This image shows bodies in ridiculously gender specific roles. The first image is showing that boys can be doctors and girls can be nurses. The second shows boys can be police officers while girls can be meter maids. Beyond that the second picture shows the boys and girls in great detail when it comes to their physical appearances. The police officer is strong and authoritative while the meter maid is unattractive and obviously disliked by the community. These pictures are from a book called I'm Glad I'm a Boy! I'm Glad I'm a Girl! In this book it shows precisely what is expected of each gender to do in a career sense of their life. In the patriarchal society that I live in I know that there are gender roles that are expected to be carried out. If a guy or a girl switches and goes against the natural gender roles we have terms to describe them. First if a girl is particularly athletic in certain sports or is simply over interested in sports people may deem them as a "dyke." There is no reason or natural correlation between men and sports rather than the idea that men are naturally more athletic. This may shape our worldview because you can ask what most children want to be when they grow up and most say the gender specific roles. For example boys may say cowboy, astronaut, fireman or police officer. Girls usually say things like princess or vet. Whether we have natural attractions to these gender specific roles or the world around us shapes us to think that way I do not know. I like to think that it is natural but it is not unnatural to go outside these perimeters. I also do not think it is bad that people fit into gender roles because things like affirmative action bother me. Not in the sense of desegregating schools or anything rather stupid things like if a little girl says she wants to be a princess and people pressure her away from that idea just because it fits the gender role. I think that it is unnecessary to fight gender roles but I also believe the gender roles should be treated more equally in terms of wages and respect.
This is a great image to 'read' - it exemplifies the gender roles accepted by society perfectly. I'm curious when this book was published! I also found it interesting that in the "boys are policemen" image it shows a girl pushing a doll or baby in a stroller - further developing the stereotypical gender role.
ReplyDeleteI think that this really goes to show the population/society from which most of our parents (for people who are 20 right now) grew up in. When I was growing up most "dads" were doctors, or engineers, police men ect.. and the moms were secretaries, nurses, or travel agents.. Where today, the statistics are changing drastically with women being police officers, and men being nurses for example. I know this is from a book which was from my parents generation solely by the artistic aspects with the 60-70's orange hue on the back of every page, meter maids, and the non-electric wheelchair..
ReplyDeleteI am thinking back to when I was little, I never wished for a gender role kind of career such as a nurse or elementary teacher until I got older. Maybe there is something to look into that. Why is it that once we grow up we feel the need to fit into a certain "role" while its vice versa when we are younger, many of us were tom boys or were pretty much up for anything whether that was playing outside in the dirt, running around in the yard or playing house. I distinctly remember a guy friend and me always playing house when we were in pre school, as we grew older we both separated during our recess. I wentto my girl group to play double dutch while he ran around playing football. Although the stereotypes happened when I grew older, most of the books I read, such as the one you are analyzing were read to me when I was younger...I wonder if something finally clicked in my so called "role" or if these books, tv shows and real life situations finally start to affect us.
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