Hostage To Social Media

 From: Kayley

The subtopic I used in my photo assignment was unrealistic beauty standards in today’s world

that us as young girls and women are blinded or subjected to on a daily basis. The methods I

use for this project are the specific way I placed the makeup all over the bathroom counter, the

position of the photo being that you look down on the person in the photo(Me) showing that the

girl (Me) is so used to makeup as a way to fit in with others that she’s blinded to its side effects

and lastly how the background in the bathroom the most common place young girls and teens

play with makeup and skin care products in specifically their parents bathroom. From anti-aging

skin care from the Generation Alpha age range to unhealthy diets such as #Thinspo and

#Fitspo encourages young girls and teens to basically either starve themselves or to be on diet

supplements and dieting pills to achieve the most perfect body that they can.

In the “Two Culture Of Childhood” reading By Laurie Rudman she mentions how little boys and

girls are more likely to play with the same gender growing up meaning that they as little girls and

boys can have influence over one other to do particular things such as either act up, repeat one

other speech patterns and syntax and also wear, act or play with the same or similar things that

usually young boys and girls play with like the typical dolls and makeup sets for the girls and

the cars and action figures for the boys. On the Dove webpage the statistics are shocking to

how young girls feel that they have to change themselves to fit in to today’s world with the

statistics showing that 90% of girls feeling that social media makes them feel less beautiful, 56%

of girls feel that they’re not worthy enough to be able follow or being like today’s beauty trends/

styles saying “They can’t live up to it.” and lastly a shocking 50% of young girls have self esteem

problems due to excessive social media usage. Also Dove has posted a lot of content to its

social media pages like Instagram, Youtube and Facebook to convince young teens, and

women specifically that they don’t have to live up to today’s standards but instead becoming

more accepting and okay with the way their bodies look naturally and learning to embrace that

day by day.

I felt that all the techniques I used in the photo such as the background of the picture, the

symbolism of the makeup products and camera angle all really capture that in today’s world

young women all follow a code of trying to being ultimately the most beautiful can sometimes

make some feel like a hostage if the code can’t be met. In Tannen’s video about conversation

rituals it mentions that boys are more likely to top one another physically whilst for girls it’s more

they top one other socially and mentally by who has more friends or generally who has more of

certain things like beauty. I feel that this can connect to the true reason that young women/girls

in today’s society feel the way they feel on social media and in social settings alone.

My Sources:

author, Dove. “Toxic Beauty Standards on Social Media: The Stats.” Dove, Dove, 31 Oct.

2022, www.dove.com/us/en/stories/campaigns/social-media-and-body-image.html.

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.

Tannen, Deborah.

He Said, She Said: Gender, Language and Communication.

Into the

Classroom Media, 2013.

Pink and All the Rest

From: Kiara

One of the first ways children are socialized is through their toys. They learn what roles they are expected to play, how they are meant to interact with the world around them, and even how they should present themselves as they grow up. In her article, “The ‘Two Cultures’ of Childhood,” Dr. Laurie A. Rudman states that, “reactions to novel toys confirm that children do not merely learn by rote which toys are for boys and which are for girls, but extract general qualities that distinguish masculine from feminine. In other words, they have begun to learn a more general gender schema” (2015). Girl toys are pink and purple, softer, smoother, and more domestic, while boy toys are multicolored or blue, harder, rougher, and more action-oriented. For example, girls often play with dolls like baby dolls or Barbies, which they use to play games such as house, teaching them to be mothers. On the other hand, boys play with action figures, like superheroes or soldiers, which they use to play games such as war, teaching them aggressive behaviors (Rudman, 2015).

In my pictures, the differences between girls' and boys' toys is demonstrated primarily through color and the contrasting types of toys. To the right, the first thing one notices is the overwhelming amount of pink. Almost everything is pink, except for the dresses on the right, which are yellow and purple to match their respective princesses. If you take a closer look, you will find that almost everything is a doll. Whether it’s a baby, a princess, a Barbie, or a pet, the aisle is almost entirely just dolls to play pretend house (or castle) with. The few toys that aren’t dolls are just for dressing up, like a princess dress, a purse, or a purple-tangled bow.
On the left are the boy toys. There is no one color or kind of toy, it is a mix of multicolored WWE wrestling toys and merchandise on the right, followed by Star Wars guns and stuffed animals. On the left are “tech” toys and Hot Wheels, all different colors as well. Boys have a wide range of toys to choose from, from spy gadgets to guns and dinosaurs to ninja turtles.
When you compare the two selections, a message becomes clear: girls are the princesses who need saving, the boys are the superheroes who save them. Girls are the mothers who take care of the home, boys are the construction workers and soldiers who provide an income for the family. Girls have one “pink” job, and boys have as many options as there are colors on a spectrum.


Citations
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.

A Diva vs. A Champion

 From: Nate

The subtopic that I chose was the representations of femininity and masculinity in media, and according to “The Two Cultures of Childhood”, the media presents femininity as “soft, nice, and passive” and masculinity as “rough, tough, active”. The comparison of the men’s and women’s titles that were both in the WWE and how they are presented, show this. For the diva’s championship, the way we are looking down at the title, conveys that it doesn’t mean as much as the men’s one, presenting itself as “passive”. While the men’s one is looking down on the camera, presenting itself as superior and greater. The image of the Diva’s title being smaller, at the bottom, and pushed to side renders it obsolete, while the men’s is large and on top. The bright lighting behind the men’s title also presents itself as “God-like” or as something prestigious. Finally, even though the Diva’s title takes up more of the picture, it doesn’t necessarily mean that it is presented as important, as since it is so close it gets portrayed as something that it is easy to grab or achieve. While for the men’s title, the perspective and the distance of the title from the camera presents the prize as one you have to reach or work towards to get it, making the prize more valuable.

Now, just comparing the titles, the fact that the women’s title is called the “Divas” title presents the idea to girls that they are supposed to act like a diva, which is commonly referred to as women who are known solely for their body and not as much for their intelligence. The title itself is also exceedingly small, conveying that you also have to fit a certain waist band to be considered successful. The butterfly plate presents women as being innocent or “soft and nice” and the heavy pink and bedazzlement of the title also presents common gender stereotypes of women. Finally, the fact that the women’s title has the gender labeled while the men’s championship just says “champion”, conveys the idea that the women’s title is a secondary prize and is gender exclusive. 

Through the use of camera work, and the titles themselves, it can be conveyed that according to the WWE (a PG rated show made for children), a huge source of media, femininity is about being girly, dainty, pink, and small, and as long your pretty, you’ll be successful, while masculinity is meaningful, large, and something that someone should live there life like. 

Hurtful beauty on youth

 From: Jenn

In The “two cultures of childhood” by Laurie Rudman gives us an explanation of children's toys and the role it plays in mirroring real world activities such as playing with makeup kits, playing dress up, toy vanity, and toy heels. The mirroring of adulthood comes from the many toys introduced to us at such a young age.  These toys given to adolescent girls encourage them to play in the stereotypical feminine way.  These toys can cause girls to look up to unrealistic beauty standards, giving them the wrong idea of needing makeup to make them feel beautiful. This idea can become harmful to adolescent girls later into adulthood that can lead to body image issues, social comparison and mental health struggles. This article emphasizes the “Gender schemas become part of self-identity influencing children's preferences, attitude and behavior as they strive to act in socially appropriate “masculine” or “feminine” ways (Rudman, 60). My photograph is intended to capture the fun an adolescent girl can have while playing with makeup yet can cause harm in wanting makeup to feel beautiful at such a young age. 

The subtopic I chose to pursue is the unrealistic beauty standards on adolescent girls. My photo captures my niece Sabine, 8 years old putting on lipstick while wearing all her makeup and toy heels on her toy vanity. This is a great example of how toys influence adolescents in stereotypical feminine ways. Most girl idolizes the adults around and watch them get ready if it's for o
utings or party's they get to see the process that they mirror in playing with makeup kits into reality and this also show the unrealistic beauty standards that leak on over into adulthood. 

The creative technique I used in this photograph shows the elements of makeup kits, hair products with heel toys on my niece's vanity. I wanted to show all the beauty influenced toy that show how an adolescent needs all these products as they would leading up to womanhood. 

Girl Stitch!?

 From David: 

I was cleaning in the toy aisle at TJMaxx last Sunday and found a toy set pretty interesting. The toy set has four different versions of stitch and with one notable different. In the toy set it had a female version of stitch. With a little bit of research, I found out her name is Angle, and she is Stitch’s love interest. Looking at this toy set and even the movie she’s in I believe this is the perfect example of the Smurfette principle. 

In the movie stitch’s cousins are all male and she is the only one that is a woman and doesn’t have much of an impact in the movie at all. She doesn’t even have her that much screen time and looks like stitch but pink with eye lashes and a little curvy. She is only in the movie to be a stitches counterpart and love interest with few speaking roles. I’ve read Katt Pollitt’s article about the Smurfette principle, and she brings up how there are kid’s books that have a male protagonist, but their gender is unrelated to the story and serves no purpose. On the other hand, the books she mentioned that had a girl protagonist gave feminist message in their stories. “Some of the best children's books ever written have been about girls -- Madeline, Frances the badger. It's even possible to find stories with funny, feminist messages. "The Paperbag Princess." (She rescues the prince from a dragon, but he's so ungrateful that she decides not to marry him, after all.) But books about girls are a subset in a field that includes a much larger subset of books about boys (12 of the 14 storybooks singled out for praise in last year's Christmas roundup in Newsweek, for instance) and books in which the sex of the child is theoretically unimportant” -Katt Pollitt. 

The toy set I chose for this assignment shows the Smurfette principle because they have so many different kinds of characters in the movie, they could’ve used but intend to use four different versions of stitch and chose angel to make it feel like it’s not a boy or girl toy set but anyone can play with the toy set. Lastly, I color the main Stitchs with a light yellowish color with the opacity turned down and color Angel with a darker shade of brown and turned the opacity down a bit to convey how unimportant she is to the toy set and the movie.

Two Sides of the Same Coin

From: Essie

This photo speaks to the two cultures of gender by showing the two extremes of the spectrum using two siblings. In the photo I represent the beauty standard held upon girls quite early in life by including the measuring tape around the girl figure’s waist, the makeup brush in her hand, and the other makeup brush, blush compact, and makeup palette around her. She is also wearing tight clothing, with a very short shirt in the ever so stereotypical pink color that girls are so often attributed with. As for the boy figure, he is surrounded by things representing the heavy insistence of violence in boy culture. He has a toy gun, trucks, a toy rocket building kit, and he is even holding a GameBoy console. His clothes differ drastically from the girl figure’s, as he is wearing shorts, a dark colored t-shirt, and a boy scout uniform shirt. Another thing to notice about the figures is how much space each of them is taking up. For example, the boy figure is sitting in a way that allows him to take up a lot more space, so much so that he is encroaching on the girl’s half of the photo. Also, it seems that all his toys and gadgets cannot even fit fully in frame, which can be related to the stereotype that boys are messy, or unorganized. Whereas for the girl figure, she is sitting “smaller”, with her arms closer to her sides, her legs close together, and her things are more neatly placed around her and in frame, showing the stereotypical gentleness and cleanliness. I chose to angle the photo this way and crop the faces out to put more focus on the stark differences of their other features and what they have around them, instead of drawing more attention to their faces. 

In The “Two Cultures” of Childhood, it states “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.” (Two Cultures) I think this is represented through this photo because of the contrast between the two figures and the objects surrounding them. I think the qualities that represent this quote are the differences in body language and space taken up, the drastic difference between the softness and violent nature of the toys and objects, and the figures' clothing. I think these all represent gender socialization in children because these figures are clearly on the older end of childhood, but the items used in the photo surrounding them were objects from their own bedrooms. They were raised with harsh gender norms and stuck to them as they went through childhood, and eventually their teenage years. Although these differences may not be as drastic and distinctly recognizable in everyday life because of the two cultures strictly enforced on children, they will almost always be strongly present in clothing, preferences, and behavior throughout life. 

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.

The Purity Dilemma

From A: 

My photograph demonstrates how young girls are taught two different and conflicting ideas about their bodies and how they are supposed to act. The first one is purity. There’s this idea that girls are supposed to maintain their purity by dressing modestly and not having sex until marriage. They are told that they are delicate and, in a way, sacred. On the other hand, there’s pressure to be provocative and dress in a way that appeals to men. They’re taught that their looks and their body is their greatest asset and that they should present it to men. I wanted to capture the contradictions between these two messages that are pushed onto girls. The white of the top represents purity and the innocence of childhood. However, the top is stuffed to make the breasts appear larger, signifying how girls feel the need to sexualize themselves in order to be considered attractive. Sara, a 19 year old girl who was interviewed for Lauren Greenfield’s photo essay “Girl Culture”, says that “The way I relate to people is based on how I look…” When one beauty standard is pushed onto so many girls and women, it leads to feelings of low self worth. They may turn to things like restrictive diets, cosmetics, or surgery in order to fit societal expectations.

The hands holding the breasts show how girls are taught to give their bodies to men, but at the same time keep them concealed. Every message is contradictory, and following either side leads to criticism. Having the arms crossed shows the insecurity this type of socialization causes and how confusing these mixed messages are. 19 year old Lillian, also interviewed for Lauren Greenfield’s photo essays, says “But this city definitely teaches you that youth and sexuality go hand in hand.” Young girls don’t choose to sexualize themselves because they want to, but because they are told that it’s how they will be liked. This messaging is both explicit and implied through media, where girls are shown getting more positive attention when they look or act a certain way. Seeing this growing up has a lot of impact on how they will view themselves later in life.

 

Socialized into Segregation

 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

Women Beauty Standards

From: Isabella

In this picture is my younger sister getting ready to leave for her homecoming dance. In this picture I have her standing in the center where the sunlight would hit her. I do this to represent her as themain character, how important she is. On the other hand, I also back up to make her  look smaller. I do this to capture everything but to also represent how she’s a small part of women beauty standards. As she was getting ready, she had all these emotions and thoughts to make sure she looked pretty but didn’t get judged by others. I then had her pose in the way she felt capture of essence. She told me that she chose this pose because she felt the most beautiful thing about her was her smile. She thought everything was pretty but the one thing she didn’t change, or tweak was her smile in symbolism of being true to herself. Throughout this picture, I believe it’s important to capture the beauty of my sister but to also keep in mind the process she went through. She wanted to look and feel pretty but not to where she came off a certain way whether it was someone trying too hard or someone trying to sexualize her. These are the thoughts from my 18-year-old sister going to her high school dance. It’s not to say woman have it harder or any worse compared to men but instead a way to remind others that there are certain struggles that a man would not understand. As a woman myself who must watch her younger sister think about these things gives me a different perspective. Yes, I as a woman have also gone through these struggles but to see my younger sister afraid of such things is hurtful. The last thing I want my sister to worry about while getting ready for her school dance is whether or not she’ll be judged for not meeting societies idea of a woman beauty standards or none or less being judged in a sexual manner.

Pink to purple

 From Angelina: 

For this project two main prompts were in mind; “the tomboy phase” and the experience
of being nonbinary. I had an experience with my AFAB friends (Assigned female at birth), and it
was about how some of us had experienced a “tomboy” phase when growing up. In the center
of the photo, is an example of my style daily along with what I carried on my person from 5th to
9th grade. Noticeably, there was a noticeably big decrease in(typical)femininity. At that time, I
wanted to be referred to as “one of the dudes” because at that time, I rejected my femininity.
The Smurfette Principle talks about how there's–typically–a group of guys with a female
background character to provide; support to the cast, the voice of reason or to be a damsel.
With a female character only being the side character or damsel its consequences to young
girls, one impact is that some would start embracing their femininity; wear less pink, no skirts or
think makeup is too girly etc. The rejection of (my) femininity is symbolized with the visual
expression I added to the middle pile; I decorated it with what is stereotyped with femininity; a
frilly skirt, necklace, and a friendship bracelet. This is my own experience and my own way of
viewing my gender identity and expression for the past few years. It can be vastly different for
someone else and sometimes that “tomboy” phase is not really a phase. The drawn skirt is the
focus, when going through the tomboy phase, I still wanted to express my femininity and that is
what the doodles are, just an illustration of what I wanted at the time but what I thought (or what
the Smurfette Principle) taught: femininity is weak.

The last aspect was inspired by the story of “X: A Fabulous Child's Story,” the story–to
put it shortly– Is about how X the child is raised in a gender-neutral environment. This was not
provided for most kids of my generation so of course: the boy was blue, and the pink was a girl.
I mention this mainly because of the color choice of the illustration and outfits in the photo. The
clothes go from pink, (dark)blue to purple and to show the gender shift that I was experiencing.
The Purple from the dress is representing me as of now, it's how I would describe being non-
binary(to me),yes purple is just a mix of blue and pink but it's still its own color; being non-binary
is not what's “in the middle” or “between” the gender binary: It Is its own thing.

X: A Fabulous Child’s Story, Gould Louis, Daughters Publishing Company (1978)
I.S.B.N.
Pollitt, Katha. “Hers; The Smurfette Principle.” The New York Times, The New York
Times, 7 Apr. 1991, www.nytimes.com/1991/04/07/magazine/hers-the-smurfette-principle.html.

Gender Roles

 

 

From: Mercy

The woman and the boy wear neutral-colored clothing that does not precisely follow gendered norms (e.g., blue for boys and pink for females). This implies that the individuals in the picture are not limited to the conventional gender-specific color labeling (Women’s Studies, 2019, p. 47). The boy walks on his own and exudes confidence. In contrast to females, who may typically be guided into nurturing duties, boys are frequently encouraged to exhibit confidence and independence from an early age. The informal, equal presence of both individuals in this picture, however, dismantles such conventional gender role assumptions.

Also we see the boy, posing in the center as dominant and in charge though he is just 7years. He affirms the role of boys and men as leaders, authorities as generally accepted by society (Relihan et al, p. 48-49).

The notion that boys and girls require different, gender-specific accessories may be called into question by this. The image represents a direction of equality and neutrality in more general debates about gender roles, as the strict traditional duties of boys and girls are loosened. It demonstrates how practical, everyday apparel and accessories may be shared without perpetuating gender stereotypes. The picture defies gender stereotypes by conveying a message of coziness and usefulness.

 

 

Works cited

Pascoe, C.J. " Making Masculinity: Adolescence, Identity, and High School." Introduction to Women's, Gender & Sexuality Studies: Interdisciplinary and Intersectional Approaches, edited by L. Ayu Saraswati, Barbara Shaw, and Heather Rellihan, Oxford Press, 2018, pp. 43-52.

Girl traveling the galaxy

  From: Melissa

Hello, my photo stands for the Smurfette Principle because in Katha Pollitt “Hers; The Smurfette principle she states that the Smurfette principle: a group of male buddies will be accented by a lone female, stereotypically defined.” In my photo I have a bunch of male Star Wars characters and one female Star Wars character. The girl character is the side kick to the male characters. I put the female Star Wars character in the middle, so she is like the trophy and all the other male characters surround her. In the background is the Death Star and the Star Wars characters are inside, and the background is space. The creative techniques I had to use is space. The male Star Wars characters take up space with their capes and armor while the female Star War character takes less space being tiny and petite. The background is balanced with the dark grey Death Star spaceship. I use zoom as one of the camera’s creative techniques to make the atmosphere of the picture look bigger and I use a wide lens as well. I group the male Star Wars characters by color so they can stand out better against the background of the Death Star. In conclusion this is my photo assignment is about the Smurfette principle.

Dark Reality

From: Chloe

The “ideal body” of today is not the same as it was ten, fifteen, or fifty years ago, but the
idea of a perfect body has affected the minds of every young girl just the same. Media is a huge
influence on young girls growing up which creates a danger as the things these girls hear, and
watch is harmful. Not everything on social media is real or achievable by most, and when it is
put on show it becomes idolized. The scale has become an enemy to all girls, making them feel
bad about themselves because they do not fit a standard set by today's society. For some, weigh-ins and frequent measuring by young girls has become ritualistic, constantly checking their
bodies, and comparing them to those they idolize.

In the photo, the darkness creates a depressing and scary feeling, showing how these
adolescent girls feel trying to follow beauty standards. The scale is in the center of the photo
surrounded by piles of clothes, showing that weight and size are a first priority for girls. Instead
of clothes being enjoyable and self-expressing, it becomes a problem making girls feel worse
instead of happy when putting an outfit together for the day. In another part of the photo, there
are little hearts from pieces of clothing with the measuring tape running through them. This
symbolizes girls feeling the need to constantly fit a certain standard. In media, weight, waist size,
hip size, bust size, etc. are constantly pushed and makes young women and girls feel they need to
look this way and then they are comparing each other in real life with these very unrealistic
beauty standards.

Lauren Greenfield’s photo essay perfectly shows the effects of beauty standards on girls.
Cultures have written and unwritten conflicting messages of femininity using the body
(Greenfield) when a person's body should be their own and not have to worry about what others
will think or if they have the “in” style or “perfect” body. Styles and standards are always
changing, but no one is helping to change the effect on young girls and how to help them learn to
be self-expressive and not harm their self-esteem.
 

Works cited
Greenfield, Lauren. “Girl Culture”.
http://www.zonezero.com/exposiciones/fotografos/girlcult/index.html. 23, October,

2024. 

Consequences of Beauty Standards

 

From: Kelly

For my photo, I have chosen the subtopic of how there are consequences and risk of beauty standards and how it is socialized to girls. I could really visualize this theme throughout reading the photo essay, “Girl Culture” by Lauren Greenfield. “Women aren’t taught to use their voices. So they use their bodies instead. Many girls are not taught that it’s special to be a woman, and a lot of girls find out that it hurts to be a woman. That’s what I know. It’s not a vanity issue. We don’t all want to be supermodels. It’s a distortion. And it’s something that is tormenting and frustrating and sad, and it’s a struggle to come back. If you can come back.” (Girl Culture, Interview with Erin, a woman in eating disorder treatment). This specific interview emphasizes there is a torturing routine women have to go through in order to fit into beauty standard, because if they don’t, they have nothing because their voices are pushed down. In my photo, I used gradient lighting to highlight the “beauty” of trying to fit the beauty standard, and to take the spotlight away from the truth of it. Where the light hits the brightest, you can see the lipgloss and cosmetic products that are heavily associated with women fitting social standards, but on the far right (the darkest part of the picture), we get into the “ugly”, starting of with zero calorie sweetener. I saw this as a needed part of the picture because all my life, the women that I have looked up to only ever used Splenda, low calorie sweeteners, or only drink diet sodas. And these things have always been associated with them “needing” to have these things in order to “keep weight off”, AKA stay within the standards. Past the sweeteners, and almost not visible, there is berberine, also known as “nature’s ozempic” or an appetite suppressant pill. Another element that I added to my picture was the confetti/glitter, the glitter is more concentrated on the highlighted side, and becomes more sparse as you move to the left. 

Photo Assignment

 

From: Glendys

From the moment we are born, we are shown that boys play with trucks, and girls play with Barbies. While we observe, we see the roles each gender comes to play. If our mother cleans and cooks, fathers build and work. Gender norms dictate girls wear pink, and boys wear blue. We have the freedom to choose our gender and, especially, how we express it. Playing with Barbies and babies is expected for girls, while playing with cars and guns is expected for boys. The media promotes these toys differently for boys and girls to uphold gender stereotypes and roles that children will play in the future.

My image depicts a 14-year-old boy sweeping. Typically, boys play sports and hang out with friends. On the other hand, girls stay home and tidy up the house, aiming to impress. In advertising, such as websites and magazines, females are usually shown doing the cleaning. Some may think it's unusual to see a young boy cleaning, suggesting something might be wrong at home. However, my intention is to show different role plays being switched. As Laurie A. Rudman explains in "Two Cultures of Childhood,"Segregation both allows and encourages boys and girls to develop separate social worlds of 'culture' characterized by different activities, interaction styles, and social worlds." (2015 p. 59). This can be influenced by different lifestyles or how parents raise their children.

Rudman also discusses in "Two Culture Of Childhood “Children quickly develop strong gender schemas (Bem, 1981, 1989), cognitive associations of different attributes, behaviors, objects, or social practices with "male" and "female." (p.59). These schemas reinforce traditional gender roles and stereotypes. I include creative elements like gaze, focusing on the boy's smiling face. It may seem unreal to see a boy smiling while cleaning, as it challenges stereotypes. Normalizing the idea that males can do cleaning and females can do hard work is important. While not all genders enjoy switching roles, it is worth acknowledging.

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.

Being a Young Girl in Society

 
 

From: Julia

 

                  The photo I have taken is a representation of the subtopic, the consequences of unrealistic beauty standards on adolescent girls. The photo shows my niece, Lynniah, at the age of four posing in heels. At her youthful age, she had already been taught to wear heels and dresses. In the photo you can see the heels do not exactly fit her or even look the slightest bit of comfortable, but she wears them because that is what “princesses” wear. Even if the heels hurt her feet, she continues to wear them because she does not want to be different than the other little girls or the princesses around her. The heels as well as her shirt are both pink, which is a color most little girls like because they believe it is a color only for girls. When examining the photo you can see the smile on Lynniah’s face, portraying her in a happy manner. Young children, especially girls, are taught to smile in pictures and to appear friendly. This is also seen as a “feminine” trait woman must have.

“Barbie and her legion of imitators represent feminine ideals and encourage such activities as pretend shopping, grooming, and accessorizing.” This quote from, the “Two Cultures” of Childhood, strictly tells you that Barbie and other “feminine” idols give young girls unrealistic beauty standards to be seen as beautiful in the world. As a result of this children begin creating a negative persona about themselves to blend into society. Many little girls like my niece, want to wear dresses and heels because they have seen the people around them wear them or have seen it on tv. Not only is this affecting the children’s mental health now but even in the future. The beauty standards these children are seeing now may cause them to suffer from body image issues, low-self-esteem, and other problems in the future. These influences are teaching young girls that wearing heels and having a feminine manner is required to be a woman or even be seen as beautiful in the world. Which is not correct at all, what you wear and how you appear to the public does not determine how much of a woman or how beautiful you are.

 References

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.

 

Codes of Gender

From: Jessica

The photograph speaks a million words, through faces/senses, background and symbolism. My bestfriend had her quince on March 16th 2024. Growing up she never liked wearing girly clothes or makeup. Her mother constantly reminded her that her gender role was to be pretty everyday and presentable in order to find her future husband. In my culture our quince is very important, it resembles us becoming women and opening a future to a beautiful mother or housewife. In mexico it shows that the female is now available for marriage. In the picture my bestfriends smile looks forced, her parents are happier than ever but deepdown she feels uncomfortable. The background in the picture was meant to show that they are now living in paradise because their daughter is now a woman and can start the future they dreamed of her having. Her dream is to go to college and travel the world, but unfortunately our culture wants a mother who can cook and look after their kids.

Tough Guise

From: Phillip 

My photo was an attempt to capture the “tough guise” that we covered in class. Being a cisgendered male, I felt that I had the most experience with this topic and would be able to effectively use different photography techniques in order to demonstrate a deeper meaning to a photo. The strategies that I ended up taking advantage of in order to complete this assignment include symbolism, camera angle, and lighting. For context of my picture, I recently lost my dad to his fight with cancer after a 2 year battle.

                 

The first strategy I used, and the most significant in my opinion, is symbolism. In my picture my father’s urn is meant to represent emotional loss, strain, and strength. Placed in parallel to the urn was a dumbbell which is intended to represent more physical strength, and traditional masculine strength that men are expected to have. I feel that in accordance with “tough guise” men are never meant to be emotionally strong but should be emotionally absent while remaining as physically tough as they can be. In the picture it is a more minute detail, but the dumbbell was placed so it was approaching the camera but did not overpower the foreground. This was to demonstrate the outwards appearance of physical strength men need to always have on to avoid being mocked, but behind that strength there is just as much emotional work that needs to be done. Just because a man can clearly go to the gym doesn’t mean that he can easily handle great loss, and that is what my picture is meant to represent.

 

Another strategy I used is a little more point blank in nature, and that is the camera angle. The picture was taken with the subject directly in front of both subjects. This was done intentionally to demonstrate how men are expected to take on all of their struggle headfirst and should not view any thing as greater than themselves. It also demonstrates that men shouldn’t ignore their problems, because that would be cowardly. Facing adversity headfirst is the only way to deal with your problems, despite how healthy it is.

 

This final strategy I took consideration of is lighting. This holds by my design the most obscure meaning behind my photograph. There are a couple reasons I chose to light my picture the way that I did. The first one being that when people traditionally think about time, they think of it moving from left to right. In my photo the greatest source of light is coming from the right side of the photograph and that is meant to signify that you can only be happy once you are past your struggles, which is in my opinion how the worlds worked should the tough guise not exist. However, this assignment would not exist without the existence of the tough guise. That brings up the second layer of the lighting in my photo and that involves where the shadows are being cast. The harsh lighting casts a shadow on a majority of both the urn and the weight. Only about half of either subject is illuminated and that shows how it is only acceptable to show a portion of your struggle and most of your coping should be done in the dark, away from others, behind closed doors so nobody knows about it.

 

Assess Gender-Based Differences In Toy Advertising: Princess Vs. Superhero

 From: Indigo 

Playing with toys are a large part of one’s childhood. From dolls to building blocks, children play till their imaginations dwindle, and the days end. Yet, these toys are seemingly divided against one another, through advertisement and packaging. Toys have become gendered, with boys seen building and destroying whilst girls dwell on their appearances and on their fake maternal instincts. Toy advertisement, and toys in general, are gendered in such a way that children are divided and harmed in the process.

Using my photo, I conveyed the difference between the two aspects of gendered childhood via toy advertisement. When walking through the toy aisles of the store, I walked into the “boys” aisles first. They were flooded with superhero and building toys. The aisles are colored dark blues and black. Meanwhile, a few aisles over is the “girl” toy department looked remarkable different. There are aisles of princess’ and baby dolls flood the space. The two photos shown compare the aspects of childhood. Both show dolls, yet they’re portrayed differently. One section of dolls are seen as more masculine “heroes”, while the other aisle is speaking of princess’ and more feminine dolls. The two are both playing with dolls, yet on opposite ends of the spectrum, on two sides of the photo.

Toys used to be ungendered, and instead were just played by whomever and produced with no intended gender. Until the 1940s, when toys took a turn. Toys became gendered in order for companies to make copious amounts of money from more wealthier families. The companies at hand thought that if they advertised their toys, and toy sets, to wealthy parents, they’d end up buying them all for their children (Maas). These companies depended on families buying into the binary and forcing their children to conform their playtime to it. Toy companies paid to advertise to these families, knowing their pockets would be filled from parents forcing their children to conform.

Companies conform to binary centric ideas through their products, and the packaging surrounding them. LEGO is a brand that notoriously submitted to this conundrum, especially when it came to young girls. For decades, LEGO was advertised and sold to young boys, who could build and destroy their creations. Then in 2013, they established sets of pink LEGOs intended for girls. They made them domesticated, and made it seem that girls should just be baking and hanging with one another (Abadi). They faced backlash, from this, since they were perpetuating harmful stereotypes around girls and girlhood. This showed how harmful the advertisement was deeply rooted in their company, since they couldn’t even create an adequate toy for girls, or just simply stop gendering their previous products. Companies have no clue how to advertise their products without some sort of binary in place.

Toy companies have perpetuated the binary using advertisements since the 1940s. they force boys and girls into it, by making boys builders and girls beauty obsessed and domestic. These companies have harmed children with their copious amount of ads, to the point that I, a consumer, can walk into a store and realize the vast difference between the select aisles. They keep children apart, rather than let them create stories of their own, and live without these stereotypes surrounding them.

 

Works Cited

Abadi, Ponta. “Kids Toys: More Gendered Than Ever.”  Ms. Magazine, 05 June 2013. https://msmagazine.com/2013/06/05/kids-toys-more-gendered-than-ever/    

Maas, Megan. “How toys became gendered – and why it’ll take more than a gender-neutral doll to change how boys perceive femininity.” The Conversation, 05 December 2019. https://theconversation.com/how-toys-became-gendered-and-why-itll-take-more-than-a-gender-neutral-doll-to-change-how-boys-perceive-femininity-124386.

"Justice" League

 From: Connie

 

From a very young age, boys are brought up idolizing superheroes and senses of power or control. In Laurie Rudman’s “The ‘Two Cultures’ of Childhood,” she explains how dolls, for boys, are commonly referred to as action figures due to their ability to fantasize fighting or toughness (Rudman, 61). Obviously, this can also be said for dolls for girls, such as Barbies, as they can also perform action-packed sequences if our imagination desires. Unfortunately, this is not a common practice due to societal and cultural ideas affecting how children play.

The Smurfette Principle, coined by Katha Pollit, describes how in the media, it is the standard for there to be a group made up of mostly males and only one female. Furthermore, this female does not have the same amount of importance and tends to just fit sick stereotypes. Pollit best puts it as “boys are the norm, girls the variation; boys are central, girls peripheral; boys are individuals, girls types” (Pollit, 2).

In my image, it is clear that the majority are big powerful men, with Wonder Woman being put off to the side. All of the male heroes are covered in armor, but Wonder Woman? She’s all skin to show her real ‘power’ in society: her body. These superheroes are only ever being showcased for the male gaze, which is easily seen in Wonder Woman’s short shorts, corset, and thigh-high boots. How is that comfortable to fight in? It's quite possibly the most inconvenient costume for battling, but who cares right? This underscores the objectification of female characters and their subordination to male counterparts.

I also use different camera angles to showcase the importance of each superhero in this line-up. Clearly, the men are being looked up to because they symbolize power and confidence. On the other hand, Wonder Woman is being looked down upon because even though she is a superhero, she is not above her peers because she is simply there to show a strange form of diversity as she “exists only in relation to boys” (Pollit, 2).

Lastly, I wanted to use color to further depict how the women in these groups are overlooked. The walls behind all these heroes are blue, while the floor is pink. It is very common for the walls of a building to tell a story and be more important than the look of the flooring, as floors are only ever walked over, but walls are looked at and admired. These females are constantly being walked over because they are sidekicks or secondary, explaining why the floor needed to be pink in this image. The walls are blue and bright showing male dominance in groups of fiction, always being idolized, looked up to, popular, and primary.

It becomes very clear how many groups in media, television, and toys are examples of the Smurfette Principle when you first learn of this topic. Not only is it very easy to find these specific groups, but it is difficult to show the opposite, as the opposite is not often popularized or successful.This is not only an issue of children's toys or media; it is widely seen in mature films and productions. We as a society eat up this idea, without knowing, which only makes it even scarier to know we blindly support an idea that is so clearly harmful to one's self-image and self-worth growing up and being grown.

 

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.

Pollitt, Katha. “Hers; The Smurfette Principle.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 7 Apr. 1991, www.nytimes.com/1991/04/07/magazine/hers-the-smurfette-principle.html.

Games and Gender

 From: Nick

For my topic I chose to represent the gender-based differences in toy advertising. Though with the current digital era I chose to delve into a little more specific space and chose to use the covers of videogame cases. As video game hard copies as a media are still in large variety and utilize their covers as additional marketing/advertising I thought it fit well enough. In the image you find three games for the Nintendo Switch (a console marketed toward a family audience), two games Murder on the Orient Express and Ace Attorney Apollo Justice, both being detective/mystery solving games (often considered a male fantasy), on either side of Animal Hospital a game where you take in hurt animals (both real and fictional ones) to treat and take care of them (often stereotyped as feminine). This is done to represent the market of videogames being primarily being focused on male consumers as both Ace Attorney and Murder on the Orient Express have a male lead on the cover while Animal Hospital only has a small dog a cat and a unicorn (often tied to femininity or being “girly”). Another reason for these games being selected is that detective themes are often marketed towards boys as that profession is stereotyped as masculine as the role has power, and while Animal Hospital while a veterinarian is stereotyped as feminine because of the role being nurturing. The chapter the “Two Cultures” of Childhood in the book The Two Sexes: Growing up Apart, Coming Together states “Gender schemas define ‘masculine’ as rougher, tougher, and more active while ‘feminine’ as nicer, softer, and more passive. This theme carries through to gender stereotypes applied to adults including associating strength and power with men and warmth and nurturance with women” (60). I feel that this picture shows that there has been progress. It was difficult for me to find and orchestrate a possible picture as videogames have progressively become more inclusive and less strictly gendered. Though I was able to find a disparity it took some time, and an argument can be made that the disparity is not rooted in the games themselves but rather how we treat them. Though I did select two games that would be more traditionally male marketed there is no marketing that explicitly alienates any other individuals along the gender spectrum.

 

Work Cited:

 Maccoby, Eleanor E. The Two Sexes: Growing up Apart, Coming Together. Harvard University Press, 2003.

Gender Based Differences in Toy Advertisements

 From: Natalie

 

This photo shows examples of the highly gendered toys in modern toy stores. The sharp contrast between the brightly colored packaging and the beige background represents the appeal to children and the normality of them. The toys stereotypically geared towards young boys are in the front with bright “masculine” colors including varying shades of blue, black, and red, following the gender schemas (or codes) that boys are represented in darker colors (The “Two Cultures” of Childhood 2). The toys stereotypically geared towards girls, however, are in the background with packaging that has lighter colors including white, teal, pink, and purple, following the gender schema that girls are represented by soft pastels (The “Two Cultures” of Childhood 2). Gender schemas are guidelines for how people should organize the world around them, they not only influence children’s appearance and behavior, but also how they interact with people of the opposite sex (The “Two Cultures” of Childhood 1). The composition of the toys combined with the slight blurring of the background toys shows how masculine schemas show boys as tough and assertive while girls are shown as soft and passive. Even the images on the packaging mirror this by showing the boys doing physical activities and one of the girls (in the toy vanity set) focusing on her appearance. Even in the packaging of the same toys there are clear gender specific elements. The “boy's” bowling set has a boy chucking the bowling ball at the pins from far away with the camera centering him in the shot. The “girl’s” bowling set in contrast, has unicorns instead of bowling pins and a rainbow ball instead of a standard bowling ball. The girl in the image is closer to the pins, shows a gentle underhand rolling motion and is not the center focus of the image. The combination of coloring, subject, and composition of the packaging reinforce how gendered play is taught to children. Boys are taught not only to be rough and assertive, but also that it is appropriate to be aggressive in play. Meanwhile, girls are taught to be gentle and considerate in play (The “Two Cultures” of Childhood 4). This kind of advertising promotes the segregation of play in children which then “allows and encourages girls and boys to develop separate social worlds... (The “Two Cultures” of Childhood 1)“ discouraging skills for interaction among all children. This dangerous polarization of culture then can carry on into adulthood, which promotes stereotypes and reinforces adult gender roles.

Perfectly Cute Vs. Perfectly Violent

From: Jasmine 

My goal in taking this photo is to capture the difference in advertising between young boys and girls in the toy industry. We see the toy marketed to boys being dangerous, a wrestling brand one showing two buff men fighting next to the motorcycle. On the other hand, the girl's toy is a baby wrapped in pink and domestic duties, the player feeding and cleaning up after the doll which makes noises that a real baby would. Boy’s toys are “active and tough; aggression… a strong theme”, girls' toys are “domestic… assuming family roles” (Two Cultures). The motorcycle is about hurting people and doing violent stunts, and the doll is about being soft, calm, collected, and doing nurturing duties. These toys are meant to reinforce the roles assigned to the sexes by traditionalists, to teach children about the gender binary and reinforce it in their heads while they’re young and impressionable. The line on the backing wall that cuts between the toys represents the gendered divide between the two sexes in advertising, with the white and blue backgrounds being respective colors of that gender. Normally the girl color is pink, but white is also acceptable, representing the purity that is asked of women. The white area leaks into the blue to show how girls are accepted to leak into traditionally male things, but not the other way around. You may see young girls playing with male toys, but you most likely won’t see a boy playing with girl toys. The statement I want to make here is that these toys should not be gendered, there shouldn’t be a line separating the two to begin with. Children should be allowed to play with whatever they want, what they would have most fun with. The unnecessary gendering of these toys just reinforces harmful stereotypes and stamps out creativity and possibilities. Children should be allowed to let their minds flourish and to decide what toys they want to play with, whether it’s something traditionally masculine or feminine. We shouldn’t have this gender binary in toys to begin with.

 

Work Cited

The “Two Cultures” of Childhood (Canvas)

Photo Assignment

 

From: Ava

I chose to capture the topic of unrealistic beauty standards on adolescent girls. I took a picture of my niece Emma (5) in her mom’s bathroom playing with the makeup on the counter. She’s staring at the mirror, thinking a million things that she can’t communicate. At as young as five, girls are already trying to change themselves. Most of this change comes from girls seeing the standards put on the women in their lives and adopt the norms as their own. The look on Emma’s face almost illustrates defeat; she shows how even when she tries to fit into the norms, she still doesn’t feel good about how she looks. Girls keep getting younger and younger when they start coming to the realization that society has specific views on what a woman should look like; Emma still holding a stuffed chick shows how young she still is, and how this unnecessary pressure of looking a certain way impacts her ability to grow up with a healthy mindset. Another important factor is the number of products that are on the counter. The surplus of products just re-enforces the idea that young girls and women need to go out and get any product that says it will make them beautiful.

Strong but Insignificant

 From: Julia

The subtopic I chose for my assignment is how in cartoons and shows made for children are mainly made up of all male characters. Quite often, there will be one girl character in a group of all boys, who are the stars of the show. This is called the Smurfette Principal, which refers to how there is a singular girl Smurf in a group of boy Smurfs. In many cartoons, the Smurfette Principal is evident. Not only do we see it in shows such as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Sesame Street, which are shows that are a little bit older, but also in newer programs. Paw Patrol is a good example since it features a group of heroic male dogs and only one female dog. The lesson that is taught is, “boys are central, girls peripheral”(Pollitt), meaning girls are not as significant as boys; they are just background characters most of the time. I portrayed this in my picture by setting up toys that presented as male closer to the camera and the toy that presented as female farther away from the camera. In my photo, I used foreground/background, scale, and lighting.
Although they are all wrestlers, the ones in the front are male and the one in the background is female. I placed the male wrestlers closer to the camera to signify their importance, since typically wrestling is a male-dominated activity. The singular female wrestler is positioned in the back because she recognizes that she is not equal to the male wrestlers, even though she is still part of the group. She has accepted her position as being the less important one, knowing she will always be a passenger car in a group of train engines(Pollitt). I also used scale to show the significance of the male characters over the female character. Although the figures are all around the same size, I had the male wrestlers appear larger, looking confidently at the camera(spreading their arms, putting their hands on their hips, etc). The female character on the other hand appears to look smaller, signifying that she is unsure if she is allowed to join her male counterparts up in front. Lastly, I used lighting to not only make the characters stand out but to also set the mood in a way. Since the male wrestlers are supposed to be the stars, they have the most light on them, and the female wrestler has less light on her to show that she isn’t as important.