Upon my arrival, I immediately went to the apparel section first, but Joy wasn't too happy about this. She wanted to run around for a bit, so I had to bribe her, and promised to take her to McDonalds afterwards. (Sad, I know). Upon my arrival in the girls section, I immediately noticed how colorful the clothing were. There were lots and lots of pinks and purples, and the clothing had different designs on them, like rhinestones and butterflies. I found a cute denim skirt for $8.50 and I asked Joy what she thought of it. She thought it was "pretty". Probing, I asked her what made the skirt "pretty", and she immediately said, "because of the little butterflies". I though this was interesting, expecting her to say something about the ruffles at the bottom of the skirt. However, what I found most interesting was that the purple butterflies immediately caught her attention.
Continuing my search, I started to look for some shirts for Joy to wear. I could not help but be amazed. I had never seen so much pink in my life. Pink hearts, pink butterflies, pink sleeveless shirts. All I could think was, "WOW". Expecting to pick out a shirt for Joy, Joy immediately ran in front of me and stopped in front of a rack of shirts. Next thing I heard was, "Princess, Princess, Auntie! Princess!". (Although she really is my goddaughter, I always tell her to call me Auntie Linda). I picked up the shirt she was looking at, and immediately laughed to myself. It was a pink shirt for $6.50 that read, 'Make Way for the Princess'. I looked down at Joy and asked, "Baby, you like this shirt?". She nodded her head so fast, I could not help but laugh. I then asked asked her why, and her response kind of shocked me. Joy said, "Because I'm a princess". I then asked, "Well, how do you know you're a princess?". She then gave me the biggest smile and said, "Daddy tells me all the time. He says mommy is a princess too!". I thought, "WOW!".
We then went to go find some toys for Joy to play with. I looked for toys that would benefit her and help improve her learning skills. I shopped by age (5-7 years), and found a couple of nice toys. The first toy I found was a pink 'Barbie B-Bright Learning Laptop' for $25. The item description section stated:
1) 20 Bilingual learning activities, 10 English and 10 Spanish
2) LCD screen with lots of fun animation
3) Volume control
4) Cool flashing butterfly
5) Designed for preschool and kindergarten levels
6) Features an alphabet keyboard and number and music keys
7) Compose music, learn numbers, letters and vocabulary
When I looked in the specifications section, it said 'Shop By Gender: Girl".
The next toy I found was a 'Fisher-Price Fun 2 Learn Teaching Clock' for $19.97. The item description sections stated:
1) 2 grow-with-me levels and 3 play modes
2) Press a button to see real time on the digital clock
3) Teaches time of the day, reading time, matching time and numbers
When I looked in the specifications section, it said 'Shop by Gender: Boy, Girl".
The last item on my list was a globe. I found Joy a 'BRATZ Learning Globe' for $79.82. The item description stated:
1) 3 Learning Modes:
World Tour: use the pen to touch any country in the world to learn about it
Fabulous Fifty: 50 popular countries are marked on the globe with a lips icon
Games: 6 timed games challenge the player to find places on the globe
2) Repeat button allows the player to hear the question again
3) Available in English and Spanish
When I looked in the specifications section, it said 'Shop by Gender: Girl".
I spent a total of $139.79. Exhausted, I dropped Joy off at her house and went home and thought about my long day.
Through my interactions with Joy, I found that in Newman's article entitled, "Identities and Inequalities: Exploring the Intersections of Race, Class, Gender and Sexuality", many of his findings proved to be true. One such finding was that, "Parents also gender-socialize their children through the things they routinely provide for them. Clothers for example, not only inform others about the sex of an individual, they also send messages about how that child ought to be treated and direct behavior along traditional gender lines". (112). This idea can be shown in Joy's interaction with her father. Because her father repeatedly told her that she was a princess, Joy immediately had this idea that girls are princesses, and wear pink. Joy's perception was that girls should be 'girly' and like 'girly' things like butterflies. In her mind, there is a high standard in being a 'princess'; she needs to maintain that 'princess' status. Also, in the clothes being so colorful (i.e. pink and purple), companies are reinforcing the idea that certain colors belong to certain genders, and those colors define those genders.
Another finding stated that "Decades of research indicate that 'girl toys' still revolve around themes of domesticity, fashion, and motherhood and 'boy toys' emphasize action and adventure'. (112). This idea can be displayed in Walmart's choice of toys for boys and girls. The laptop and globe that I bought for Joy were both pink; however, the clock that I bought for her was red, orange, yellow, green and blue. This shows that solid, basic colors can define and be applied to both sexes, and that bright, colorful items define and can be applied to females.
I also saw my interaction with Joy in Wolf's article entitled, "The Beauty Myth". In the article, Wolf stated, "Most of our assumptions about the way women have always thought about 'beauty' date from no earlier than the 1830s, when the cult of domesticity was first consolidated and the beauty index invented. For the firs time new technologies could reproduce-in fashion plates, daguerrotypes, tintypes, and rotogravures-images of how women should look". (123).
Although, this quote refers to a physical change in womens appearances, it can also be applied my interaction with Joy as well. In designing the clothes and toys the way they did (i.e choice of colors and designs) companies are enforcing the idea of what a girl should be, what a girl should look like, what a girl should wear, what a girl should play with. As a result of these ideas, social interactions, and the media, Joy now has an idea of what the "ideal girl" is. These images show a major distinction between boys and girls; only boys can play with these toys, only girls can play with these toys, pink is only for girls, girls are suppose to look pretty".
*Shaking my head and sighing*...Gendered socialization has now claimed another victim.
1 comment:
Linda-
Your post about your shopping-trip with Joy is fun to read and certainly makes several important points about gendered socialization and how this process links to the creation of children who are consumers.
First, I really hope you didn't spend actual cash on your goddaughter because you thought I mandated it! :o) it could be a pretend shopping trip online for the child you know...
The next issue I noticed was the separation of loads of narration of the trip itself and the section with the quotes.
Try cutting back on the narration a bit, while also integrating the quotes. Therefore, you'd have the quotes in a point-by-point format, in a more thematically structured piece of writing. In this case, you could relate the butterflies as she found them on several toys to a specific quote, then move onto the ways in which even learning toys are gender-segregated (or whatever topic would make the most sense to transition to).
The quotes you picked were also quite good. However, it was tough as the reader to see the links between those ideas as support for the ideas that you had (because you left a bit too much to the reader to piece together...for example, the specs on the toys and the quotes in the writing that followed weren't connected in your written analysis). Make the links for your reader so that you have a cohesive piece of writing in support of a clear thesis articulated at the last sentence of the first paragraph. You seem to leave your reader in suspense...don't withhold the info in an analytical piece of writing.
One last issue for the next assignment, make sure you have a works cited list at the end!
:o)
Jessie
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