Research in the Community

While observing in borders I noticed similar things we have discussed in class relative to gender roles. I watched as a young boy (maybe four years old) was pulled away from the book he was reading and was scolded and given another book. When I could get a closer look I could see that the first book the young boy had picked up was a pink book about princesses. Although this is nothing that should be praised, it is not surprising to me that this boy was not allowed to read this book about princesses. In our culture there is such a fear of boys not growing up to be "men" that is in a traditional sense. There is no reason that boys who do ballet or boys who like princesses or boys who like pink won't grow up to be men, but for some reason our culture believes this. Children books tend to reinforce this notion as the majority of books about princesses and about ballet involve girls and do not depict boys doing these activities or having these interests. This reinforced the stereotype that boys cannot therefore be involved. 

In the library I noticed a similar environment as the boys in the library were sitting in a separate areas and were reading different books. Although they were all seated in the same general area with children's books there were two tables that divided the children. One table was blue and the other yellow. Three boys were seated around the yellow table. Two were looking at a book about cars together and the other boy was reading a picture book with bugs. The other table had two girls seated around it who were looking at books individually. 

Because of these observations that I believed were really extreme depictions of gender stereotypes I chose to focus my media research on gender roles in children's literature. When I was first thinking of what is a form of media very relevant to children. Audrey, the young girl I babysit loves the television show "Dora the Explorer". This show of a young girl explorer is a few years old now (it aired in 2000). When it first premiered this show was very popular among both boys and girls. When the television production company (Nick Jr.) realized that not only girls were watching the show they created a spin-off of the show called "Go Diego Go" which was deemed as "Dora explorer for boys" as it is a similar show- except it was the story of a boy explorer named Diego. 

Why can't both boys and girls watch the same show about a girl explorer? Why does Dora need a male counterpart to please boys? 

I found it interesting to look around the websites of the shows.  The website for "Dora the Explorer" was very pink:  http://www.nickjr.com/dora-the-explorer/

The "Go Diego Go" website was instead of pink, very blue. http://www.nickjr.com/go-diego-go/

Nick Jr.'s website for the two shows had very little differences. It is obvious that the shows are very similar and the ways they are illustrated on the website lacks many differences. The only obvious difference was the one I stated above- the color (Dora being pink and Diego being blue). While Dora was created as a very positive depiction of young girls (as even though Dora is female she can still embark on adventures and be a leader), the show now only separates the genders and reinforces gender stereotypes. The colors associated with the shows tell parents that one show is created for one sex while the other is not. So instead of both boys and girls growing up now watching the same show and seeing Dora explore, now only girls grow up watching Dora while boys grow up watching Diego. 

This separation is no doubt instilled in children. Through these television shows children are shown that boys and girls cannot both like the same thing. Boys are told that girls cannot be their role model, and girls taught that boys cannot be their role model. Through all different forms of research I came to the same conclusion- the gender roles represented are very limiting and when children are continuously exposed to these roles they are affected in the way they act themselves.