For my
project I decided to create a book. The
book’s theme was occupations that most girls may not always believe are seen as
female professions. Since I am not an artist and had no illustrator I decided
to create a pdf format with blank spaces, so that children could draw and color
what they felt was a good way to depict the professions that are in the
book. The idea of the book is to target
the stereotypes in the job market. It is much harder to change certain ways of
viewing the world once you hit a certain age. I think teaching children early
can make a huge difference in their mindsets, which will remain later in life. The
idea of the book is to target a controversial issue in a small way that can
have a bigger impact.
When
reading the book and drawing the pictures with children, it is most important
to focus on challenging those stereotypes. If a child is just drawing white
young girls then that idea should be challenged and broadened by encouraging
the children that blacks, Hispanic, Asians, and Middle Eastern people have the
ability to perform those jobs as well. The idea isn’t to have the child just
picture what they are used to seeing, but to encourage the child that while
they may or may not see this, it is still possible.
I think
the book is great for boys as well because it teaches boys to see girls and
women in a working environment. My son once told me that because I was a girl
and a princess, it is not possible to be a boss. That was an idea I had to
challenge. I think the word “princess” can have a negative connotation for
females. That is something that I am challenging with this book. I grew up
loving Disney princesses, who play a huge role in how young girls may see
themselves, and to this day I still love them, but I know that is not all that
there is to a girl’s life. I can be a princess, and love princess things, and
want to be called a princess, but at the end of the day, I am still a hard
working young woman who is very independent and is a Feminist. So for me, the
word “princess” holds no negativity, because as many feminists say, they can
love makeup, high heels, and dressing up, but that doesn’t take any value away
from them as a feminist. For a young girl who is used to friends loving
princesses and always seeing them displayed on TV, I think its important to
reach out to those little princesses, and let them understand that it’s fun to
be called a princess, but that is not who they are, and they can be much more
than that.
At first I
was going to create an A-Z list book that targets both genders but it was very
difficult to find professions that started with certain letters. It is
something that I would like to work on after this class. I have been thinking
of ways I can do this and I have come up with several ways I could expand this
book into a series. I have also been thinking of more ways I can target controversial
issues, in small ways, that can have a big impact on a child’s view of the
world.
The above pictures were drawn by my mother.
The above pictures were drawn by my son Nicholas who is six years old.
And the above 9 pictures were drawn by me,
My mother, son and i got through half the book before conflict arrived. But I would like to point out that throughout the book my son had little concept of color or race. He used different colors Sometimes green, sometimes blue or red. I found that interesting. He does understad that there is a difference in gender though because he made sure to draw a boy and a girl in almost every picture because he wanted to be represented in the book. The age demographic for this workbook may be perhaps be for an older child.
The link is definitely publicly viewable. I sent it out to several people and they were able to access this so it should be fine.
No comments:
Post a Comment