These images above show me “doing gender” by playing into stereotypes about women. I received two presents from my boyfriend. One which is a flower, another is a promise ring. These show gender because women are suppose to love flowers, and jewelry. This also shows gender in relationships. Another picture is a set of nails that I got during Valentine’s Day. My artist had the same name as my boyfriend, and thought it was funny. It is a gendered norm that women get their nails done. My boyfriend “provided” for me by paying for them for Valentine’s Day. My sister’s birthday cake was Littlest Pet Shops, which is considered a girls toy. She wanted everything to be LPS, this would be seen as out of normatively if she were a male child. And her painting my nails is our “girl time.” We paint our nails, do face masks, and do each others hair. Women are upheld to a high standard of hygiene. We are suppose to look our best all the time. I “do gender” everyday without much thought, it was a bit strange to go through my photos and see how gendered my life truly is.
2 thoughts on ““Doing Gender” Photo Essay”
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I like that you also posted about flowers! I love flowers but I never stopped to think that maybe guys would like to get flowers too. Flowers are always associated with femininity and delicacy so with the stereotypes floating around it’s no wonder that giving men flowers just goes over everyone’s head!
It is hard to comprehend that we do gender everyday. From the time we were fetuses, gender has been so ingrained into who we are. Knowing how much we are controlled by society’s idea of gender, is this still the gendered lifestyle you want to continue living?