“Little Girl Blue and The Battle Envy,” Skating Polly, The Make It All Slow

 From: Kaelyn

            Gender Schema theory regards the phenomenon that children learn gender from their environments, as well as exaggerate the differences between the sexes. This exaggerated difference becomes part of the child’s identity and influences their behavior, attitudes, and preferences. This preference can come in the form of toys between boys and girls. Children as young as 3 are able to distinguish between what is considered a girl toy and a boy toy, therefore reinforcing the Gender Schema theory. Now, this theory relates to a more specific aspect of girl culture I chose to represent in my photograph: how girl toys and the play script attached to them reinforces beauty standards and the unrealistic bodies that come with it.

            Specifically in my photograph, I wanted to first start with what I looked like in order to convey the subtopic of girl culture I chose. I created a clown-like makeup on my face to symbolize the performance girls believe they have to put on in order to be well liked. In most Disney films, there is an emphasis on female looks and body, and their toys reflect that ideal of a skinny, very polished, and made up girl (Mickey Mouse Monopoly, Miguel Picker). This representation curates a learned behavior in younger girls that breeds insecurity, and that aforementioned performance is the act of young girls molding themselves within the idea of the beautiful Disney princess. Which leads to my next explanation, the reason I chose Sleeping Beauty to be the doll I took the photograph with. Sleeping Beauty represents a behavior that is created within girl culture from social learning: the behavior of learned helplessness. Girls are reinforced to be submissive and fragile, as well as rely on a male savior figure. The angle of the camera itself is another depiction of power, the camera is above my eye level and gives the sense that I’m being looked down upon (and in this sense the interpretation is leaning towards a male figure of power). Connecting to the fact that younger girls are taught to listen to boys and let boys be the natural leaders in situations of play and school (Hers: The Smurfette Principle - The New York Times, Katha Pollit). The doll is also a symbol for innocence in the photo, while my outfit (a low tank top, skirt, and tights) is a direct parallel of that innocent image toys say they portray while also contributing to the unrealistic and hyper feminine body type. The colors of my outfit and the picture itself are deliberate as well, the pink skirt: a normally feminie article of clothing and color, and the blue hue of the picture: a color used to portray sadness.

 I wanted the melancholy feeling to especially be portrayed with my gaze as well, I'm not looking at the camera or the doll, instead I’m looking away from all other things. I determined this would illustrate the shame young girls feel when looking at a toy like Barbie, since she has this impossible body type that girls are taught to idolize. It's difficult for little girls to truly explore and self-express when there's that fear of punishment for being out of the beauty norm. Which is another layer in my photograph with the doll itself calling me in the photo ugly; it’s as if the doll is a representation of female resentment towards the thing she so desperately wants to become. A fact that I find especially damaging when applied to impressionable young girls from something as seemingly simple as a plastic toy.