Christina Bodine
Art 263: Activists,
Interlopes, and Pranksters
Mid-term Project
Breaking Gender Stereotypes
In today’s society, we are constantly being surround and
also influenced by the stereotypes we see or hear regarding gender whether
through the movies we watch, the books we read, and the conversations we have
with those around us. According to research and working at a daycare, gender
stereotype starts from infancy. Many young children are taught that if you are
a boy, you should play with toy guns and not dolls; if you are a girl, you
should play with a kitchen set. It is really an issue today and that is why my
topic for this semester project is gender stereotypes and how we can come
together to break those barriers.
So last semester, I did a project for my empowering tools
class. In the project, we had to make a trophy on a topic we want to see change
and I chose—racial stereotype. That project really impacted me to the point
where I want to expand on it in order to try to make a difference. I decided to
narrow the topic to just gender simply because the topic of race is so broad
for we have so many different cultures and people, it is really difficult to
reach the minds and hearts of everyone. This project is giving me that
opportunity to research and discuss further on this issue and that is why I
chose this topic.
The message I would like to send to the audience is that we
can truly break the walls of these stereotypes is only if we start with
ourselves especially as young adults. If we are parents, we want to teach our
children that you do not have to be a certain gender in order to do certain
things. If we are not, then we want to not put stereotypes on other people and
judge them based on their gender. Today,
we have so many protest and movements that support gender equality such as
feminism, right of the sexes, and etc. Just taking a notice and supporting
against negative stereotypes, is what starts off turning into something huge
and influential.
In order to reach an audience, I wanted to off by taking
small steps. Perhaps, engaging in general conversation with those around me and
from there, build up the number of the audience. I would like to create a
social media landform since majority of people already have social media, so
that is a way to engage in a decent amount of an audience. I will create an
Instagram page in order to help build that audience and also to make my project
known. Another idea I had was to create a workshop based website, which can
feature different topics such as what common gender stereotypes do we hear or
see today, the history throughout generations that lead to these stereotypes,
and lastly, but not least, what can we do as a community in order to help stop
these “rumors” on a gender. I plan on using the Instagram in order to link it
to the website on the bio in order to expand on the number of those watching.
On Instagram, there is a comment section where people can express their
emotions, their likes and dislike on a certain issue or picture, so I want the
audience to engage in a conversation with other about the common issue. I would
do this by per week, I can post a picture of a question and have those following
the Instagram account share their opinions on the matter. The caption of each
picture can highlight an objective that will be discussed on the issue.
My goal for the future is to become a teacher. What
becoming a teacher entails is that you are responsible to set an example and
help other gain knowledge and learn. How does this project fit with becoming a
teacher? Well, I want to use this project as an opportunity to teach and share
with the world that gender stereotype is a thing and it can affect people’s
lives especially children. My audience will most likely be young adults since
the majority of users of social media are young adults. As I have mentioned
before, children are the most effective by this issue because they are relying
of those raising to make them who they become in the future and is that not true.
Majority of kids today are being limited of who they want to become because they
are raise to act a certain way based on their gender. I have found some
research articles that supports that gender stereotypes can do more damage than
good to children. I want to help young adults that we should first change the
way we see genders and then use that to teach children that it is okay for a
boy pick a doll at a toy store or for a girl to beat a boy at an arm wrestling
match.
The artists on Gender
Stereotype:
- Jennifer Rubell—an artist who highlights two stereotypes that is found common in women of power.
Nutcrackers—Jennifer Rubell
- Tiwa Savage—an Afrobeat artist who breaks the stereotype within the male-dominating industry.
She says “Women identify with my music, with my
lyrics, and I really use that to my advantage.”
- Lauren Salazar—uses yarn to show men and women are not all that different.
“No More I Love Yous” by Lauren Salazar
- Rebecca Foster—London-based artists describes that stereotypes on men can be just as damaging as it is for women.
Hardeep 2017 by Rebecca Foster - Robert Gober—creates everyday objects into an advertisement with a deeper meaning.
Untitled-by Robert GoberLinks to the images and articles:
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