Analysis of Gender Roles Portrayed in Children’s Shows

Gender Stereotyping in Shows

How Were Any Characters Portrayed In Gender-Stereotyped Roles?

How Were Males And Females Portrayed Equally In a) Prosocial Roles, b) Exciting Plot Activities?

Were The Behaviors, Attitudes, And Characteristics Of Male And Female Characters Strongly Gender Stereotyped?

Using The Research And Other Literature, Discuss How These Depictions Influence Young Children’s Moral And Gender Identity Development. Be Sure To Watch The Shows And Cite Specific Examples, Not Just Recall From Memory Shows You Watched As a Child.

There are five different shows which can be analyzed and those are Mickey Mouse Club house, Big BANG Theory, Barney and Friends, American Idol and Dora the explorer. These shows have different acts of aggression which have been displayed below. These shows also describe the pro-social behavior of the show. There were different roles in Barney and friends which portrayed different type of gender-stereotyped roles. In Mickey Mouse club house the most pro social behavior that can be learnt is how to work as a team leader and how to fulfill the responsibility of friendship. The males were portrayed equally as warriors and on the contrary women were portrayed as the women who cannot fight so they are being guided through man (Fishman, 2018). When comparing to the show Barney and friends, the scenario is altogether different. Both males and females are shown as strong funny characters. Pro social roles can also be seen in Big Bang theory show, which describes that there is a helping nature of the host and the information is being circulated to help others as well. Yet at the same time this show also showcases such as “math’s is for boys and not for girls. The other shows such as American Idol are also one of the finest shows, telecasted as an entertainment show. This entertainment show is also considered as one of the shows that displays the equality between males and females. Both males and females are given equal opportunities to sing on the basis of their talent and ability (Crowson, 2016).  

Talking about the exciting plot activities, the major activities are displayed by American Idol show and friends show. Friends show is also one of the solid epitomes of pro social behavior. Contrasts developed between sexual orientations both as far as the significance or on the other hand noticeable quality of the characters and as far as their introduction. As past inquire about discovered, there were essentially more male lead and minor characters than female lead or minor characters. Lead male characters talked twice as much as did the lead female characters. Also, introductory tests on the conduct and correspondence factors showed that male characters accomplished a greater amount of nearly everything than did the female characters, just on the grounds that they showed up more frequently (Potter & Goldsmith, 2017). 

Prosocial Behavior in Shows

Mickey Mouse Club house is one of the typical shows that display the fun element and the attitude is light and positive. Big BANG Theory on the other hand has a different outlook as it is more than a show; it’s like a visual physics and chemistry lab, through which student can learn and also clear doubts online (Rozario, Masilamani & Arulchelvan, 2018). There is no such gender stereotyping, however the fact that boys can learn faster than girls could impact the thought process of children at young age and in that sense, it is not good to watch. Barney and Friends, American Idol and Dora the explorer are those shows that can lighten the mood of the child. In Barney and friends the young purple dinosaur displayed lots of dance moves, games and songs that are easy to learn and watch. The major focus of the series is on sharing caring and learning. It’s entirely a creative show and this could bring a positive influence on child. The major difference with regards to gender stereotyping is the dinosaur is considered as male and proof is the name of boys as Barney is more in comparison to the girls (Martin, 2017). Dora the explorer is a cartoon that defines how a girl is strong and intelligent enough to carry her thoughts and stuff in her little bad and explores the new places with the use of intellectual mind. She represented the diversity of Latino cultures. Although representations of females and minority children in animated cartoons have improved over the years, stereotypical and racially biased portrayals of females and racial minority groups remains (Choshen, Fox & Loewenstein, 2018). American Idol is also one of the shows which is free from gender stereotyping and since the depictions influences the mindset of the children, it has been advised to watch the shows that could bring some fun element and moreover enhancement of knowledge.

Hence from the overall analysis it can be concluded that there are some shows and cartoon which represented gender stereotyping, whereas others belong to the gender equality. Infact most of the cartoons and programs are designed to promote the equality in not only amongst boys and girls but also aligns the different cultures at the same time.

References

Choshen, L., Fox, L., & Loewenstein, Y. (2018). Dora the explorer: Directed outreaching reinforcement action-selection. arXiv preprint arXiv:1804.04012.

Crowson, T. (2016). Breaking it down Barney style: a framework for cultural interoperability. Canadian Foreign Policy Journal, 22(2), 108-122.

Fishman, M. (2018). Entertaining crime: Television reality programs. Routledge.

Martin, R. (2017). Gender and emotion stereotypes in children’s television. Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, 61(3), 499-517.

Potter, A., & Goldsmith, B. (2017). Reality’s children: young people and factual entertainment television. Media International Australia, 164(1), 44-55.

Rozario, A. M., Masilamani, V., & Arulchelvan, S. (2018). The case of the missing girls: distribution of gender roles in Indian children’s television programming. Journal of Children and Media, 12(2), 125-142.