confident. Lastly, the camera angle is at the downward view to look like we’re looking up to him, and that he is powerful.

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.