From: Kaleigh
From a very young age, children are taught how they “should” act in regards to their gender they were assigned at birth. This is defined as “gender roles” and is something that has a huge impact on society as a whole. Both young girls and boys learn from the environment around them who they “should” be and how they “should” react to certain situations. In “The Two Cultures of Childhood”, Laurie Rudman explains that, “according to the gender schema theory, children learn gender schemas from their social environments, but they also adopt and exaggerate distinctions between the sexes” (Rudman 59). Girls are taught to be pretty and sweet while boys are taught to be aggressive and assertive.
Girls are taught from a young age about certain beauty standards, and what makes someone “pretty”. They see celebrities on TV with pounds of makeup and “perfect bodies” and often begin to strive for that level of beauty, though unrealistic due to the amount of editing and artificial beauty used in the media. Young girls grow up seeing their mothers, family members, and other important women in their lives dress up or put on makeup every time they leave the house. They play dress up as children and are taught about makeup and beauty products. Many are taught a woman needs to look “pretty” in order to attract or please a man. This is extremely damaging to young girls and their self confidence, and often can lead to them looking for a mans validation.
In this photograph I am representing the strain unrealistic beauty standards have on young adolescents. I use the line down the middle of my face to split the bare half versus the done up half of my face. This was in order to represent what society sees as “pretty” versus what might be seen as “ugly”. I wrote ugly on half of my face, but it is seen backwards to represent what a young girl might see when looking in a mirror. On the “ugly” half my hair is in a messy bun and you can see my arm fat peeking out of my shirt. On the “pretty” side I have a full face of makeup, the arm fat is covered, and my hair is down and styled. The hand around my neck is to symbolize the pressure and harm these standards have on young girls because it often can feel “suffocating” the amount of pressure put on someone to be what society views as “beautiful”. The sad and stressed face was also used to represent the pressure society puts on not only young girls but women as well.
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.
3 comments:
From: Sophia DeMaio
The creative elements in this photo are really impactful for young girls to see. The makeup symbolizes a mask that girls use to hide their imperfections because society cannot handle the differences human bodies contain. Society desires people, especially girls, to be this image of perfection without a trace of difference from other girls. As a female, we are told to have pretty bodies, to cover up anything that is not appealing; so, by covering up the arm fat and using tons of makeup, this societal norm is portrayed. The hand around the throat is a great way to symbolically show that women of society are being choked under all this unrealistic beauty pressure that is expected as soon as they are born. Kaleigh did a great job at capturing all these important elements of being a female in today’s society. This photo really shows the thoughts within every girl’s mind, that you must cover up to become beautiful, which causes tremendous mental anguish when a girl thinks this twenty-four seven. Kaleigh’s black shirt also helps symbolize that Kaleigh has the power to choose how she lives her life. Girls could choose to be this “ugly” person, but society will degrade them for being different and not a “proper lady”. This color black also symbolizes sadness so this could be seen as the internal emotion girls feel when dealing with this constant burden of society to become this puppet that only acts the way society chooses females to act. So many girls and women deal with internal conflict every single day because of these insane beauty standards that tear down many girl’s self-confidence in their bodies or appearance.
From: Justin Bradley
Your interpretation of the female beauty standards is spot on with everything that we see in society today and reflects on how gender roles from our youth affect our everyday activities, with your example of seeing adult women putting on makeup whenever they leave the house. beauty for women and strength and aggressiveness for men are instilled from a young age not only in terms of the way we dress and prepare ourselves for public sight, but seen at an early age in what toys children play with. Toys are also assigned through gender roles byways of girls playing with dolls, kitchen sets, and makeup. Where boys play with action figures, toy guns, and trucks. The imagery you use with your hand choking you as a metaphor for society's grip on how women should look is a very disturbing reflection of how we kill ourselves by conforming to societal gender norms and roles.
From: Sam Eisenhart
Hi Kaleigh, your image really portrays many stigmas girls are faced with on a daily basis that they should not have to, and it is done is a very effective way. The element that stuck out to me the most in your photo and many other people may agree with is the facial expression. The gaze a person expresses reveals more than one may think. The gaze in this photo is revealing the stressful feeling of constant pressure to conform into what society expects her to be. But if you look at each side you can see that she has the same stressed, unhappy expression on the “ugly” side as she does the “pretty” side, showing that even when girls are all done up and conformed to society’s standards, they still are not happy. The constant need to always be done up in order to be considered pretty gets to a person and is not something someone really enjoys having to do. Even if they do not say anything, deep down it hurts them. Which also relates to the hand around her neck, symbolizing the constant needing to be done up in order to be considered pretty, which is suffocating. It is almost as if someone is grabbing you by the throat telling you to do your hair and makeup because otherwise, you’re a bum and not an attractive woman. Overall, the main message is thoroughly expressed, each element is clearly showing the stigmas and the harm it is doing.
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