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.

 

 

 

 

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.

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.

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.

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.

 

 

Works Cited

Pollitt, Katha. “Hers; The Smurfette Principle.” The New York Times, 7 Apr. 1991.

 

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.

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.