Week13: What other gendered cultural symbols can we think of?


One of the most representative examples of gender-based cultural symbols we can think of is toilet signs. There are two main types of gender-based cultural symbols that appear on toilet signs. The first is color. The color of the women's restroom sign is pink and the color of the men's restroom sign is blue. Few people question this color and it is common, so when you look at the sign from afar, you can tell whether this is a women's or men's room. Therefore, it is a cultural symbol of gender.
The second one is the costume. The picture of the women's restroom sign looks like a skirt and the picture of the men's restroom sign shows that they are wearing pants. Not only women can wear skirts, but men can wear skirts, too. Because gender-less looks are popular these days, you can also find men in skirts. However, skirts look like this because they have long been worn by women and the idea that they are for women is fixed. That's why it's a gender-based cultural symbol.
So we were able to see the cultural symbol of gender through the toilet sign.

Comments

  1. Sora lee(이소라)June 13, 2020 at 7:17 AM

    That's right. Your example are very good. I also had a question about it one day. However, it seems that there has been no big change even after many years since my curiosity?

    ReplyDelete

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