TV's Teaching Gender Roles to Children

Television is considered a powerful force in American life, whether for good or for ill, and the latter distinction has been much argued over the history of television broadcasting. One of the issues raised in recent years involves how television serves as an example in teaching gender roles to children, and this issue has become more heated as gender roles in society at large have been challenged, analyzed, and tested with the shifts in thinking and behavior that have taken place over the last two decades. It is not surprising that critics of television cannot agree on the effect of gender role presentation in the media when they cannot agree among themselves on what types of gender roles should be projected in the first place. Some theorists have simply approached the issue with the question as to whether or not television has any effect on gender role at all, and if so, what do current television presentations portray and what effect do these portrayals have. An analysis of Saturday morning children's television on four networks on November 21, 1998 shows how gender roles have expanded on these shows in recent years while still reflecting certain stereotypes and common themes long part of American gender depictions.

Television is presumed to have a particular effect on children over and above what it might have on adults. The heaviest viewers of television are children. Parents often use television as a form of babysitter, and children take easily to the viewing ex

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nstructive, and generally rewarded for their efforts. Males had a wide variety of occupations on Saturday morning cartoons, while females were nearly always pretty teens or housewives (Liebert, Sprafkin, and Davidson 163-166). These studies and conclusions were from a decade or so ago and would presumably be different from television today given the degree of social change that has taken place since that time, especially with reference to women's roles in society. An analysis of the programs on CBS, NBC, ABC, and the WB networks from Saturday morning, November 21, 1998 shows that there are more female characters than in the past on some shows, though the nature of these roles depends somewhat on the type of program involved. Cartoons for young children tend to have both male and female characters in equal numbers. Action cartoons tend to remain male-dominated, though this also depends on the origin of the show and other issues. Live-action children's programming on Saturday morning seems to be trying to maintain an equality of male and female characters, with each being presented as equably foolish and as obsessed with ideas about dating, social standing, and appearance. The programs on the WB Network hark back to a long tr

Category: Psychology - T