Gender Stereotypes in Children's Television Cartoons

Gender Stereotypes in Children's Television Cartoons

Kelly Eick, May, 1998

Abstract

This study is based on an analysis of four popular television cartoons in regardto their portrayals of gender stereotypes. One of the cartoons was createdbefore 1985, and three after. Over a period of five days, five episodes of eachshow were recorded and coded for the numbers of male vs. female characters,physical characteristics of characters, and male/female roles in dilemma-solvingand stereotyped jobs throughout each program. Results indicated notablediscrepancies between the portrayals of males and females in all of the cartoonsanalyzed. Males outnumbered females considerably, and physical appearances aswell as the jobs characters were awarded often conformed to traditionalstereotypes. Females never played the part of the main hero or problem solver.In general, they were in supporting roles, even when the males seem to beunsuccessful at fulfilling a particular task. The majority of females shown werealso dressed and drawn stereotypically, with tiny waists and short skirts. Themales seemed even more confined than the females in regards to the roles theywere allowed to play and the way they are dressed.

Method

Twenty episodes of four different cartoons were recorded over a five day period.The cartoons chosen for analysis were The New Adventures of Captain Planet,Scooby Doo: Where are You, The Jetsons and Jonny Quest: The Real Adventures…

Physical Characteristics

The characters in all four cartoons follow one of four different gender types:the masculine male, the inadequate male, the delicate female, and the moremodern female. There were no 'butch' females or truly effeminate males seen inany of the cartoons, although some characters had butch or effeminate traits,such as short hair for females. 'Masculine' means the male who fits in withAmerican society's stereotypical 'manly man', or a handsome (according tocurrent American culture) man with definite muscles, and a conservative style ofdress and hairdo. The inadequate male lacks many characteristics of themasculine male. He is weak and fearful, lacking both physical stamina and anysignificant amount of courage. This was demonstrated in the cartoons analyzednot only through actions but also by body type and bone structure, as well asdress and hairstyle. The delicate female was patterned in the cartoons studiedas a woman of delicate physical structure, who is thin and dressed in a such amanner as would not allow her to complete tasks traditionally meant for males.The modern female is one who is dressed in a more neutral fashion, such as jeansor pants, and does not have a noticeably tiny waistline. Physical traits of themost prominent characters are described below, to later further discussion whentying these traits in with roles certain characters are allowed to play.

The Jetsons

All of the females in the Jetsons were drawn with the same body shape and typeof clothing. The two main female characters, mother Jane and daughter Judy, areboth drawn very thin, with tiny waists, thin legs and medium busts. Both womenare always dressed in skirts, except when Judy wears her aerobics outfit, whichis a tight, red catsuit cut low on her bust. Jane is seen dressed in aconstruction uniform once, when she attempts to aid her daughter. Both women arealways in high-heeled shoes, and are always wearing earrings. Their hair isalways in the same style, and never appears dirty or disheveled in any way. Bothwomen have tiny feet. All of female characters portrayed during the fiveepisodes taped either fit this characterization, or are extremely obese, and allthe women, regardless of body shape, are shown in pastel-colored clothing, suchas pink or light purple.

Both masculine and inadequate men are portrayed in The Jetsons. George and ElroyJetson, the two main male characters, are both seen as weak, with no musculatureevident around their chests or upper body areas, and somewhat pronounced waists,in what could be termed a slight "beer belly". Both have short haircuts and wearconservative clothing consisting of plain blue pants and white shirt in George'scase, and blue overalls and a blue hat on Elroy. George's boss, Mr. Spacely, isextremely short and fat, and also wears conservative clothing. All threecharacters wear the same outfit in every episode that was analyzed. Thecharacter Rocky Retro, who appears in the episode entitled "Nine to Five toNine" is an extreme example of the masculine character type. He has very welldefined muscles on every visible part of his body, as well as a tiny waist. Heis blond, tan and has a huge, sparkling, white smile which he shows constantlythroughout the episode. He also has a short, conservative haircut. Othermasculine characters also appear regularly, although none as recurring regulars.The men's clothing tends to be some shade of blue, beige or white.

The New Adventures of Captain Planet

The two female superheroes portrayed, Linka and Gi, as well as Dr. Blight, allfall into the more-modern female archetype. Dr. Blight wears a pink catsuit, andhas shoulder-length blond hair that falls over one eye, but her waistline is notat all pronounced, and her bust is average. Both Linka and Gi wear beige shortsand T-shirts. Gi's T-shirt is pink and Linka's is dark blue. Both girls havebright pink lips, as does Dr. Blight. Gi is tan, in keeping with her Asianheritage, but Linka and Dr. Blight are both pale, and Linka has hair the sameblond color as Dr. Blight's.

All the main male heroes in this program are of the very masculine charactertype. The main hero of the cartoon, Captain Planet himself, is completelycovered in muscles and dresses only in red briefs and a red cape. Captain Planethas a very small waist. The other male main characters, particularly Wheeler,fit a somewhat less pronounced version of the same mold. Dressed in pants andT-shirts of some neutral blue, beige or black shade, all three young male heroesare somewhat muscular, with conservative hairstyles. The male villains, on theother hand, are dressed outlandishly, usually in some combination of polka dotsor bright colors. One of the two recurring male villains is severely obese, andall three male villains shown in the five episodes analyzed were missing severalteeth. All the villains portrayed in the episodes viewed were inadequate in someway, whether it be physically unfit or simply cowardly.

Jonny Quest: The Real Adventures

The only recurring female character in this cartoon, Jessie, is made in themodern mold. She and the male hero, Jonny, have essentially the same build, withthe exception of Jessie's bust, which is proportional to her height and build .She does, however, tend to wear a lot of pink and pastel colors, along withshorts and tight stretchpants. She has shoulder-length red hair that she wearsunrestrained at all times.

Jonny Quest, Dr. Quest and Race Bennett are all made in the masculine mold. Allthree have conservative, short haircuts, and sport T-shirts and jeans. RaceBennett has a more muscular build than Jonny or Dr. Quest, but they all havesome level of visible musculature. Hadji, their Arabian guide, is neither themasculine type or the inadequate type, but instead a combination of the two. Hedoes not have any visible muscles, but he does have stylish clothing and aconservative haircut. He is not visibly obese in any way, but has an averagebuild.

Scooby Doo: Where are You

The two recurring female characters, Daphne and Velma, both wear skirts, butthat is where their similarity ends. Daphne is the complete embodiment of thedelicate female, with a tiny waist and thin legs and arms. She wears an outfitmade of pink and pastel purple fabric, and pastel purple high heels. She haslong red hair and is very pale, and stands with her hands on her hips a greatdeal of the time. Velma, on the other hand, has a much stockier build, with alarger waist and slighter thicker arms and legs. She wears a sweater and skirtmade of a plain mustard color, and thick black-rimmed glasses. She also wearsknee socks.

Fred and Shaggy, the two main male characters, also portray these opposites.Fred is blond and tall, with a somewhat muscular build and a very conservativestyle of dress. His pants always look neatly pressed and he wears a clean whiteshirt with a collar. Shaggy, on the other hand, is very tall and thin. His brownhair appears eternally disheveled, and his pants and shirt are bulky, appearingtoo big for his thin frame.

Character Portrayals

Cartoons were coded for both the jobs characters of different genders play andthe input they have in regards to conflict resolution. In all the cartoonsstudied, the main character in the program was male. Three of the four cartoonshad the main male character in a heroic role, and one had an inadequate male asthe main character. Females were also portrayed in heroic roles, but theiractions were supportive in nature to the males in the programs, and much oftheir input into verbal discussions of the daily dilemma was less valuable thanthe males. Males were never seen portraying roles that could be construed asfeminine in any way, but females often took jobs that could be traditionallyseen as male. In all cases there were exceptions in the data which made exactpatterns sometimes difficult to define.

There was a definite correlation between the physical attributes of a characterand their job and ability to contribute in a valuable manner to discussionssurrounding conflict resolution. The overtly masculine characters - Fred,Captain Planet, Dr. Quest and Race Bennett - were more often the direct cause ofconflict resolution, and most likely to be the leaders in discussions and theprimary decision-makers. Fred, in Scooby Doo: Where are You, was the mostpronounced example of this. In all five episodes viewed, Fred was the one tocome up with a plan to catch the villain. Captain Planet was also required on aregular basis to save the rest of the cast from certain death. In Jonny Quest:The Real Adventures, Dr. Quest and Race Bennett resolved the main conflict anddirected the other characters in all of the four episodes in which they werefeatured. The title character, Jonny Quest himself, only directly causedconflict resolution in one episode, but was required to save Jessie from dangersix times.

In discussions regarding conflict resolution, the masculine males often engagedin silencing and dominance over both the females and the inadequate males. Inone episode of The New Adventures of Captain Planet, Linka follows Wheeleraround as he attempts to take a photograph of an endangered species of owl.During the course of the episode, Wheeler has to replace the camera four timesbecause he is inept at using it. Each time, Linka attempts to instruct him, butWheeler keeps control of the camera, despite her superior knowledge as to itsuse. In another episode, Wheeler tells Linka that "at least I'll get to see how cute you turn out, Blondie." Later in the same episode he refers to anotherwoman as a "babester".

Results also indicated without exception that positions of power, such as policeofficers, security guards and military officers, were always portrayed by men.Fathers were portrayed on three separate occasions, in both masculine andinadequate form. The fathers shown were also the main decision-makers in thefamily unit.

The two main inadequate males shown, George Jetson and Shaggy, had less inputinto conflict resolution. Both seemed to stumble upon resolutions to theirproblems by accident or fate, or were aided in some way by the more masculinecharacters.While all of the cartoons' heroes were attractive and masculine, all of the malevillains portrayed were also physically deficient in some way, such as being toofat or too thin, and usually being either sloppy or outlandish in dress. InJonny Quest: The Real Adventures, the main villain is a quadriplegic with grayhair and some unknown, unsightly skin condition. In The New Adventures ofCaptain Planet, all the male villains are missing at least two teeth. In TheJetsons, all villains, as well as George Jetson's boss Mr. Spacely, wereextremely overweight, and either much taller or much shorter than the othercharacters.

Female characters were featured much more often than their male counterparts injobs that have been traditionally tailored to a certain sex. Women were seen asscientists, superheroes, judges and dog breeders, as well as taking thetraditional roles of mothers, wives and housekeepers. However, there wereseveral female characters who seemed to serve no purpose at all, except tofollow the other characters around. When they spoke, which was not often, theyeither restated the statements of other characters, or made random comments suchas "Wow! He could still scare me Professor." None of the male characters couldbe classified in this manner. The females that fit this description were alsothe thinnest and most feminine women portrayed. Women drawn in a more modernfashion and average body shape tended to contribute more in both volume andcontent to discussions, both in mixed and single sex groups.

Discussion

… As with previousstudies in this area, analysis showed a huge gap between the numbers of malesand females being portrayed in the cartoon television arena. There were nofemale leads found, and the females who were prominent were often stereotyped insubtle but significant ways.

Findings indicated that while female cartoon characters are being allowed totake on an increasing number of once all male jobs, the stereotypes are stillpromoted in the way women play these roles and the amount of power they aregiven. In one episode of The New Adventures of Captain Planet, where a womanplays a judge, the villains win. At three separate points in the 30-minute show,she makes statements to the effect of "There's nothing I can do." In the sameepisode, another female character, Linka, follows around one of the males,Wheeler, as he attempts to take a picture of an endangered owl. They aresupposed to be working together, but Linka is never allowed to use or even holdthe camera, despite the fact that Wheeler proves during four separate incidentsthroughout the program that he is inept at the using it. Linka instead engagesin nagging Wheeler, while he silences her by ignoring her attempts at aid. Andhe degrades her with statements like the "blondie" comment mentioned earlier.Females are allowed to be superheroes, but not the lead superhero. They arepermitted to operate machinery, such as flying planes and cars, but are oftenexcluded from important decisions. Frequently, women were conveniently elsewhereduring these decisions, usually by being the victim of some type of danger. Thecharacter Gi, from The New Adventures of Captain Planet, spends the last half ofone episode trapped in an underwater observatory. Instead of attempting torescue herself, she makes pointless comments to her captor such as "You'll neverget away with this". In the episodes studied, no female was ever the soleinstigator of plot resolution, but many of the male characters were.

Even more disturbing are the female characters who appear in the cartoon for noparticular reason. Neither Daphne (Scooby Doo: Where Are You) nor Judy (TheJetsons) ever participate in conflict resolution. Both are shown standing aroundor worrying about trivial problems in scenes where intense conflict resolutionis taking place. Their gender performance consumes all of the their screen time.At one point, Daphne yells "Oh! My hairdo!" as she, Velma and Fred are trapped in a sinking boat.

Daphne and Judy are both attractive but useless. Velma and the afore mentionedjudge do make contributions, but are drawn quite physically unattractive. Thejudge has what could be termed a "butch" haircut, and Velma is slightlyoverweight, with sloppy clothing and large black-rimmed eyeglasses. Strangelyenough, the exact opposite is true for the male characters studied. While therewere no completely useless males, levels of masculinity directly paralleledamounts of valuable input in verbal discussions and nonverbal action. In fact,many of the unattractive and inadequate males were not responsible for their owncontributions. Often they would "accidentally" capture villains by falling ontop of them or dropping something that happens to land on their nemesis.Male characters were also portrayed in a stereotypical manner. They wereroutinely placed in positions of power, such as policemen, superheroes, andscientists. They were never shown crying, cleaning, cooking or performing anyrole that could be seen as feminine. In one episode of Jonny Quest: The RealAdventures, Race Bennett discovered that his daughter Jessie had died. Hereacted violently and punched his companion. At no point did he cry, or show anysign of grief other than anger. He and the other fathers did hug their childrento show affection, but at no point were they portrayed having seriousdiscussions about feelings. In one episode, the female character went to themother of one of the male characters she had a crush on instead of speaking with her own father.