PUPPY-DOG TAILS OR SUGAR & SPICE: How much do we really know about gender specific child art?

Puppy-Dog Tails or Sugar & Spice: How much do we really know about gender specific child art? Randilynn N. Mitchell University of Florida

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Introduction There are many individuals familiar with the nursery rhyme; what are little boys made of? According to Mother Goose, little boys are made of, Snips and snails, and puppy dogs tails, and girls, sugar and spice and all things nice. Although, are boys and girls really that different in the context of created art? I set up an experiment to determine whether gender really effects childrens artwork. The conclusion to this experiment has led me to believe; in general, childrens created art is based on cultural, social, and environmental aspects rather than gender.

The Experiment I acquired a group nine volunteers aging from 3-15 years of age; five boys, four girls from southeast Arkansas to perform my gender experiment. I chose groups of children with various family situations, such as: boys from mostly a male household, girls from mostly a female household, a boy raised with mostly female household, an only child household, and a single parent household. I did the experiment inside the fellowship hall of my local church on an available evening. I created three different situations for the students during the two-hour art session. The first situation was to generate a control sample of the childs artwork. I asked the students to spread out in the room, with at least one chair between them, they could not talk, and they had thirty minutes to create any type of artwork. The second situation was a group of all boys across the room from the group of all girls. Also, I played Christian music during this exercise. I explained that again they had thirty minutes to create any type of art and they could talk and share ideas only within their group. After sessions one and two, the children were allowed to have a snack and talk all together before proceeding to the final session. The third situation I took one boy (who was raised with mostly males) and placed him in a group with three girls and I placed one girl (who was raised with mostly females) in a group with four boys to determine if their type of art changed based on gender environment. In addition, I played young preschool songs during this particular grouping. I told my students to create any type of artwork, they had thirty minutes, and they could again talk and share ideas within their group.

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Learning Experiences Before I continue let me define boy and girl art for the purpose of this paper. Boy art is stereotypically defined in our culture as violent, competitive, sports, or highly technical. Girl art often illustrates themes such as animals, nature, and people. Therefore during the duration of this explanation the term boy and girl art will be based on these definitions. According to an article by Olga Ivashkevich, Drawing in childrens lives, she discussed a study performed by Chris Boyatzis and Gretchen Albertini on some fifth graders art and the gender differences in girls and boys drawings. She quoted Boyatzis saying, He claims that, usually without being consciously aware, children select their subjects in accord with what they conceive to be the appropriate subjects for their gender, and consequently they find these rewarding (p. 51). I would have to partially disagree with Boyatzis and Albertinis findings here. While my volunteers were in the control session, only one boy created stereotypical boy art. The boy, age 8 and raised around mostly males, utilized both the front and back of his paper. The front side does not exactly fit into the typical boy art criteria but the back, a more violent picture, is certainly a fine example of boy art. However, one out of four girls did NOT create girl art. The girl, age 14 and raised with mostly females, created a

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more surrealistic picture that is neither girl nor boy art. I will need to stipulate that the teenager did sit close within viewing range of another boy, but there was no observed act of communication for the thirty-minute session. The study performed by Boyatzis and Albertini existed inside the classroom and the children grouped themselves in a rigid gender lines with no gender mixing (Ivashkevich p. 51, n.d.). Furthermore, Ivashkevich did not elaborate on whether or not the experimenters understood the family dynamics of the experimented. For example, will a boy, mostly being raised with females, produce girl or boy art when alone? What if the same boy was surrounded by all boys? A boy, age six existed in this study, produced more girl art during the control session. He produced a large, out of proportion figure of one female in the room. However, when the boy was moved to a group of all boys, he at first did not produce boy art at first, however, as the second and third session continued, the boy (remaining at the all boys table) began to copy an older, more experienced boy in the group. In addition, the six year old did add his own flare to his image rather than a literal copy. The initial copy only started with the face, however; the remainder of the image was a result of popular culture rather than gender. The young man explained that the picture is of the Kishin character from the anime television series, Soul Eater that he watches with his sisters. According to Wilson and Wilson, that even the youngest of

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draftsmen are profoundly influenced both by each other and graphic images from the culture(1981, p. 5). The outcome from the young six-year old boy illustrates both points made by Wilson and Wilson by copying the boy and an image of popular culture. Another similar illustration was present during this study but with a female subject. Does a girl being raised with mostly females produce girl or boy art alone? When she is in a group of all boys? The girl, age 8, produced girl art for all three sessions. However, during the final session (with all boys) she drew a picture of a boy listening to music. The presence of the boys did not affect the stereotypical art she produced but only the subject matter. Therefore, the artwork is a product of the immediate environment rather than of gender. Furthermore, there was an eight-year old boy (raised with mostly males) placed in a group of all girls. The first session, the boy was the only boy to create boy art, however, during session two (with all boys) he created girl art. In fact the only boy to create boy art during the all boy session was the teenage boy. The remainder of the boys created girl art, with the exception of the preschooler. His art was scribbles and marks, which is neither girl or boy art. In addition, the eight-year old boy, when moved to a group of all girls, at first created boy art, but then began to create girl art on the back of his paper. He created a picture of a birthday cake

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since several of the girls were talking about birthdays and one drew a birthday cake on her paper. An assumption can be made that it is the social environmental influences rather than the gender persuasion dictating the changes in the artwork of this young boy.

Conclusion What can be learned from this study? Firstly let me say that this was a small study, done over a short period of time, and with various age ranges. Therefore, further studies of larger groups would need to be performed in order to determine the varicosity of these findings. However, for this study, the actual gender had little or no effect on the outcome of the art pieces. The children mostly produced art that they wanted to create based on their culture, society, and immediate surroundings. How different are boys and girls? Well according to mother goose and to the majority of society, quite a bit of differences. Is it really gender causing the differences or our society conditioning them to be different? What would the differences be if our society and culture really saw each gender as equal? What would girls and boys really be made of? Well according to my daughter, boys and girls should be made of peanut butter and jelly, equally good alone but wonderful together.

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References

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