Fróðskaparrit - 01.01.2006, Page 84

82
CONSTRUCTING IDENTITIES IN CHILDREN’S CULTURE OF CONSUMPTION
mother explained that the only children who
lived nearby their home were two girls from
her son’s (Alex) class. When playing at
home with the girls Alex, (P3, NPS) agreed
to games such as skipping, which he would
not normally do at school. Therefore, to
some extent Alex would modify the bound-
aries of what types of gender play he was
willing to engage in - compared to how he
played at school. Similarly, many spaces in
the schools and nursery involved consumer
goods that were considered to be relatively
gender neutral such as jigsaws, bikes and an-
imals. These objects were played with by
mixed groups of children.
In the oldest age group (P6) the boys and
girls were much less extreme in their per-
ception of boys and girls things. Gender was
still a key identity at this age, however, the
way ch i ldren used consumer goods to define
themselves as boys and girls had changed.
Many consumer objects of interest to this
age group were relatively neutral such as
CDs, mobile telephones, stereos and sports
clothing. Nevertheless, boys and girls dis-
played different musical tastes and their
choice of sports clothing was quite differ-
ent. At this (P6) age, the data revealed there
were still some clear boundaries between the
genders, however, they easily moved into
consumption territories that might not have
been acceptable to younger age groups. For
instance girls were interested in sport and
boys increasingly concemed with their ap-
pearance (discussed in more detail later).
Performance
Performance in children’s cultures of con-
sumption can be described as the way chil-
dren (individuals and groups) perform or ac-
complish certain tasks of significance -
whether they are physical or mental/acade-
mic activities. Although children are un-
doubtedly influenced by societal expecta-
tions of what activities are considered im-
portant, they too displayed their own crite-
ria of what performance characteristics are
valuable in the construction of identity.
The idea of performance implies a com-
parison of self to other. Recognizing how
one is the same/different (and as in the case
of performance: better/worse) compared to
others is at the heart of identity theory. It was
clear from the data that children start at an
early age to compete with each other. At the
nursery chi ldren would compete at anything
and everything. E.g. who could drink the
fastest? Who could jump the highest? Who
had more food on their plate? Therefore,
their understanding of their own unique per-
sonal strengths and weaknesses was less de-
veloped than with the P2/P3 age group who
were much more selective in their choice of
competitive activities.
Subsequently, by P2/P3 thc children had
some idea of their perceived performance
abilities such as being good at football, read-
ing orrunning. Furthermore, there were gen-
der differences as it was evident the boys are
more competitive at this age. Clearly, the
school system contributes to identities con-
structed around performance abilities by
emphasising which things are “good to be
good at” e.g. academic activities. Further-
more, both schools divided the children into
reading groups based on competency. At P3
in NPS some children were particularly
proud of their reading ability. The fírst time