STEREOTYPICAL CARTOONS

Stereotypical Cartoons Tori Hernandez Queens University Most people remember their childhoods as playing outside, homework being coloring pages, and spending every Saturday morning watching cartoons with a big bowl of cereal. During childhood, these activities seemed like nothing more than a good time. Looking back, those activities played a part into growing up and developing into adults. According to the Social Learning Theory, children learn gender-related behavior from their social contacts, primarily their parents and peers (Ivy 2008 pg. 72). These stereotypes can come from the people they are surrounded by but they can also come from outside factors, like cartoons on television. The problem with this is that they develop their ideas on gender through the stereotypes they see in their days (Ivy 2008 pg. 72). Cartoons play a big part in childrens days, meaning they play a big part in presenting views about the world around them, one being gender roles. Masculinity is perceived as being fearlessness and the ability to mask emotions, take risks, and be aggressive (Ivy 2008 pg. 59). Some stereotypical features of femininity are being affiliative, cooperative, and nurturers (Ivy 2008 pg 61). According to Ivy (2008 pg. 67), being aggressive has been viewed as a male characteristic and passivity has been seen as a female characteristic and women who show aggression are usually seen as having something wrong with them. Since there are so many cartoons on television nowadays, it is no surprise that cartoons show both gender role stereotypes and contradictions (Aubrey & Harrison 2004 pg. 2).

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Within one study, during 73.5 hours of cartoon programming time, a total 2,733 acts of aggression took place (Luther 2007 pg. 9). The highest form of aggression was 44.6% as physical aggression while verbal name calling and insults came in at 14.2%. Most of the time these were demonstrated by male characters - 64.5% of the time it was male and 22.8 of the time it was female. While most of the physical aggression was shown by males, the female characters were more likely to engage in verbal name calling/insults and verbal threats of social isolation than male characters...33% being female and 9.9% being male engaged such aggression (Luther 2007 pg. 9). For stereotypical behavior Aubrey and Harrison stated that: Male characters are more likely to show physical aggression, were generally rewarded for their behavior, and engaged in problem- solving activities...[while] female characters were more likely to defer to male characters...and embody [either] the nerdy girl without romantic opportunities, dumb blondes, spiteful, catty backstabbers, or sweet, loyal girlfriends of the male protagonists. (pg. 115-116) The reason that I chose childrens television to research was because while learning about gender roles in men and women, I find it most interesting studying when roles start to develop and when perceptions are made. I can see the stereotypes played out in my day to day life, like watching men and women interact. However, I dont remember learning these roles growing up. So looking back at things like cartoons helps explain how children learn to think. For my experiment, I looked up what the top ten cartoons were in 2010. I then went onto hulu.com to search for full episodes and watched segments from three different episodes of each show I chose. I took notice in the main characters and in the smaller characters; I observed how they interacted with each other, if they fit social roles, or if they broke norms. During this experiment

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I hoped to find out how drastically cartoons encouraged stereotypical gender roles. I expected for most cartoons to play into social norms, because cartoons usually exaggerate. Most cartoon characters are not too complex so I figured whatever their role was would usually stays constant for each episode. The first cartoon I chose was Dora the Explorer. Dora broke most gender stereotypes for girls. She is daring, brave, adventurous and takes charge of situations. In one episode, Dora has to save her male cousin from a trap by white water rafting down a river. In each episode she uses problem solving skills to figure out what to do next. Doras sidekick, Boots, is a male character who is the opposite of the male stereotypes. Boots has to be saved by Dora multiple times throughout the episodes and constantly relies on Dora to help him make decisions. Boots rarely does anything on his own because he is scared to go on without Dora. Dora is a new type of female - strong, independent, and courageous. While Dora may have contradicted male and female stereotypes, one cartoon that fits right into gender roles is Disneys Phineas and Ferb. This show is about a group of kids summer break and finding things to do in all of their free time. The main characters, Phineas and Ferb, are both kid geniuses who can make anything - including rocket ships that can go to the moon and submarines that can go to the depths of the ocean - all in their back yard. Their sister, Candace, is a stereotypical girl who is obsessed with the attention from her crush. All her and her friends do is shop and talk about boys. Phineas and Ferb have a few friends who help assist them in all of their adventures. One is Isabella, a Fireside Girl (Girl Scout), who has a crush on Phineas. Her catch phrase in each episode is, Whatcha doin? to try and get Phineas to include her in his adventures. Isabella, along with all of the Fireside Girls, are very quiet, however, they do help Phineas and Ferb; like in the episode where they all go camping the Fireside Girls help

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make the fire and set up camp. They are never helpless and can take care of themselves. This show encourages kids to use their imaginations and play with their friends, but also sticks to gender roles pretty closely. These cartoons are usually seen on Nickelodeon or Disney. On the channel PBS, there are a few different kinds of cartoons. One is called Caillou, a show about a little boy who is figuring out the world around him. He is interested in playing, learning, and is always curious about finding new things. The show encourages imagination, like in one episode where Caillou cant find anyone to play with so he makes up new games with his cat. Caillou actually breaks some social norms, like when he uses dress up clothes and plays Daddy with the cat. Another PBS show is Arthur. The main character, Arthur, is an eight year old aardvark who is well-rounded. He is a brainiac who loves the library, enjoys sports and comic book heros, plays piano, and has a good group of friends. All of the characters on Arthur can be seen as well-rounded and are all active in sports and learning. The boys seem to fit their gender roles, while the girls both fit and contradict stereotypes. Like, Francine, an athletic girl who likes to take charge and is usually pretty bossy and has masculine ways of communicating, while her best friend, Muffy, is a stereotypical girl who loves clothes and shopping. The show encourages being well-rounded and working through problems with your friends. It also encourages learning and being engaged at school - all of the characters are very close to their teacher, Mr. Ratburn. They go through troubles and adventures together and are constantly learning. During my experiment I found much more of a variety than I was expecting. I figured that most kid shows would fit right into stereotypes. When I picture cartoons I think of characters hitting each other with giant mallets or getting mad and having steam come out of their ears. However, the characters in these shows actually surprised me with their diversity. Boys seemed

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to fit the mold most of the time, but the girl characters I saw were much more independent and athletic than normal stereotypes. I think that its encouraging to see that cartoons are portraying girls as strong and independent. One surprise I came across was that I did not notice as much aggression in the characters that my research suggested I would find. Most of the shows seemed to have a problem the characters who showed physical aggression. The aggression that I did notice was usually portrayed in a negative light (like coming from the town bully). Unlike the other shows on Disney or Nickelodeon, the shows on PBS are more centered on learning and growing up. The shows on Disney and Nickelodeon were more about entertainment for kids, but PBS seemed to have an agenda set to encouraging younger kids to not be afraid of being curious and finding out the answer. After doing this experiment, I think that cartoons should continue on what they are doing by providing many different characters who fit all the different roles of society. Cartoons are meant to entertain children and I think they are doing so well. All characters are going to have some sort of stereotype because, after all, they are just cartoons. However, none of the cartoons were so concrete in their stereotypes that children would think males and females should only act one of two ways. Children can only make their own decisions by being able to see all possibilities and decide which they think is best. So far I think that cartoons are on the right track to informing children on how males and females interact.

References Aubrey, J., & Harrison, K. (2004). The Gender-Role Content of Children's Favorite Television Programs and Its Links to Their Gender-Related Perceptions. Media Psychology, 6(2), 111-146. Retrieved from EBSCOhost. Ivy, Diana K. (2008). Gender Speak: Personal Effectiveness in Gender Communication.

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Luther, C., & Legg, J. (2007). Social Versus Physical Aggression: An Examination of GenderRelated Differences Depicted in Children's Television Cartoons. Conference Papers -International Communication Association, 1. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.