Influencers Influence

From: Kelis

From a young age, children are conditioned to believe that their gender role needs to align with their lifestyle choices. For my subtopic, I chose to explore the differences between the socialization of girls and boys in the U.S. culture. Media plays a significant role in influencing a child's way of thinking, presenting various ways in which gender roles should be enforced. Gender division is expressed through the diversity portrayed when targeting the male and female audience by associating masculinity with violence, aggression, and assertiveness. Societal standards relay a different message for femininity painting them as soft, sensitive, and emotional. This is supported in the reading “The Two Cultures of Childhood” in the following quote “Gender schemas associate maleness and femaleness with myriad different attributes, behaviors, and objects, defining “masculine” as rougher, tougher, and more active and feminine as nicer softer, and more passive” (Rudman 59). Similarly, gender schema theory states “According to gender schema theory (Bem, 1981), children learn gender schemas from their social environments, but they also willingly adopt and exaggerate distinctions between the sexes” (Rudman 60). This theory supports the idea that gender schemas are often taught in social environments where children are often surrounded by. Children are conditioned to believe that their gender role should strictly align with certain factors created by societal norms to feel accepted, shaping their way of thinking in terms of how an individual of the male or female gender should behave, think, and act. Not only are differences identified in the socialization between gender characteristics but they are differentiated in hobbies, toys, and media consumption. Gender division is highly influenced by the media, certain platforms and influencers shape a child’s viewpoint, affecting a child's perception of their identity and appearance created by societal beauty standards.

My photograph captures the disadvantages social media instills in a young girl's mind, in terms of wanting to look like certain celebrities or influencers, despite the circumstances such as undergoing surgical procedures that create enhancements to the face and body. Children's minds can often be structured by the media to believe certain characteristics make up the ideal face and body. Displayed in the photograph is my sister Digna, age 11, who gazes at a photo of a model on her phone with an expression of disappointment, having the desire to have similar features as the model displayed in the photo who sets unrealistic beauty norms for a girl her age to follow. This behavior is commonly seen in girls entering into a teenage stage. In my photograph creative techniques are conveyed through visual noise created in the background, which includes an image of a model, surrounded by a variety of makeup components spread out. This background highlights the effect media consumption has on young girls creating the desire to wear makeup at a young age to achieve a certain look. The second photo technique used is senses/face, the facial expressions displayed in the mirror grasping the emotion captured in the smaller mirror expressing sadness, symbolizing the effects societal standards have formed affecting one's personal perception of identity psychologically.

 

 

 

 

 

Work 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.