Required: Counting Beauty

Mai Davika is a Thai actress and model. She was on the cover of Elle Magazine in March 2014. It's intriguing to me that Thailand is a country that is dominated by people who has beautiful tanned skin, but in magazines, it is mostly of models and actresses with mixed caucasian blood. There are magazine covers of full Thai models and actress too, but I believe that it's because they are already very well known and famous nationwide for their work. 

For the Men's health Magazine there are usually photos of men with a very well built body and the majority of the photos I've seen the skin tone varies. I noticed that they promote more of muscular bodies and females promote more of beauty and sexuality. However, in women's magazine, even though there are people of colors, their skin tone is of lighter shades. With males the shade of their skin didn't matter but the build of their body does.   

Henslin: On Becoming Female

Ever Wonder why females are always so conscious of their appearance? It's because we are raised to present ourselves in a certain way. In my culture, we were raised to believe that long black hair was the epitome of elegance and beauty. In some culture, females are raised to think that showing too much skin is bad; others, on the other hand, were raised to believe that being a good female is to obey their husbands. 

We were raised to believe that we will always need a man in our lives because we won't be able to do many things without them. We were raised to learn how to maintain our appearance and our temper so that our significant other wouldn't cheat on us. If our partners do happen to cheat, it would be our fault for not satisfying him. 

We as females look at other females with envy because their appearance is superior to ours. Why do we think this way? Because society had influenced us so much about how we should look that it made us forget how to be happy and how to accept the way we are. 

Henslin: On Becoming Male

Everyone thinks that a male should show no vulnerability, no feminity because being a male means you are a 'man'. Why did I say a man instead of strong, muscular, etc.? The word man has been so socially constructed that if you were to say 'be a man', anyone would understand what you meant. Man is a word often used to describe masculinity.

Often boys are raised to be a man. If a boy was to cry because he was pushed, someone would almost always tell him to 'man up', or that 'a man don't cry'. The toys they play with are limited because their parents and the adults around them would judge them for playing with 'girl's toys'. Even the colors are separated from masculine to feminine. From the very beginning, boys are taught to hide their feelings. 

When those boys grow up to be men, the majority of them don't understand the way they feel. Many of them would struggle with expressing themselves and wouldn't have anyone to confide in. What I learned in my Human Development class is that boys/men have the highest suicide rate in America. Maybe, just maybe, it has something to do with becoming a 'man'.         

JBC: Beauty/Ideology and Intersectionality

Beauty is highly socially constructed. Here in the U.S women are seen as unattractive if their lips are too thin, eyes are too small, butts are too flat, and boobs are too small. Social media had altered the mind of people so much that they judge and criticizes other's outer appearance to the point where people decided to change the way they physically look to fit into society's standards. South Korea has a pretty high percentage of cosmetic surgery. I remember coming across a video where the people on the streets in Korea were being interviewed about the subject of cosmetic surgery. A lot of people didn't seem bothered by the questions because it became so common. There are even parents who would gift their children with some sort of cosmetic surgery. One thing that intrigued me the most was that someone mentioned about having a higher chance of landing a job at interviews if you are attractive. Not only do they feel like they need to be socially accepted, but they also feel like it's necessary to even get hired!

JBC: Toys/Gender, Sex, and Sexuality

Pink toys are for girls, and blue toys are for boys; this thought is completely socially constructed. Kids don't know that dolls are for girls and cars are for boys. Once a child plays with a toy that's meant for the opposite sex their parents, grandparents, siblings, cousins will tell them that they're not supposed to play with them. A great example of this is when my nephew was still just a toddler he would always watch Peppa Pig. One day he asked his parents if they can buy him a set of Peppa Pig toys and they both told him not because it's meant for girls only. As time went by they gave in and bought him a Peppa Pig house set, it didn't make him less of a boy that he was. He played with his cars as much as he did with the Peppa Pig set. 

My younger brother, who has a different father, loves playing with my nail polishes, and makeups. At the time I was still a high schooler and made very quick judgments about his interest; however, I never asked him to lose interest in them. He stopped having interests in those items during his late child development stage. During his early adolescence, he started showing more interest in makeups, and nail polishes again. After a while, he came out as a homosexual.

I don't believe that toys can change someone's sexuality, but I do believe that there are those who show massive are interests in particular items probably knows their sexuality. Studies have shown that people discover their sexual orientation when they are of a young age.    
  

Required: Toy Store Observation

I went to Walmart to check out the toy section. I saw how the placement of the toys are well separated even when they're on the same aisles and shelves. There was one aisle where the toys for girls were on one side and the boys on the other. When you enter that aisle and look to your left it would be all pink and purple. At your right, it would be all blue and green. The left side is full of dolls, dollhouse, kitchen play sets, etc. and the right side would be full of train sets, cars, stuffed animal, etc. I noticed that on the Lego shelves the majority of legos packaging are in dark colors for the boys with Star Wars and Harry Potter theme. Right in the middle of the shelves, there are pink packages for with water slide, and store themes for the girls. Now, I believe that the Lego shelves were purposely placed like that because the pink lego packaging stood out so much. It was as if they want people to know that 'oh, we have some pink legos for your daughter too'. I could easily tell which toy was meant for which gender with the colors of the packaging, not only that, toys meant for girls had photos of girls, and toys mean for boys had photos of boys. The gender-neutral toys are set at the back and are mostly outdoor toys. I noticed that there were also two gender-neutral lego sets, on those set they had photos of all the legos in the sets. The car, business buildings, were of darker colors and the color of the house and present was of brighter colors. Even when it was supposed to be gender-neutral the sets clearly shows that the house and presents are the girl's job and the business and cars are the boys.