Josephine Bingler's Response to Children's TV Presentations

           The childhood presentations made me revisit the scary realization that children, through TV and media, are learning behaviors and ways to act before they even enter school. The presentations analyzed the clothing and look of their female vs. male characters. Children TV show creators made sure to make it clear which character was male and which was female, even if the character's were animals. Almost all the shows exaggerated the appearance of their characters giving females eyelashes, doeish eyes, and gender specific clothing. In Dakota’s presentation, he talked about how the girl dinosaurs on a show called Dinosaur Train, had long, dark eyelashes and a shiny gleam/glow to them. Not only is this “glow” unnatural but it makes sense why our society is so obsessed with looks, selling gels that promise to give women longer and thicker lashes "within one week". It is scary that ideas of femininity and beauty are being instilled in four and five year olds.

Children see these character’s who are supposed to be their age with makeup and little dresses and want to be like them. It was clear that in all these shows that appearance determined gender.  The girls also stood very confined and were soft-spoken. This reveals a scary, hidden curriculum in children's television. Little girls and boys are told how they act and dress. The shows also lacked the portrayal of women as the main character. In my education class, we call this symbolic violence. If children are only shown male character’s as the leader, they begin to see this as the norm. Dora was one of few shows that had a female as the main character. But even in Dora, she still depends so heavily on other characters. The shows portray girl characters doing mental work like reading books and solving riddles while the boys did the physical work. This is also a part of the hidden curriculum in children's television. 

The presenters also did a great job of discussing how these shows really push men into the public sphere and keep women in the private sphere. Carly discussed in her presentation that a show on PBS had a commercial for Chuck E Cheese’s where it showed a dad and son playing happily together. It is assumed that the mother is at home while her husband and son take part in good old “male bonding”.

           By the end of the presentations, it was clear to me that children’s shows have a hidden curriculum that I do not want my children being subjected to. Female characters are underrepresented, passive, and secondary while their male counterparts are the brave ones who take the leadership role. When it came to clothing and appearance, there seemed to be some unnecessary and exaggerated gendering. It made no sense to put female characters, who were set to go on an adventure, in heels and dresses! But I did leave the presentations wondering if we ever read things as gender neutral? My inclination is no. I remember when I found out that Blue, an animated dog in the show Blue's Clues, was a girl, I was shocked. I always pictured Blue as a boy even though there wasn't really anything pointing to any specific gender. For some reason, as a five year old, I determined this dog was a boy. I couldn't see the dog as gender neutral. This shows just how gendered of a world we live in.