Gender Roles, Identity and Stereotypes

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Gender and identity both play a significant role in everyday life. Photographers who deal with gender roles and stereotypes are Cindy Sherman, Sarah Lucas, Ilona Szwarc, (Gillian Wearing, Claude Cahun)

From birth, people are divided into two sex categories- male or female. This is inevitable, and is given to each individual person based on the reproductive organs they were born with. Gender, on the other hand, is the social and cultural difference of being either ‘male’ or ‘female’ instead of the biological difference . This leads into stereotyping, which dictates ones first impressions of others judged by their clothing, style or personality. Society has already outlined the stereotypical gender roles for both men and women, examples being that women are associated with the colour pink and are usually housewives. Men however are associated with the colour blue and are the financial providers. This is also demonstrated with classic children toys. Little girls are usually given baby dolls and cooking sets with pink being the dominant colour, whereas boys are given DIY sets and war toys. American born photographer Cindy Sherman (19/01/1954) deals with the typical gender roles within society and is one of the most influential artists in contemporary art. Her film stills consist of using herself as the subject and portray the ‘everyday, average woman’. An example of her using a woman stereotype is her ‘Untitled film still #35’. At first glance, we can judge by the subject’s clothing that she’s a housewife; she has the apron, hair tied up etc. Noticing the coat and scarf on the left we can assume there’s a male present, most probably one whom she is glaring at. Her unfriendly expression could suggest that her husband demanded she hang...

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...cause society has labelled that women are the only ones to wear dresses, that is now how everyone thinks. However, Izzard bought these dresses for himself. They’re not women’s clothes, they are his own. I think this is a very good attitude to have as you are not trying to fit in with the typical gender roles or to be stereotypical. He is dressing comfortably and how he would like to, not the way society deems best.

Identity is a part of human existence and the reason we strive to be different. Not everyone wants to be the same and act like ‘sheep’ going by the ways in which society says is ‘normal’. Many people do not feel comfortable

Works Cited

http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/

http://www.cliffsnotes.com/

Angelique Chrisafis, “My Camera Has Saved My Life”, The Guardian, 2008

David Lister, ‘It’s Never Too Late In Edinburgh’, The Independent, 1992

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