Cartoons and Gender

Over the course of the class Gender Roles in the media have been a major theme. Recently Disney films have been exposed as providers of specific gender roles that aren't agreed with by their “Adult” observers. What I care to expose is other children’s media providers such as, Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon. These media programmers show cartoons to youth from ages 1-14 and expose different gender stereo types in the process. This like Disney is over looked by a large portion of Parents and therefore children are allowed to be taught by the media. 

This photo comes from Episode 70 Clan of the Duck: In this episode the two children Phil and Chuckie discover that dresses are cooler than pants. They are a lot easier to deal with and they should be allowed to wear them. Also during this episode the question of gender is very clear. The boys are mistaken for girls because they are in dresses; they also see Betty, Phil and Lil’s mom wearing shorts. This brings about a huge surge of curiosity inside the young boys.

Example: Rugrats a TV show on Nickelodeon is a cartoon which presents gender roles without hiding it behind comedy. The parents of the show are clear example of this; you have a working class Dad, a single parent father, and the father whom provides for his family. Concerning the feminine perspective you have a stay at home mom, self-promoting business women, and the macho female whom takes charge. Power Rangers a long running series that has attracted youth across many generations has always backed up the “boy’s rule” role along with many others. The powerful man, weak women theme runs across many TV’s but in different form.

The message I want to send across is that not only Disney is responsible for exposing gender to children of a young age. Regardless of who is broadcasting the series, the fact remains that cartoons are sending messages to youth and introducing them to what gender is supposed to be. The purpose is to target family life and re-introduce that educating children on gender shouldn’t come from TV but through family and school. The project will take the form of flipping through multiple videos chronologically showing different popular cartoons as they attempt to educate children about gender.