This image is from the Minneapolis Star Tribune. The man in the center of the photograph is the Japanese Prime Minister, Yoshihiko Noda. He is having lunch with a kindergarten class in a school outside of Tokyo following an inspection of the school. Not only does this image argue for a "general purpose" Japanese person, but it also argues a very distinct gender classification.
Notice how all of the people in the photograph have their hands pressed together underneath their chins. I don't know about everyone else out there, but the first thing I thought of when I saw this was a "general purpose" Asian person bowing while making this hand gesture. I don't think that capturing this exact moment was a wise choice for the photographer. This image does nothing but reinforce our preconceived notions of what we think all Asian people are like. There is no opportunity for individualism here.
Also, notice the uniforms of the children. The girls are wearing pink while the boys are wearing blue. I was private-school educated from the time I was in kindergarten until I graduated from high school, and I've never had to wear a pink uniform. However, in elementary school, the boys did have the option of wearing either a white or light blue polo shirt, while the girls could only wear a white polo shirt. Of course, eventually we all learn how to classify and distinguish between girls and boys. That is quite natural. However, classifying girls and boys based upon which color each gender can wear is something that is very much taught to us by society. As Stuart Hall discussed in the video we watched in class, classifying is a way of maintaining order. By organizing girls and boys into simpler categories like pink and blue, we are teaching ourselves the societal order that is so forcefully imposed on us at a very young age. Girls are supposed to be pink and delicate and, well, girly. Boys are supposed to be blue and bold and strong.
We learn how we are supposed to act at a very young age. Even through the smallest, most inconspicuous aspect of our lives, like a school uniform, reinforce our beliefs of who we are supposed to be based upon our gender and our race, or, more simply, our "color". Whether it be blue or pink or white or black or whatever color our society dumps on our bodies.
Interesting post! Color definitely has an important role in defining culture. It signifies and implies things in the most unique ways, letting us make connections subconsciously without even realizing that we assume something based on a simple property such as color. The pink and blue you spoke of reminded me of the board game Monopoly, how the people pieces in that game are the same figure except colored differently, pink for girls and blue for boys. The body of the piece is exactly the same, the type of body is not differentiated but rather the color is used to signify gender rather than shape or any other property.
ReplyDeletenice post but keep in mind that this is a Japanese photograph, to my knowledge (which is limited) the etiquette being practiced in the picture isn't anything out of the ordinary for Japanese kindergartens. The photographer can't really be blamed for reinforcing a stereotype if what he's documenting is a accurate depiction of a cultural practice regularly observed.
ReplyDeleteIt is interesting that the blue and pink color significations are assigned to boys and girls in Japan, in the exact same way that they are in America. those color choices are likely to result of Western cultural influence.
On a side note I think the game, with the little plastic blue and pink people is the game of life.
This post really interested me because even though I had, of course, noticed that boys wear pink and girls wear pink, it never really was anything more than nursery paint colors to me. Personally I have always preferred yellow! However I was surprised that the color differentiation would carry through so officially into school age. The collars of the uniforms are also different with the girls' being rounded and again delicate and the boys having a boxier shape. This reinforces that boys' clothes should be simple and efficient. Conversely, girls' clothes should be "pretty" and soft.
ReplyDelete