As I was reading I was thinking about my 11 year old niece’s facebook page in comparison to her 14 year old brother’s page and my 20 year old daughter’s page. It was obvious that language, pictures, games, and the access differed between all of them. My daughter’s access was open to everyone and she had many memes and videos. My nephew’s page was more of an ongoing chat between male and female friends with a large focus on sports. Oddly though, both my nephew and my daughter had very similar conversations with their friends about the drama that they were experiencing with family or friends. My niece’s page was more simplistic with very limited access other that from those in her circle of friends and family. The conversations were mainly about basketball practice and links to music videos and a few cartoon characters.
In evaluating the differences between the ages and gender of the young ones in my life I thought about my own experiences online and online shopping. So I decided that I would Google a random phrase, “girls stuff”. Much to my dismay most of the websites pertained to beauty maintenance and fashion. When I googled “boys stuff”, I was able to find websites with a variety of content. I then googled “gender neutral stuff’, most of the sites were either young adults or infants. So it seems that the only way that websites can capitalize on young girls is to market dolls and makeup, although there are many young girls that participate in sports, music, and are avid readers. So where does that leave young girls in regard to having choices and the ability to break free from stereotypes? I suppose that remains to be seen.
A couple of Interesting websites that I wanted to share.
Interesting Donna, I think how sad it is when trying to teach our girls that there is more out there. But if they look out there, it all comes back to the same battle of overcoming stereotypes-whether it be virtual or real time. Nonetheless, taking charge is a step in the right direction.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing some new sites!
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