Baby Girl Card

At first I felt my card did not really support Willer’s claims; however on closer examination I realized that it in fact did have some gender reinforcement. On the front of the card it says “Congratulations on your little ‘sleepy-time gal’” and on the inside are two very tired parents holding there smiling baby. There is not really a gendered color theme of pinks, but there is no blue, more of a purple color. The language supports gendered themes in the use of the word “little” referring to a girl. Also, Willer claims that, “Although not significant, there were birth congratulation cards for girls that identified a girl as a shopper, as a phone talker … as needing security.” I think that the message that the new baby girl is tiring her parents up reinforces the stereotype that females are high maintenance.

Baby Cards

http://www.bluemountain.com/category.pd?path=82903

When i read about this assignment about 2o different cards popped into my head. I have worked at a hallmark store back home for 3 years. I have read, put away, and sold hundreds of baby cards. When i read the article there were defientaly some similarities that popped into my mind. I can think of some pink cards that have pink bows and glitter all over them for girls and have cute pictures of teddy bears, and pink toys. I think that most of the greeting cards fit Willers argument about baby greeting cards because most of them are gender specific. a lot of boy cards say "congrats on your bouncing baby boy" and with a girl its usually something about being precious and a little angel.

Willer's Essay Response

In response to the Willer essay assigned for today I found a baby shower example from www.americangreetingcards.com. The example I found was a typical gender-designed greeting card from this website. I feel the example that I found was related to Willer's interpretation of certain baby shower greeting cards that are found on the market. There are some cards on the site that break gender rules such as color associations like girl/pink and boy/blue. Overall I found the contrasts between the article and the the examples I found to be effective and good examples of society's views on what is culturally defined in the language of a card or image.

response for wednesday

http://www.bluemountain.com/display.pd?prodnum=3054968&path=82916&bfrom=2

I found a card that incorporates both boy and girl characteristics. Even though is card is directed towards a boy, this card incorporates a pink background. The other characteristics included in this card is the phrase "bundles of boy" which is a play on words, but appeases the argument by Willer, that certain phrases on birth announcement cards are gender specific. While browsing the site I noticed that a lot of the cards designed for girls were more serious, and had more frills then the ones designed for boys. I feel that the boy cards were designed to look more simple, and to the point, whereas girl cards were more creative and detail oriented.

I feel that because of the fact that my card was so simple it was almost hard to apply Willer's criteria to decide whether or not it was gender specific. Then, I realized that the girl, in contrast, had a lot more artwork and words used causing my original boy card to appear more masculine. Even the "nonverbal" communication was apparent that my card was specifically for a boy (despite the pink background).

Baby eCard

This Website is kind of different than what Lynda R. Willer statistical analysis about the baby Hallmark. This Hallmark websites offers such cards as "Baby Chase" has a baby in a green gown instead of the usual Pink and Blue colors and with little hair which leaves the audience to questioning the fact if its a boy or a girl. Another thing to consider is that most cards on this "Hallmark" website are for non-gender babies because they lack the pink and blue identification of what Lynda R. Willer says in "Welcome to Your World, Baby", other eCards on this site do not even have babies in their cards. Even though in the live stores of the Hallmark there are only a few non-gender cards, there are more free non-gender base cards on rationally than identity on gender on this "Hallmark" website than what Lynda R. Willer states in her Journal Analysis.

http://www.hallmark.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/category51000110051-102012147551;-102001;11442;-102010;-102012ecardsBaby%20-%20Congratulations

Baby ecard

The card that I found was for a little boy on: http://www.americangreetings.com/ecards/display.pd?prodnum=3043321&path=64318

This particular card does go along with Willer's argument on baby cards. The card for a little boy contains a background of a sky and clouds with stars. Willer found that most boy cards were more than likely to have pictures of sky items like clounds, moons and stars. My card also displayed a teddy bear hanging on a moon with a blanket. The color pallet for this card was blues and yellows which Willer also found to be true for boy cards. I do believe that Willer's argument is true and effective.