All Posts Tagged Tag: ‘children’

“Princess boy” as a rhetorical strategy

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Category: News & Mass Media
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One of the editors of the Study Guide to the Rhetoric of Gender Identity posted this video as an artifact, and I thought it was interesting enough to be shared here as well.

Consider in particular the rhetorical impact of the mother’s decision to call her son a “princess boy,” rather than insisting that he must really want to be a girl. It seems like in most cases of boys who dress like girls, the automatic assumption is that something is wrong with the child because no “normal” boy could possibly be interested in “girl’s” things.

The less-open minded tend to suggest that the parents are to blame and that the child needs some kind of “reparative therapy” to recover his “manhood,” while the more open-minded to tend to believe that perhaps the child has a psychological disorder, such as Gender Identity Disorder. Both of those perspectives are rooted in the belief that there’s something fundamentally abnormal about a boy being interested in dresses and frilly, lacy things, whereas the “princess boy” perspective suggests that if there’s anything “abnormal” going on, it’s our society’s insistence that boys should not be allowed to play with girl’s things.

Will the world really come to an end if young boys are allowed to wear and play with whatever they want, regardless of the gender labels attached to the items? The origins for this kind of gender policing trace back to the belief that gender deviance leads to homosexuality, but now that the “eradication” of homosexuality has fallen out of favor as a social agenda, so should gender policing

Here is the web site for the My Princess Boy book. What a great example of the power of self-publishing and personal experience to persuade people to change their minds! Even if the author hadn’t gotten a book deal, she probably could’ve reached a lot of people through digital storytelling.

 

 

Tylenol for kids (boys)

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Category: Commercials
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View on YouTube.

 

 

McDonald’s Happy Meal Toys

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Category: Toys and Games
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McDonald’s offers seperate toys for girls and boys. When you order a Happy Meal the attendant will ask is it for a boy or girl. If you answer it is for a girl you will receive a Strawberry Shortcake doll and a cookie cutter in the shape of a strawberry. If you answer it is for a boy you will receive a finger sized skateboard with graphic artwork on the bottom. These artifacts depict the message that a girl’s fun is cooking and playing with dolls while a boy’s version of fun is more athletic, away from the kitchen, and artistic. These toys were purchased from McDonald’s on HWY 52 and I25 on 9/28/2010.

 

 

Children’s Tylenol Ad

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Category: Advertising
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This commercial provides an great example of gender norms for several reasons. First of all, the boy is seen as being assertive and in ways violent, by chasing the girls and attacking them with water and Nerf guns. The girls are seen as passive, putting up with the boy’s behavior. They are also seen as playing dress-up; a girly activity. The mother is also an example of gender norms, since she is the one taking care of her children, not the dad. This is probably due to the commercial being targeted at a female audience, as well.

 

 

Tropicana “Easy” Ad

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Category: Advertising, Print Ads
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Although it seems although this ad was made to appeal to parents, and parenting difficulties, one can’t seem but grasp the double-meaning of the word “easy”.  The girl who is in a dress and with flowers (representing femininity) is seen as more desirable, while the girl wearing pants is seen as more difficult and not something men would want to deal with.

 

 

Banned Calvin Klein commercial

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Category: Advertising, Commercials
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This commercial not only imposes sexual gender roles on men and women, but are suggestive of child pornography. This is a blatant exploitation of imagery. The idea being behind the ad that youth is beautiful and old age is not. The actors in this commercial are solely seen as objects and nothing else. The ad implants the idea is your worth is placed in your looks.

 

 

KidKraft Tiffany Bow Ironing Set from Toys R Us

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Category: Toys and Games
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KidKraft Tiffany Bow Ironing Set from Toys R Us

This toy is made by KidKraft and Toys R Us, one of the biggest manufacturers of children’s toys in our country.  The creators are attempting to appeal to mothers who want to raise their daughters with the same values of femininity that they have.  These generational gender identities are made even more prevalent by the daughters that want to replicate their mother’s domestic behavior.  Therefore, this toy is aimed to appeal to both mothers, who are the potential buyers, and their daughters.  The add portrays a young girl smiling behind the ironing set as if little girls will be as pleased as the model if they use the toy.  The toy suggests that every little girl should practice using an ironing set in order to prepare for their future.  This, therefore, implies that all girls are destined to live a domestic life in which they clean.  This toy promotes these gender norms and shows us that society ingrains notions of gender in our minds at a young age.  With regards to this toy, these socially constructed gender roles subject women to domestic work.

 

 

Easy Bake Oven

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Category: Advertising
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The easy bake oven has been one of the biggest gender specific toys to hit the markets. Since its release in 1963, the easy bake oven has been teaching young women that their interests should be focused in cooking, and therefore ensures that they know their place as homemakers.

 

 

My First Purse in Purple toy

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Category: Toys and Games
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(1) The International Playhouse: My First Purse in Purple is the artifact that I chose. It is a little purple toy purse with all of the accessories included that a woman would typically have in her purse on a day-to-day basis.

http://www.target.com/International-Playthings-First-Purse-Purple/dp/B00005TQI7/ref=sc_ri_1?ie=UTF8&node=13447421

(2) This toy was created by International Playhouse sold in all Target stores. The target audience is for young girls in the age ranging from 5-7 years old. It is a play purse with the following accessories: cell phone, lipstick, keys, and debit card. Little girls look up to their mommy’s and older sisters, and as elders they have real purses with real cell phones and all the other artifacts that go along with it. As a little girl I remember wanting to be just like my mom so I would go into her closest and wear her high heels and dresses that dragged past my feet. The purpose of this toy is so that little girls can follow their socially accepted gender role.

(3) First off, the color of the purse is purple which is categorized into being feminine and the artifact itself is a feminine product, its not everyday that you see a man walking around with a purse. The other pieces that come with the purse are lipstick and a little clap mirror which are both socially accepted into being part of the feminine gender role. The purse itself being targeted towards little girls is suggesting the idea that women are supposed to carry around a purse which is why the toy market specifically makes the product feminine with the colors and additional pieces.

 

 

Silly Bandz

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Category: Toys and Games
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(1) Briefly describe the artifact. In other words, what is it? Include a link if the artifact is available online.

At the day camp I work at these “silly bandz” are everywhere and kids are going mad for them. For those not acquainted with the world of the middle schooler (and younger), silly bandz are rubber band bracelets that when not worn on the wrist form shapes of numerous objects like dinosaurs, animals, and other shapes. Kids trade them, collect them, and wear them by the fistfuls. On the website for silly bandz they show a video of a “gangster” sporting silly bandz making them look cool. http://www.sillybandz.com/ or the video straight from YouTube:

(2) Describe the rhetorical situation of the artifact. In other words, who created it (who is the author), who is the target audience, and what is its purpose?

I’m unsure as to who exactly created this ad. Though it is featured on the official site, it could easily have been created by a fan of silly bandz; either way the company endorses it as an ad. The target audience is middle school children seemingly for boys. The purpose of the ad is to entice children to feed into this new fad by showing how cool one can be if they have lots of silly bandz.

(3) What kind of messages about gender and sexuality are conveyed in the artifact. Give some specific examples

This ad goes along with the assumed heterosexual norm. The gangster in the ad even has a line about marrying them with a picture of him and a woman in a dress with the head a picture of silly bandz pasted over it. He also makes references to not wearing certain silly bandz based off the shape it has like not wearing the high heels as it’s for girls reinforcing the idea of how boys should behave.

 

 

Sonny with a Chance

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Category: Movies and TV
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1. My artifact is a scene from the Disney t.v. show Sonny with Chance. It’s a show directed toward kids and maybe early teens that is about a group of kids who are on a comedy show.

2. Disney channel created it, the audience is directed toward children probably the age range of elementary through middle school, and it’s purpose is for a comedic show that also teaches lessons about friendship, teamwork, dreams/goals, etc.

3. In one of the scenes in this show, one of the male actors goes up to two other male actors who have been scraping gum off of chairs. The two actors say they’re sore from it, and the other male gives a slightly rude comment about how they shouldn’t be sore from that, and they need to go workout in a real mans gym. You see this message all the time that men should be buff and muscular in order to be masculine and to succeed at what they do.

 

 

Doctor/Nurse toys

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Category: Toys and Games
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1) Briefly describe the artifact. In other words, what is it? Include a link if the artifact is available online.

I chose two artifacts because together, they better illustrate gender.  There are two first aid kits, one for boys, and one for girls.  The boys’ kit says “doctor” on it (which is not visible in the picture), and the girls’ toy says “nurse.”  The doctor kit comes in fairly masculine colors, while the nurse kit is mostly pink and yellow.  Looking solely at the colors, the toys are clearly very gendered.  Also, seeing as the toys are labeled either “doctors” or nurses,” there is an assumed gender difference in occupation.

(2) Describe the rhetorical situation of the artifact. In other words, who created it (who is the author), who is the target audience, and what is its purpose?

The artifacts are sold at Toys R Us.  They are aimed toward young children, but also toward parents buying the toys.  The purpose is clearly to sell the product, but more than that, it is socializing children at an early stage.  They toys show what is accepted for girls and boys; blue and green for boys, pink and yellow for girls.  More than that, it already starts separate girls and boys within the same field.

(3) What kind of messages about gender and sexuality are conveyed in the artifact. Give some specific examples.

Boys have the doctor kit because they are assumed to make more money than girls, and our culture designates males as the typical doctor.  Girls have the nurse kit because nurses are assumed to be females.  Nursing also has fewer requirements than a doctor, which may signify that girls aren’t expected to go as far in education and their occupation.  The colors of the products signify gender differences as well.  Pink and yellow show more femininity, while the green, blue and black show more masculinity.  This is showing that girls should be feminine and boys masculine at an early age, which therefore capitalizes on heterosexuality.  The different colors are those accepted by society as heterosexual.  There is no trace of homosexuality in these toys because it is frowned upon by our society.

 

 

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