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.