From Joe:
For this photo assignment, I decided to focus on how gendered toys and their advertising segregate children, forcing them to develop and practice gender schema. In order to gain an accurate understanding of the kinds of toys available to kids, I traveled to my local supermarket. There, I was shocked to find that things had barely changed since I went as a child. As I perused the primary-colored isles of boys' toys and surveyed the bright pink rows of girls’ toys, I discovered that one photo could not wholly capture the issue. Through my collage, I aimed to capture the ways that companies capitalize off gendered play, reflecting society's tendency to push boys towards the tough guise and force girls into more domestic and submissive social positions that tend to be devalued in our patriarchal society. In the top left photo of children's electric cars, I used focus and background to represent how boys develop traditionally masculine gender schema to be domineering and assertive (Rudman, 60). With the aggressive sportscar-shaped body of the Spider-Man car dominating the frame, the little Minnie Mouse car is forced into the corner out of focus. This is reflective of how young girls and women are marginalized through the perpetuation of sexism fueled by gender schema (Rudman, 59). With both the license plate photo and the monster car photo I used angle and line to distort how the photos appear to the viewer. This is representative of young boys' distorted enthusiasm for following and enforcing the “tough guise” (Katz, Tough Guise 2). By angling away from the princess plate and by using a lower angle on the monster trucks, I endeavored to show the masculine dominance the products represent with words like “rampage” and “boys rule” proudly emblazoned upon their designs. The isle photos show the stark differences in the types of play styles that are encouraged by gender schema (Rudman, 61). The boy’s isle is shown at a lower angle emphasizing a position of power to represent the authoritative, and violent play young boys are encouraged to be involved in (Rudman,62). This is evident in the products advertised, an arsenal of hard, sharp, and colorful toy weapons inspired by popular boys' culture is on display, these companies capitalize off and perpetuate the normalization of violence and toughness within boys' gender schema (Katz, Tough Guise 2). Adversely the girls’ isle is captured from a high angle representing a position of submissiveness and servile expectation. From the baby chair photo, the cooking Barbie image, and a highly angled array of soft and smooth baby dolls we see toys that reinforce gender schema and encourage young girls to fulfill domestic roles through nurture play. These images and creative techniques symbolize the perpetuation of the programming of young girls into docile and submissive women. Whether it be the huge biceps of bulky action figures in comparison with the dainty dress-up dolls' slim bodies, role play exemplifies to children what they should value and have fun doing with boys glorifying strength or power and girls prioritizing good looks and glamour. Just like how gender schema creates and emphasizes differences in gender, I used line to create an added difference between the two images with one tilted left and the other angled right. This is representative of the collage and society as a whole, aggressive boy toy images appear on top, and gentle girl toys are pushed into the bottom of the frame.
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.
Katz, Jackson. Tough Guise 2. Media Education Foundation, 2013
1 comment:
From Bek:
Joe employed several effective and evocative creative techniques in the displaying of his concepts surrounding gender and childhood, but the most powerful seems to be the use of camera angles and focus to display ideas of power in the toy market. Through the employment of various angles, Joe was able to convey the power of gendered toys and ideas that the gender separation creates within common society. Littered throughout his collage, it is clear that certain traits, and toys, seemed favored over others. As the camera looks up at the arrangement of various faux guns, a sense of power is deferred onto the cultural concepts that the toys exist within – strength, dominance, and violence are all deemed a part of boy play, and more particularly manhood, which are hence valued more highly.
In contrast, the aisle of girl toys is looked down upon, a symbolic display of how society places girlhood within the systems of power that it wholly defines. The toys that are shown are pink and demonstrate domestic play, all concepts that have been deemed womanly and by extension are devoid of power. These ideas surrounding gender and power continue to be displayed throughout the photo in various ways, but there seems to be a particular triumph in the image of the top left, where focus and background are the largest creative techniques. Here, the displaying of two cars becomes a staunch commentary on the ways that girlhood becomes secondary to boyhood. As the Minnie Mouse car seems to fade into the background, the sharper more contrasted Spider-man car seems to shine in the focus of the lens, demonstrating the divide between one culture of childhood and the other – where one is the literally the focus, and the other seems to exist within the background, or shadow, of the other.
Overall, I greatly enjoyed your piece Joe and felt that it was a wholly effective image in demonstrating your point on the “Two Cultures of Childhood” concept.
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