Gender Roles In The Berenstain Bear

My project will perform a content analysis format to examine the portrayal of gender in the children’s book series, The Berenstain Bears, written by Jan, Stan, and Mike Berenstain. The two books And Too Much Junk Food and Get Ready for School will be my analysis material. I will look at how this social problem is coded by analyzing the portrayal of the mother, father, brother, and sister bears, and how they relate to each other. Each of the characters in The Berenstain Bears children’s books display traditional and outdated gender roles, and these portrayals are apparent in each of the books. The father and son bears in The Berenstain Bears are portrayed as stereotypically and traditionally male. First, the father bear is portrayed, depending …show more content…
He is seen catching fish, which can be symbolic of “carrying the weight” of the household’s income, but he doesn’t help with domestic responsibilities. He doesn’t wake up the children, nor does he help them get ready for school. In fact, he doesn’t even talk to the children as they get ready. This job is left for the mother. This portrays the father bear as dominant, independent and strong. The other way the father bear is portrayed is as a man-child. This portrayal of the father bear involves more interaction with the children, but it also portrays him as childish, not mature. When the children are eating too much junk food, so is the father. This portrayal shows the father bear as being unable to make responsible life choices for himself, much less his children. In this same story, after the bear family has stopped eating junk food and has run a race, the book makes a point to emphasize that the father is “especially proud” for the success in the race. This representation shows the father bear as childish and immature. The second male gender portrayal can be seen in the young boy bear. The boy bear is portrayed as young, but manly. When his mother wakes up his …show more content…
First, the mother is portrayed as the only engaged adult, and also seems solely responsible for household duties. When she is not occupied with the children, she is either sewing, baking, cooking, gardening, or doing other similarly domestic activities. Most, of the time, however, the mother bear is helping the children with whatever they need. Sometimes she is portrayed as helpful, such as when she is helping the children get ready for school; other times, she is portrayed as nagging, such as when she’s cleansing the house of junk food. In the latter situation, the mother is portrayed as annoying. The mother is also responsible for always being cheerful. She wears bright colors, and often marvels at the benefits of the day. Once, she even exclaims, “what a beautiful day it is.” While this attitude is not necessarily bad, the fact that the mother must have this mindset is old-fashioned. The daughter bear is portrayed similarly stereotypically. She is not directly portrayed as a sex object, but she almost exclusively wears pink and purple, colors that are often linked to innocence and femininity. She is also obedient; when her mother wakes up her brother and her, she immediately gets up. When her brother is looking for his math book, she is looking for her pencil case. This implies less intelligence. Rather than dinosaurs and fighter planes, her toys and