Stereotypes In Cartoons

Gender is a sociological idea, in which it is not based on biology. While there is some biological differences between the sexes, the “meaning” of being male or female is based on social norms. Like race, these “biological” differences provided a system of enabling inequality between the sexes. History offers many examples of the gender norms over time. Women, for centuries, are few as the homemakers and often viewed as intelligent. Despite living in the twentieth century with greater equality, one does not need to go far to see how society and media influence our perception of gender. Advertisements in various media persuade its audience to buying their products. However, the means of attracting and persuading the audience can have underlying messages. Even in entertainment for young girls these underlying messages are prevalent. One example is the popular film, The Little Mermaid, in which the main protagonist is a young female. The protagonist gave up her identity to satisfy her lover. Even traditional gender roles are at work; the film showed young girls that to be happy and successful one had to find a husband and must relinquished one’s identity (Wood 1994). The generalized perception of male and female are polar opposites. Males are viewed as masculine, strong, authoritative, powerful, and devoid of emotions. Females are viewed as beauty, fragile, nurturing, emotional and sole purpose is to please men. These ideas can lead to sexism, which can have negative effects on

South Park is a fictionalized animated account of a group of grade school friends who live in Colorado. The show is what’s known as an equal opportunity offender. It takes no prisoners when it comes to stereotypes of religion, sex, race and gender. An abundance of sociological concepts and social issues are present. Since its start in 1989 it has taken on social issues with unparalleled bravery, one of them gender. Many episodes pit the guys against the girls and the battle of the sexes and break-ups ensue. In the episode “Marjorine,” a male character named Butters infiltrates a girl’s sleepover to retrieve a device that tells the future (it’s really just a paper fortune teller) and hilarity and social high jinks ensue. He has to endure

Today, more children are somehow connected to the media. Having computers, television, and phones, there always is a way to access it. The media being this accessible can cause problems, because in almost every show that airs on television has some type of gender bias. From how they portray a character from it’s behavior, role or appearance. This has set bad examples for children watching since the children copy what they see on TV. The cartoons, Charlie Brown, Phineas and Ferb, and SpongeBob SquarePants all have a gender bias. Each cartoon is aired on televisions at different times, so it show’s how throughout time gender bias is still an issue.

Gender stereotypes affect children substantially. From the baby boy in blue with trucks and action figures to the baby girl in pink with dolls and princesses, these roles and generalizations affect children’s personalities while they are still developing. Those guiltiest of stereotyping in children’s media are Disney, Nintendo and other video-game companies, and reality television. These influences are expansive, and they reach past elementary-age kids to teenagers. Stereotypes negatively impact children of all ages through these forms of media, and parents need to be aware of this.

Media is a powerful agent in entertaining children. It also influences and teaches the youth of society the suitable and appropriate gender roles that they inevitably try to make sense of. The power of media is very influential especially in the minds of the youth. Disney movies target the youth and plant certain ideas and concepts about social culture into the vulnerable minds of children. Media uses gender to its advantage, just like Disney productions. Humorous caricatures reveal some harsh realities about the portrayal of Disney Princesses in many movies made by the Walt Disney Company. Disney mixes innocence with the ultimate form of fantasy to capture an audience. Predominantly, Disney helps highlight the gender roles by showing the

* Television viewing creates the concept of gender-role and racial stereotypes in children, as they start considering it as very natural phenomena. Heroic acts are expected out of males, while women are displayed as objects and less powerful.

Children television programs have been around for decades, designed to entertain and educate the targeted audience. These programs are extremely popular among children, typically last twenty to thirty minutes, are scheduled between the hours of 7:00 a.m. – 10: 00 p.m., and are aired daily on a weekly basis. The commercials that air in-between the breaks of each program are also marketed towards and specifically made for children. Even though the main purpose of children television programs is to entertain, inform, and educate, there are a variety of stereotypes that can be found within some of these children shows. Some of these stereotypes have to do with ethnicity and gender. After carefully watching and analyzing a few of these children

In her essay “The Smurfette Principle”, Katha Pollitt writes that commercial television and the views of preschoolers TV programs neatly divided between the genders. Pollitt describes boys are always more important, and take starring role in contemporary television shows, movies, cartoons then girls are in the supporting role. This theory split their consciousness, change both boys and girls.

Gender stereotypes are everywhere. Even before we can understand what this means, people are constantly exposed to them through advertisements, toys, clothes, and the media including television shows and movies. To evaluate the prevalence of gender stereotypes in television programs targeted towards young children, I chose to watch four different shows called Phineas and Ferb, Little Einsteins, Horrid Henry, and Sofia the First. When picking what shows to watch, I intentionally selected at least one that looked targeted towards boys, another that appeared to be targeted towards girls, and finally one that seemed gender neutral. I also made sure to watch at least two episodes of each program to determine whether the themes I observed were

It is no lie when it’s said that media influences human decisions. For adults, it could be the newest fashion trends. Perhaps which restaurant has the highest rating and seems to be the most luxurious. For children, it’s the same. Nobody is spared from society and the media’s norms.

Gender representations in television bear immense weight within society as they either: reproduce or critique societal values, address injustice or uphold mainstream beliefs, and perpetuate stereotypes or initiate change. Today, the problem with gender representations in the television medium is not a lack of visibility of women, as multiple genres include women characters, but rather the problem lies in the portrayal of women. Are the images of women displayed in a positive manner? Does the television medium accurately represent women? Although questions of accuracy and positivity in representations seem minor, these questions have major implications as people use television shows as windows for broader cultural practices. We must realize that the people we see on television programs

I had chosen to assess whether children’s media is gender-stereotyped by watching various episodes of The Flintstones from the ABC televison station.

The Simpsons is a cult classic that's is one of the longest running shows ever. It is still going on since 1989s and it's currently airing on Fox. This show follows Homer and his family who are a family living in the town of Springfield. This cartoon is filled with many zany characters and one of those charters is bound to be a racial stereotype. I do not like this show's portrayal of minorities. Apu is one of the only indian characters on the show. This show is very old and back then it was okay to portray characters like this, In today's day in age people would get offended really quickly. Since this show is a cartoon i do feel like they can get away with many things. Apu is also portrayed very negatively and stereotypically. In the show he works at a convenience store.

According to the social learning theory, the influence of the media in the formation of gender roles and identity is known as being indirectly and vicariously reinforced. It states that we can learn gender appropriate behaviour by learning from others. So by having gender stereotypes portrayed in the media, it has a powerful influence on all of us but especially on children because they are currently

Human behaviour is something that on a day to day basis is learned, being through our social interactions and relationships with others. In this essay I aim to identify the influence that the media and society depicts on the concept of gender roles and ideas which surround this topic. I will be exploring parental influences as well as the effects of primary socialisation of Television and toys, on children’s gender. Then to go on, in deeper detain to the way that the media creates and emphasises the gender divisions between male and female.