A Young Girls Focus

From: Sarah

My photograph shows my younger cousin playing with a doll while there are other toys that society would consider boy toys, in the background untouched. The reading “The Two Cultures of Childhood” stood out to me when I was imagining this picture. This reading was of significance to me because it is explaining that the segregation among genders over time allows the “gender norms and schemas” (The Two Cultures of Childhood) to form. I chose to title my photograph “A Young Girls Focus” because of the creative elements being used to display the fact that young kids learn gender norms so naturally without even trying. From this reading, I will be focusing on the sections “Toy and Activity Preference” and “Intersection Styles.”  
    

In the section “Toy and Activity Preferences” it is emphasized that “children have learned to avoid playing with toys associated with the other gender.” My photograph helps prove this point. The little girl is playing with a doll, a toy usually dominated by young girls. She neglects and does not care about the other toys in the background. Those neglected toys are a baseball bat, weights, a football, baseball, and a wrestling action figure which are all considered by society toys that boys would be seen playing with. Even though there are plenty more toys behind her, she still decided to play with the toy that is associated with her gender. The next section that helps explain my vision for my photograph is the “Interaction Styles.” It is said, “girls become less likely to engage in aggressive behavior while boys become more likely.” While yes there are no boys in my photograph, the toys that are associated with boys can prove that point. A wrestling action figure and a weight all represent toughness, and toughness is something we relate to males. Girls are associated with being soft and sweet. My photograph shows the little girl being sweet and coddling the doll. This action is considered normal in our society. Kids learn from a youthful age to conform to gender norms without even realizing and that is what my photograph is showing.  
    

To emphasize the point of my photograph, I have used some creative elements. The first one that I focused on was the background vs. The foreground. Objects in the foreground are the focus of the picture and that same reasoning goes for mine as well. I was specific to putting my younger cousin in the foreground so your eyes would be drawn to her first and notice that her focus was on the doll. I then proceeded to make sure the “boy toys” were in the background because those are not the focus of the young girl. The final creative element I used was the blurry effect. The girl and doll that are in the foreground are clear because they are focusing on the toys specific to the gender of the person in the photograph which happens to be a girl in this case. The toys that are considered part of young boys' traditional play are in a blurry background. The blur represents the fact that since we have a girl playing, she has naturally learned to avoid the toys of the opposite gender, hence the blurry effect because the toys related to boys are not the girls focus.  
    

In conclusion, I chose to capture this picture to highlight how natural it seems for one gender to conform to societal norms without even trying. Young girls learn to play with toys associated with their gender and vice versa for boys. Choosing the topic “The Two Cultures of Childhood” and using certain creative elements to capture this topic was an excellent choice for my photograph to represent.