Response to Children's Media Presentations: Emily Hunter

Response to Children’s Media Presentations: Emily Hunter

            At the end of class last Friday we began to discuss how the default gender for non-gendered characters was male.  I have found myself guilty of this numerous times, especially as a child.  For example, when I was younger I always believed that Blue on Blue’s Clues was a male dog, provided the color and the name.  In addition, I found that when watching the Dora the Explorer “Backpack” clip in class on Friday I still was hesitant to believe the backpack was a girl because the voice provided to the backpack sounded more masculine than feminine to me.  How, in a society that is so gendered, do we expect children not to associate gender based on color, clothing, actions, and voice?  In order to prevent children from thinking a non-gendered character is a male, the cartoons must have some means of gender identification.  I think the problem in the situation is not that the characters are gendered.  Instead the problem, in my opinion, is the way the characters are gendered, and the limited representations of each gender that are available in children’s media.  For example, in every presentation we discovered that girls were usually represented in very stereotypical feminine dress, such as jumper dresses and bows.  It is fine to show a female wearing a dress, but other female characters could be represented wearing pants or shorts, preferably not in pink. Both the name of the characters and the voice of the characters could be used to indicate the gender, without a bombardment of stereotypical gender traits. The same is true for the actions the characters take throughout the shows.  For example, it is okay to show females interested in dancing or art as long as there are also representations of females interested in sport and in adventure.  In the same way, it is fine to show some boys interested in playing with cars and acting out the “Brave Knight”, but it is also important to show the emotional side of boys and the artistic side of boys.  In order to have such diversity in characters, particularly in the females, the number of girls that are present in children’s media are going to need to increase, provided each children’s media presenter described the under-representation of women in the episodes they analyzed. 

            Another topic I would like to touch upon is the hyper-representation of heterosexuality as a norm in most television shows, even on PBS.  I was discussing the media assignment with my thesis advisor who is in a lesbian relationship and raising 2, 4 year old twins (one girl & one boy).  She told me how it is extremely difficult to find both children’s television programming and children’s literature that has representations of families with two mothers, two fathers, or even single parents.  She informed me that a few years ago during Arthur’s “Post Cards from Buster” a family of children with two mothers were interviewed.  The children were shown playing and doing normal family activities.  No political statement was made about the fact the children have two mothers and it simply represented a loving family.  Unfortunately, before this episode of “Post Cards from Buster” could air, the government blocked PBS from showing the episode.  The representation of the family in children’s media should be diversified, just as the representations of gender should also be diversified.  By representing a diverse spectrum of gender and family roles for the children, the next generations may be more open to gender and family fluidity.