While reading Katha Pollitt’s essay “The Smurfette Principle” I began to think about my almost two year old niece and how the entertainment she is watching and soaking up will mold her into a young woman one day. You flip through the channels and watch a childrens television show and you are still seeing examples of what Pollitt wrote in her essay “The Smurfette Principle”. The female characters are still the little sisters following their brothers around, weak and quiet, in the background. Now however, I have begun to notice the commercial advertising for both boys and girls. You see in everyday ads that the women are always seen as beautiful and weak, while the man is strong, emotionless, and fearless. Why is it that we start to set these
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A focus group is shown two pictures both with the same man standing next to a vehicle. In one he is standing next to a car and another a truck. The focus group goes on to say that the man with the truck is overall more masculine and preferred. Even the children are saying that a man should drive a truck over a car. Conforming to these gender stereotypes can be harmful to both young boys and girls. Why is it though that every truck in a commercial is driven by a man? Why are the women automatically casted out, as though the thought of a woman choosing a truck in unfathomable? Where did we learn what it means to be a girl or a boy? Children internalize gender role stereotypes from books, songs, television, and the movies (Witt). As children grow and develop, they are taking in information and acquiring knowledge at a rapid rate. This information and unconscious subtle cues that these characters give off will help form the gender roles, which we will live by for the rest of our …show more content…
My favorite movie growing up would be Disney’s Anastasia. A young girl is separated from her family during a revolt and with the help of two men, reunites with her grandmother. I consider Anastasia to be a very good movie from the 90’s for young girls to watch. The main character is forced to fend for herself during the time she is an orphan and relies on no male to ensure survival. The story does take a turn for the expected when she falls in love with the man helping her find her grandmother. Why is it that leading female character must fall in love with a man to ensure her happy ending?
For every movie with a leading independent female character I could probably name a hundred that are led by men. Nine times out of ten there will be a female character in the show or book but she will not be leading or even a main character, often times she will be in the background supporting a man. Why is this you might ask, the answer can be derived from the statistic that only 17 percent of animators are female (Baird) which means that out of all the animated shows and movies our children are watching about 83 percent of it is made from a males
A focus group is shown two pictures both with the same man standing next to a vehicle. In one he is standing next to a car and another a truck. The focus group goes on to say that the man with the truck is overall more masculine and preferred. Even the children are saying that a man should drive a truck over a car. Conforming to these gender stereotypes can be harmful to both young boys and girls. Why is it though that every truck in a commercial is driven by a man? Why are the women automatically casted out, as though the thought of a woman choosing a truck in unfathomable? Where did we learn what it means to be a girl or a boy? Children internalize gender role stereotypes from books, songs, television, and the movies (Witt). As children grow and develop, they are taking in information and acquiring knowledge at a rapid rate. This information and unconscious subtle cues that these characters give off will help form the gender roles, which we will live by for the rest of our …show more content…
My favorite movie growing up would be Disney’s Anastasia. A young girl is separated from her family during a revolt and with the help of two men, reunites with her grandmother. I consider Anastasia to be a very good movie from the 90’s for young girls to watch. The main character is forced to fend for herself during the time she is an orphan and relies on no male to ensure survival. The story does take a turn for the expected when she falls in love with the man helping her find her grandmother. Why is it that leading female character must fall in love with a man to ensure her happy ending?
For every movie with a leading independent female character I could probably name a hundred that are led by men. Nine times out of ten there will be a female character in the show or book but she will not be leading or even a main character, often times she will be in the background supporting a man. Why is this you might ask, the answer can be derived from the statistic that only 17 percent of animators are female (Baird) which means that out of all the animated shows and movies our children are watching about 83 percent of it is made from a males