Keith Veronesi's response to Children's TV

First, I thought that all the presentors did a great in showing just how gendered children’s television really is. However, as I sat through each presentation, it really hit me that prior to taking this class, I am not sure I would have really picked up the problems with the ways these children’s shows fall to the gender norms that are the problems in our society today. As I was growing up watching these shows, I think that I would succomb to these norms on a daily basis. Perhaps these gender norms never really stuck out to me because of the household that I grew up in. I have a dad who is very manly and into sports and a mom who is definitely a “girly” mother. My mom never played sports and was/is always worried about her appearance. When my little sister was born, she was immediately put in pink clothing with a bow in her hair. Her room was painted pink, while mine and my borthers had sports wall paper that had a background color of blue. These are the exact stereotypes that are portrayed in these television shows today. The presentors do a great job in showing how these children shows give feminine qualitites to girls and masculine qualities for boys. It sort of seems like the producers of these shows are trying to, or feel like they have to, distinguish boys from girls.

A common theme that each presentor mentioned was the fact that there is a lack of female characters as the main character in each television show. Aside from Dora in Dora the Explorer, most of these shows have males as the lead role. Why is this important? It kind of misleads children into believing that women play a second class role to males in society. A major issue in society today is that women are treated as if they do not have as much of a dominant role in the world today. As each television show continues to fit the model of having male characters in the lead role, it only increases the the chance of these children falling into the gender norms that have been created in society today. Despite Dora being a girl, she does not fit the role of the typical girly girl. Dora is often seen outside, going on hikes, and getting dirty. The way she is dressed does not fit the typical structure that other shows have layed out for the feminine characters in children’s tv.  Why is this important? This is important because despite Dora being one of the few lead characters that is female, she still falls more on the tom-boy side of the spectrum.

Staying on the topic of appearance, I think the presentors did a really good job in showing us how each character is depicted as male or female. The first thing that is obvious is the clothing, specifically the color of the clothing. Typically the female characters are wearing pink, yellow, and other colors that have been deemed “girly” or feminine. Often times the boys were seen in blue, green, and other colors that have fallen into the category as masculine. Aside from clothing, the tv shows depicted females vs. males by the accessories to each character, such as eye lashes or jewelry. The appearance of the characters comes off almost as more important than the actual role of that character. Lastly, the voices of these characters plays a major role in depicting the gender of the individual character. I think the Mickey Mouse series did a wonderful job in showing the difference between the female and male characters. Aside from the obvious appearance difference between male and female characters, the producers of Mickey Mouse gave female characters, such as Minnie and Daisy, extremely high pitched voices.

As I said earlier, the presentors did a really good job in showing the gender norms that have become problems in our society today. Unfortunately, these television shows are outlining our youth and molding them into believe that this is actually the way it is supposed to be. The idea of the depiction between males and females is something that I do not see changing anytime soon.