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.

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.

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)

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.

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.

 

“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.

 

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.