Learning Gender

Madeleine Anderlik
Mass Communications
May 17, 2019
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In the modern world, media is all around us. Now, from what seems like birth, babies

and toddlers can be placed in front of a screen and begin consuming content. Due to the

increasingly pervasive nature of film and television, screen media is shaping the opinions and

behaviors of children at higher and higher rates. Because of this, it is important to examine what

sort of content is being released in the mainstream media. Though there are many pieces of

modern media that are working to revolutionize the way we portray minority groups and public

issues, there are still several problems with the content that is being created for children and

young adults. Modern media is regularly teaching and reinforcing traditional gender roles and

stereotypes in children through the content that is being created with them in mind. This is being

achieved through the aesthetics of children characters, the behaviors of those characters and how

they differ between male and females, and the general visibility of female characters in media.

Aesthetics

At a very young age, toddler television viewers aren’t attentive to dialogue and theme. The

first things that catch their eye are shape and color. This is why the aesthetics of the media

young children are consuming are incredibly important. Many modern children’s cartoons tend

to dress their characters in the exact same color palettes. Female characters are almost

exclusively dressed in pink and purple, while male characters can be dressed in a wide variety of

colors but most often colors such as blue, red, yellow, green, and black. This can be observed in

many shows including ​Doc McStuffins​, ​Paw Patrol,​ ​Peppa Pig​, ​Mickey Mouse Clubhouse​,

Sesame Street​, ​PJ Masks​, ​Sofia the First​, and ​Trolls: The Beat Goes On.​ In each of these shows,

the leading female character is dressed in all pink, purple, or occasionally a bit of red or light
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blue. This trend reinforces the idea that colors like pink and purple are for girls while boys can

like any color except pink and purple. When girls play with toys or dress up like their favorite

female characters, they will be surrounded by traditionally feminine colors and become

conditioned to believe that those are the sorts of colors they should like.

Girls are often given narrow views of how they should appear in the world when viewing the

way characters are drawn and formed in animation. While male characters can be a variety of

fantasy species, female characters still need to look human, feminine, and attractive. Recent

Pixar hit,​ Inside Out​, which premiered in 2015, surrounds the lives of five emotions who are

living in a young girls head. Three of these emotions, Joy, Sadness, and Disgust are portrayed as

female characters while the other two, Anger and Fear, are portrayed as male. Though none of

the characters are actually human, Joy, Sadness, and Disgust all have a very human like form

with round faces, hair, and human like bodies. Fear and Anger, however, don’t look human at

all. Fear is very skinny and has a very long nose. His giant cartoonish eyes bulge out of his face

and his eyebrows float above his head. Similarly, Fear is short and square shaped. The only

thing that looks human about him is his button up shirt and tie. Another movie that exemplifies

this is the ​Toy Story​ franchise, which contains only three female leads in its entirety: Jessie, Bo

Peep, and Barbie. While the ensemble of male characters are a variety of toys such as a

dinosaur, a piggy bank, a slinky dog, stuffed animals, aliens, and more, the main female

characters are all white human women. They are all thin and beautiful with many human

characteristics. Trends like these in children’s media show young girls that while boys can be

anything they want, girls must always be attractive if they want to be taken seriously, or even

appear in the content at all.

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Behavior

In a study done in 2014 by Gerding and Signorielli, researchers examined popular television

shows for “tween” viewers and the way male and female characters are portrayed in these shows.

They ended up separating the shows they looked at into two categories. The first category

known as “Teen Scene” were shows that were marketed towards girls while the second known as

“Action-Adventure” were shows that were marketed towards boys.

A few examples of Teen Scene shows as defined by the study include ​Hannah Montana​,

iCarly,​ ​Drake and Josh​, ​Wizards of Waverly Place​, ​Victorious​, and more. Researchers found

that the conflicts and plotlines in these shows centered mainly around interpersonal relationships

including friendships as well as romantic interests. They also took place mostly in indoor

settings such as the home and school. There was also very little violence in these shows, if any.

In the second genre, Action-Adventure, conflicts and plotlines centered more around

completing missions and going on adventures. Characters in these shows were mostly male.

“Results show that females, compared to the U.S. population, were underrepresented in the

action adventure genre,” (Gerding, 2014). In these shows, episodes were much more likely to

take place in outdoor settings. They also often contained violence and fighting, and focused on

themes of good versus evil. A few examples of Action-Adventure shows include ​Avatar,​

Phineas & Ferb,​ ​Scooby Doo! Mystery Inc.​, ​Star Wars: Clone Wars​, ​The Avengers​, and ​X-Men:

Evolution.​

In a Ted Talk titled ​How Movies Teach Manhood​, speaker Colin Stokes compares the favorite

movies of his two children. His daughter’s favorite movie is the ​Wizard of Oz,​ while his son’s
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favorite is ​Star Wars​. He states that despite how different these movies may seem, at the heart of

them both, they aren’t that different at all. What separates them most is that in one film, the

main character completes her quest by making friends and being a leader, while in another, the

main character completes his quest using violence. His main argument in the talk is that movies

designed and marketed towards young female audiences are very different from those marketed

towards young male audiences. The movies that are often shown to boys glorify violence, war,

and fighting, and spread the message that “a male hero’s job is to defeat the villain with violence

and then collect the reward which is a woman who has no friends and doesn’t speak,” (Spokes,

2013).

What seems to be the main issue with how male and female characters behave in modern

media is that content geared toward young female viewers seems to focus mainly on

interpersonal communication skills while content geared toward young male viewers seems to be

centered around violence and war. This gives young, impressionable watchers two very different

ways to solve their issues. These shows and films help to cultivate the behaviors that these

viewers will mirror in their lives, which includes feelings about their appearances. In the 2014

study, the researchers noted, “Overall, compared to males, females were more attractive, more

concerned about their appearance, received comments about their ‘looks,’” (Gerding, 2014).

Though to some, these differences may seem insignificant, tweens are the group that watches

more television than any other demographic meaning they are absorbing these messages at very

high levels. Television is teaching them how they should view the world and behave within it.

“Exploring these results through the lenses of cultivation theory and social cognitive theory
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shows that tween viewers could potentially develop narrow conceptions about their range of

possibilities in the world,” (Gerding, 2014).

Visibility

We can’t fix the issues regarding how women appear in modern media if women don’t appear

at all. Therefore, it is important to examine just how visible women are in the media we

consume. Sadly, even today, women are vastly underrepresented in television and film,

including those written and produced for children. One phenomenon we can look at in regards to

this is the Smurfette Principle. The Smurfette Principle was named after Smurfette who is the

only female character who appears in the Smurfs universe. This principle refers to media in

which only one female character appears in an ensemble of male characters. Some characters

who exemplify this principle include Gamora from​ Guardians of the Galaxy,​ Kanga in ​Winnie

the Pooh​, Eleven in​ Stranger Things​, Skye in ​Paw Patrol,​ Mavis in​ Hotel Transylvania,​ Wonder

Woman in ​Justice League,​ and Colette in ​Ratatouille,​ among others. This principle gives young

girls very few female characters to look up to. Moreover, when only one female character

appears in a universe, they often serve as a love interest to a main male character which teaches

young viewers that women exist only to be sex objects, or love interests to the more important

men in the story.

Another way we can examine the visibility of women in modern media is using the Bechdel

Test. The Bechdel Test is named Alison Bechdel after the test first appeared in a comic of hers

titled ​Dykes to Watch Out For​ in 1985. The test has three simple rules: 1) The story must have at

least two female characters, 2) the female characters must speak to each other, 3) they must

speak to each other about something other than a man. This seems like an easy enough test to
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pass, however, a website for the Bechdel Test known as simply “bechdeltest.com” has a catalog

of every mainstream American movie that has come out in recent years. By searching each of

the Academy Award nominees for best picture in 2019, you will quickly find that three of them,

Bohemian Rhapsody,​ ​Green Book​, and ​Vice d​ o not pass the test. ​Green Book​ was the winner of

best picture. Many other movies that came out in 2018 similarly do not pass, including several

written for children, including but not limited to: ​Christopher Robin​, ​Fantastic Beasts: The

Crimes of Grimwald​,​ Love, Simon,​ ​Solo: A Star Wars Story​, and ​Spider-man: Into the

Spiderverse.​ A few more notable children’s films from years past that do not pass the test

include ​Shrek​, ​Finding Nemo​, ​The Lion King,​ ​The Sandlot,​ ​ Harry Potter & The Goblet of Fire​,

Bambi​, ​The Jungle Book,​ ​Toy Story​, and more. Not only does this test show us that women are

vastly underrepresented in film and therefore, their stories aren’t being told, it also shows us that

we have a strong lack of female relationships in the media we consume. Women often exist

solely to push along the storyline for a male lead and not get her own story and friendships with

other women in the film. This teaches young viewers that women have a narrow path they must

take in the world with few outcomes.

Conclusion

When discussing issues involving the way gender is viewed in the modern world and the

problems we face due to gender stereotypes, there is a question that is often brought up - what

can we do to fix it? One major answer to this question is to stop reinforcing these outdated ideas

about gender through cliché movie and television plot ideas and create new and diverse media

for children that challenge gender norms. We are making progress, animated television cartoons

such as ​Star vs. the Forces of Evil a​ nd ​Steven Universe ​are creating more dynamic and
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revolutionary characters and even including cannon LGBTQ+ characters in their content. Films

like ​Moana​ and ​Coco​ are highlighting the stories of racial minorities and redefining what it

means to be a Disney Princess. Despite this progress, we still have a long way to go and there

are still great strides the film and television industry can make to make modern media more

inclusive.
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References

BBC Worldwide Ltd., Films for the Humanities & Sciences (Firm), & Films Media Group.

(2009). Divide of the sexes: Gender roles in childhood. New York, N.Y: Films Media

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Bechdel Test Movie List. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://bechdeltest.com/

Every Female Character In Every Disney/Pixar Animated Movie From The Past Decade

Basically Has The Same Face. (2017, December 08). Retrieved from

https://www.good.is/articles/disney-pixar-women-same-face

Gerbner, G., Gross, L., Morgan, M., Signorielli, N., & Shanahan, J. (2002). Growing up with

television: Cultivation processes. In J. Bryant & D. Zillmann (Eds.), LEA's

communication series. Media effects: Advances in theory and research (pp. 43-67).

Mahwah, NJ, US: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Publishers.

Gerding, A., & Signorielli, N. (January 01, 2014). Gender Roles in Tween Television

Programming: A Content Analysis of Two Genres. Sex Roles : a Journal of Research, 70,

43-56.

Murnen, S. K., Greenfield, C., Younger, A., & Boyd, H. (January 01, 2016). Boys Act and Girls

Appear: A Content Analysis of Gender Stereotypes Associated with Characters in

Children’s Popular Culture. Sex Roles : a Journal of Research, 74, 78-91.

Pollitt, K. (1991, April 07). Hers; The Smurfette Principle. Retrieved from

https://www.nytimes.com/1991/04/07/magazine/hers-the-smurfette-principle.html

Stokes, C. (n.d.). How Movies Teach Manhood. Speech presented at Tedx Beacon Street in

Boston, Massachusetts..
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The Smurfette Principle. (n.d.). Retrieved from

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TheSmurfettePrinciple

Weisgram, E. S., Fulcher, M., & Dinella, L. M. (2014). Pink gives girls permission: Exploring

the roles of explicit gender labels and gender-typed colors on preschool children's toy

preferences. Journal Of Applied Developmental Psychology, 35(5), 401-409.

doi:10.1016/j.appdev.2014.06.004