From: Taylor
Media influences young girls and boys in so many ways, whether that turns out to be in a negative way or a positive way. Media shows little girls that they are supposed to be skinny with long hair and tons of makeup, showing off their bodies to please boys. Boys are supposed to be dominant and aggressive. Media has a huge impact on gender roles and schemas. Gender roles are behaviors and attitudes that are ‘appropriate’ and ‘acceptable’ in our society based on your sex. In the reading “The Two Cultures of Childhood”, Laurie Rudman stated “Gender schemas become part of self-identity, influencing children’s preferences, attitudes, and behavior as they strive to act in socially appropriate ‘masculine’ or ‘feminine’ ways.” (Rudman, 59) She also mentioned that children learn gender schemas through their environment.
Girls are taught to be ‘perfect’. Perfect hair, perfect body, perfect face, and makeup. This is learned through the media and all the magazines and tv shows and movies, models. Girls have this crazy expectation to be skinny and beautiful to interest men or boys. As shown in the “Girl Culture Photo Essay” Lauren Greenfield gave examples of women in this society trying to fit in to these gender norms and expectations of girls. Lauren Greenfield shown many examples of girls worrying about their weight like the young girls at the weight loss camp, also women trying to fit into shoes that don’t fit because they are the style, or even the girls in the photo with Hannah, they are fitting in with the media expectations and feel uncomfortable with that because they are so much younger than what they look.
In my photo I am showing the effects that media has on young girls. On the left side is a photo of my sister sitting in her bed with her hair in a bun, sweatpants, and a hoodie. In this photo she is representing how the young girls in high school are more depressed and start to have eating disorders and are worrying so much about what they look like. I made the color in this photo darker to make her seem sad and depressed. I also used the camera angle technique taking the photo from up higher and took up less space in the photo to show less importance and sadness. I used the gaze technique by having her look down at the bed and seeming more upset. In the photo to the right I had my sister have her long hair out of the bun, tight shorts, and a crop top to show her skinny body and long legs to match more of the media’s reality of girls and women. In this photo I made the color a lot brighter and lighter to show happiness and more confidence. I also had her closer to the camera and taking up more space to show more importance and confidence. Her gaze (even though her face is blurred) is starring at the camera with a big smile on her face to make her seem more confident and powerful. Her pose in each picture shows symbolism, the first one shows a depressed young girl, and the second pose shows a girl with tons of confidence and matching the expectations of the media. These photos are a good representation of media’s expectations vs. reality of young girls.
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.
Greenfield, Lauren. “Girl Culture.” GIRL CULTURE – Lauren Greenfield, 2001. V1.zonezero.com/exposiciones/fotografos/girlcult/index.html.
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