Non-Traditional Gender Roles on Television

In the popular press, much of the discussion about television's influence has focused on television violence or sex on television. However, television's portrays of both women and men may also have a significant influence on children's development. Certainly both young children and adolescents recognize that women and men are filling specific gender roles on television programs. In a 1995 survey of more than 2,000 children in third to twelfth grades, for example, 55% of the girls indicated that there were too few programs about females their age and not enough shows about girls having adventures or women in challenging careers. Both boys and girls also indicated that the images they saw on television had influenced them to diet or exercise so that they would like like that character (Girls to TV, 1998). Images and gender roles clearly are seen and absorbed, as well as body types. There is some evidence that traditional gender roles play a part in children's development and tend to reinforce adoption of those traditional gender roles. What, then, is the effect of the portrayal of nontraditional gender roles on children and adolescents?

In reviewing the literature, one finds considerable evidence that children are aware of gender-role stereotypes at a very young age (Albert & Porter, 1988). Not only are they aware of these stereotypes, they are active in en

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c images of women which are far outside the gender role stereotype. For example, television's Xena is an example of a woman who is not particularly nurturing, caring, or passive. Instead, she is a warrior with a past and she tends to deal with most conflicts violently. At the same time, she has a primary relationship with another woman (although not overtly sexual). This is probably the most atypical female image available. At the same time, Xena has been popular with both boys and girls. She has been seen as a feminist role model because she represents alternatives for girls (Minkowitz, 1996). Although some decry the level of violence, as a nontraditional gender model, she may contribute to increasing girls' options during the developmental process. What is the overall influence of all these different gender representations? How much influence does television have on children's development? Helen Ingham (1997) noted that this is difficult to discover, because television is not an isolated element, it is only one possible variable among many. There are gender representations in the other media, and surround every child through acquaintances, family members, and peers. There are also many different theories about how chil
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