Subconscious Following of the Schema

From: Amberly

For my photo assignment, I decided to focus on the socialization of gender as explained in the article “The Two Cultures of Childhood”. The article explains how gender is taught to people, especially in children. “Gender schemas become part of self -identity, children’s preferences, attitudes, and behavior as they strive to act in socially appropriate masculine or feminine ways” (Martin & Ruble, 2004). In this way, gender schemas are taught and performed, whether it be consciously or subconsciously. These schemas become so much of a daily part of our lives that we may tend to fall into them without realizing, as we’ve been taught to follow them our whole lives. The schema of femininity is associated as being “nicer, softer, and more passive” (Martin & Ruble, 2004). In a similar way, “girls tend to avoid open competition or aggression” (Maccoby, 1998; Serbin et al., 1984).

I captured all of this when taking photos of my friend Sophia and it came to my realization just how subconscious all these gender schemas can really become. I didn’t give my friend much direction, I initially just shot pictures, seeing what I could capture. I noticed how naturally she fell into the natural schema of women, that being soft, passive, and non-aggressive. In the photo I was able to capture this with the creative element of gaze, taking up space, and senses/face. In her gaze, she is looking away and not at the camera. This exhibits a very passive demeanor and shows she’s not aggressive in her ways as she is not looking directly at the camera. If she had looked into the camera, it would present as more confident and give her a tougher presence, contradicting the ever-followed gender schemas. I then captured how she was taking up space. Though Sophia is shown in the center of the frame, her pose is very drawn in and close to her body. This once again follows the soft demeanor and shows how subconscious falling into this passive and “feminine” pose really is. It shows how women are taught to not take up too much space as to not appear to come off aggressive or tough since that would be seen as masculine. Finally, I captured the creative element of senses/face. In the photo, her face isn’t showing any true emotion giving a sense of passiveness and uncertainty. Women learn they shouldn’t come across too strong and, in this way, they may not show their emotions as strongly as they want to.

Societies strong views on what is deemed as “masculine” or “feminine” presents itself so often that we may not even notice it. We tend to want to fit into a category so much that when practiced so often, it becomes a mindless thing that we follow. When looking at advertisements of women being perfectly posed into a soft and passive presence, we don’t think of it as weird as it has become so drilled into our minds to follow.