Thanks to Sociological Images, today we have a special holiday edition of Pictoral Evidence of Gender-Enforcement Against Men.
Warning: lotsa pictures below the cut.
Boys like science and bugs and shit! There are definitely no boys who end up carefully measuring and combining two chemicals and, instead of happily bubbling away like everyone else’s, the substance just sits there like water. That never happens. (Totally happens.)
Apparently Mom wants a watch and Dad wants a wine aerator? I’d commend them for being non-binary-enforcing but I think they just accidentally switched the pictures. Especially since your husband or boyfriend seems to want Star Wars. Because every woman I know with a Darth Vader shirt is… secretly a trans man?
Boys like trains and cars and vehicles and things that move! Perhaps it is because men all, like Jack Kerouac or possibly Batman, wander the earth in search of the meaning of life, redemption, and/or awesome ninja powers to avenge the death of their parents with. Also, telescopes and dinosaurs, because as previously discussed boys are awesome at SCIENCE!
Boys like robots. And Star Wars! Because there is this whole “girls hate Star Wars” meme going around now apparently? We saw it in the Kimmel thing, we saw it in the Amazon gift guide, we saw it in this… what the FUCK? Star Wars is for everyone! Am I going to have to start No Seriously What About Teh Female Star Wars Fanz?
Boys like guns! Because you can’t be masculine unless you’re violent. Those are the rules we just made up.
Boys don’t cook! Cooking is a girl thing. Get in there and make me a sandwich, woman!
Men like grilling, history, politics, camcorders, stylish watches, classic rock, poker, electric shavers, documentaries, and classical music. Men do not like digital frames, crafts, Broadway, sandals, chick flicks, diamond jewelry, gemstone jewelry, beauty products, or heated thows. Men never have to frame pictures or walk around on the beach, and women hever have to grill or tell time. Fact.
Doctor bib! Because it is never too early to get the Success Myth into boys’ brains. If you don’t start with the high expectations before he can walk, how is he supposed to grow up to hate himself for being a happy, kind, generous person who loves his family and enjoys his job, but doesn’t make $100,000 a year? It is never too early to inform boys that their worth is entirely based around how prestigious their career is!
These shirts are in Not English! However, Sociological Images informs me that the top translates as “my mother is prettier than yours,” and the bottom as “my father is stronger than yours.” Myth Of Men Not Being Hot AND the idea that men have to be strong to be worth something! A twofer!
Boys get their own section! And is that… yep, it’s a Stormtrooper. FUCK YOU GUYS STAR WARS IS FOR GIRLS TOO.
I feel that after all this we need a couple of spooning kittehs to reaffirm our faith in the universe.
I’ve never understood the point of gender roles in advertising. By marketing to just roughly half of the population, they cut potental revenue in half as well. Even if they’re only in it for money, it would behoove them to widen their advertising base by as much as possible.
@Orphan
l kids love dinosaurs. To paraphrase Dave Barry-there’s just something about an animal that goes wherever it wants, does whatever it wants and is big enough to eat mommy and daddy that always fascinates a young child, especially if that child has just been punished 😉 .
And I don’t mean that Baron-Cohen systemizing vs empathizing crap stuff either.
BSTc is the closest we’ve got to having an actual biological pattern.
While systemizing vs empathizing is a stereotype based on culture. Being asperger or autistic doesn’t make you “extremely male”, wrong answer Mr Baron-Cohen.
“@Schala: You didn’t want to be a girl, you WERE a girl. Just because you were born with a penis doesn’t make you any less female as far as I’m concerned You seem to be mistaking psychological gender for biological sex…” Psychological sex, not gender. Stop, stop, stop, stop stop stop stop stop stop. With. Using. Gender. That. Way. Gender is NOT something biological, and you can’t “identify” with behaviors either. You identify with a social class of people based on sex, based solely on their existence as a class, outside their behavior, role, rituals or hair length, favorite color… Read more »
@Schala: You didn’t want to be a girl, you WERE a girl. Just because you were born with a penis doesn’t make you any less female as far as I’m concerned
You seem to be mistaking psychological gender for biological sex…
ballgame – I disagree with the conclusion, for a myriad number of reasons (including the aforementioned, but not least the capacity for confirmation bias in such an anecdotal form of persuasion), but I don’t agree with your reasoning for disputing it. In a sexist society, a rule which says what men or women should be also specifies what women or men should not be. Boys may not be expected to play with trains, but they’re expected to play with trains or trains-analog. There isn’t detailed symmetry there – the number of train analogs may give a man more choice in… Read more »
I don’t agree, The_L. I think they can be related, but don’t necessarily need to be. I think a lot of the sexism in our society is in fact asymmetrical. And if the implication is that a train set ad featuring a boy and not a girl is somehow misandrous, then I think the conclusion is pretty bogus.
The_L – Personally, I’m tired of token figures in advertisements. I find them more offensive than the alternative. But we’re not talking about four boys – there’s not a single ad up there with more than one boy or girl. As for internalized ads, she has to start from the position that some things are for boys, and some things are for girls, before a girl can internalize that it’s a boy playing with that and therefore inappropriate for her. As for television ads, a child who spends that much time watching TV without parental input has bigger problems than… Read more »
@Orphan: An ad featuring 3 boys and 1 girl would be better than an ad with 4 boys and no girls. You’re acting like there should be an ad with ONLY girls, and that’s equally as problematic as an ad with ONLY boys. However, I do agree that parents do reinforce these gender roles as well, which is a crying shame. (Doesn’t change the fact that kids DO see these ads and internalize them–they may not be able to buy the toys, but TV ads do encourage them to want them, and to view figurines of babies as “for girls”… Read more »
Good post, Orphan.
Orphan, I think you have some valid points. I agree that advertisers aren’t intentionally (by and large) enforcing gender, they are really just trying to push product for companies in the most efficient way possible in a highly-gendered world. However, that often does have the net effect of reinforcing gender, and in some cases I’d argue that effect is significant. (Has there ever been a cleaning product ad pitched to guys showing a guy mopping a floor or cleaning a bathroom?) But, speaking of false advertising* — and I don’t intend this to come across as acrimonious — I notice… Read more »
The advertisers aren’t promoting gender enforcement, the only way to interpret it that way is to interpret adherence to gender norms as support of them, which leads back to my rebuttal. The divide here is one I noticed earlier but avoided commenting on, and it’s commercialism, which I regard to be in the domain of personal choice and liberty, whereas you’re regarding it as a fungible and collective social element. I’ll ask you to view it from an alternative angle for a moment, though: Which advertiser, specifically, should put up an advertisement which is going to be less effective, which… Read more »
Fair point, Orphan. It was kind of ridiculous of me to read 90% as anything other than “a majority”. I apologize. The argument was never “therefore, boys shouldn’t play with trains.” The argument was “Boys shouldn’t think or feel like they have to play with trains. Boys shouldn’t think or feel like girls shouldnt play with trains. Girls shouldn’t think or feel like boys should play with trains. Girls shouldn’t think or feel like girls shouldn’t play with trains. The boys that want to play with trains should, and the girls that want to play with trains should, and the… Read more »
ozymandias42 –
That was Suture’s argument, which tried to assert that such advertisers are enforcing gender roles by feedback, by which argument any conformance is enforcement, and by which boys playing with trains is a moral fault.
You seem to be asking for token girls.
No, I never said anything about boys playing with trains. I am totally and 100% in support of boys playing with trains. I said things about advertisers depicting boys playing with trains, to the exclusion of girls playing with trains, which I am not in support of.
suturexself – If there were nothing to it but conjecture the train set picture wouldn’t have made the list and your entire argument would be patently ridiculous. My precise number isn’t conjecture, which implies I used it in an attempt at accuracy, it’s linguistic convention to convey the concept of a majority. Hence the nice round number. I also wouldn’t have put that “If” out there in front. But your argument doesn’t address anything. It’s still a lipstick argument. It still comes down to “Boys playing with trains hurts male autonomy, therefore boys shouldn’t play with trains.” Even if it… Read more »
“If 90% of all children who want a train set are boys, what do you put on the train set box? The answer is clearly a girl.” Your statistic is pure conjecture. Even if it were somehow accurate, we should ask *why* so many boys, and so few girls, want a train set box. It might have something to do with the fact that they’ve only ever seen boys in the train set pictures. So: Market trains exclusively to boys –> Children absorb “trains are for boys, not girls” –> Boys ask for train set boxes, girls don’t –> Advertisers… Read more »
So your idea for advertising is, if they -must- put a boy on a toy that appeals to a greater number of boys than girls, they should put a boy having no luck with a chemistry set, with a despairing look on his face? If 90% of all children who want a train set are boys, what do you put on the train set box? The answer is clearly a girl. I could go on, but I’ll just sum it up shortly, with less snark: Conformance to gender roles is not enforcement of them. This is fundamentally a lipstick argument,… Read more »
We should hold the advertisers accountable for their part. We should also, of course, address the source – but that doesn’t mean the advertisers should be ignored.
Well, you’re right about preying upon gender norms, but i think it’s better to address that problem at the source itself, not just blame the advertisers.
“Then they’re culpable for playing into a dysfunctional system, if even only on account of incompetence or laziness.”
That and they are culpable for feeding off it. They prey on gender norming the way a dealer preys on people’s other addictions.
@monkey- “Advertisers are not out to police gender norms because that’s their goal. They play to gender norms because, well, it’s easier.”
Then they’re culpable for playing into a dysfunctional system, if even only on account of incompetence or laziness.
I can’t believe I’m actually defending advertisers here, but I think at least part of this requires the axiom that one shouldn’t attribute to malice what can be explained away by incompetence,or in this case laziness.
Advertisers are not out to police gender norms because that’s their goal. They play to gender norms because, well, it’s easier.
I knew I was a girl since 8, but with no mechanism to explain it until 22, and everybody insisting I’m deluded…it was easier to see it as ‘wanting’.
“It is never too early to inform boys that their worth is entirely based around how prestigious their career is!” To this day, I’m not sure how much of my childhood desire to be a doctor was actually mine, and how much was Dad wanting me to be a rich professional with an equally wealthy husband. @monkey: “OTOH, the daughter of a friend of my parents was given a Barbie in a gift giveaway, and explained patiently that she’d rather have Lego.” If I had a penny for every time I wished my Barbies were Trolls and Lego sets, I… Read more »