The Stuffed Winnie The Pooh Bear Analysis

Prompt 1: What part does TV play in limiting children's concept of gender roles? Give specific examples. What can be done about any limitations that you perceive?

In her essay “The Smurfette Principle”, Katha Pollitt writes that commercial television and the views of preschoolers TV programs neatly divided between the genders. Pollitt describes boys are always more important, and take starring role in contemporary television shows, movies, cartoons then girls are in the supporting role. This theory split their consciousness, change both boys and girls.

Gender stereotypes are common in the United States today, even though many men and women have been working hard to defeat it. The task is made difficult however, when society in general implants the idea of gender roles into the mind of a child. Two authors, Judy Mann of The Difference and Bernard Lefkowitz of Our Guys face the issue of gender roles and stereotypes, and how they affect our lives today.

Today, more children are somehow connected to the media. Having computers, television, and phones, there always is a way to access it. The media being this accessible can cause problems, because in almost every show that airs on television has some type of gender bias. From how they portray a character from it’s behavior, role or appearance. This has set bad examples for children watching since the children copy what they see on TV. The cartoons, Charlie Brown, Phineas and Ferb, and SpongeBob SquarePants all have a gender bias. Each cartoon is aired on televisions at different times, so it show’s how throughout time gender bias is still an issue.

The average American child watches 20 hours of television per week, that is 5,000 hours before first grade. Most children between the ages of 3-6 years old can even turn on the television and start a DVD by themselves. I am guilty of allowing my children more TV time then they should have, but I guess that is because I enjoy watching it myself. There are many hidden messages in children’s shows that I was oblivious to until now. For instance, in the show “Rugrats” Charlotte Pickles, Angelica’s mom never had time for her, always on the phone and working. Ethnic stereotyping is another message sent in Speedy Gonzalez’s cousin Slow Poke Rodriguez which is lazy, slow, and dim witted. Morality is also affected by these shows. Most every little boy

Growing up as a child with parents that were both fairly busy with work I often found myself sat in front of a television either waiting for the day to begin or to end. I remember watching shows and seeing how the boys always seemed to be more outspoken, hyper-masculine and the leader in a given situation while the girls were always the passive ones who were depicted as shy followers. Now that I am older I find myself watching even more television, allowing me to see how the media depicts men and women in society. For example, The Big Bang Theory, in its earlier seasons, it only had one female lead, Penny. Her character was very stereotypical in the sense that she was the scattebrained neighbor. The way that men and women are portrayed has

Our society seems to have a lot of very stereotypical misconceptions about boys and girls and the role they are expected to play. Media has a pivotal role to play in this front concerning the idea of defining and framing gender. Media consumers transform the messages in that and make demeanors with

Gender stereotypes affect children substantially. From the baby boy in blue with trucks and action figures to the baby girl in pink with dolls and princesses, these roles and generalizations affect children’s personalities while they are still developing. Those guiltiest of stereotyping in children’s media are Disney, Nintendo and other video-game companies, and reality television. These influences are expansive, and they reach past elementary-age kids to teenagers. Stereotypes negatively impact children of all ages through these forms of media, and parents need to be aware of this.

It is important to teach children about gender roles since it is something that society holds in regards, but most of the time in literature it is done unequally. The portrayal of gender in literature is based off of the expectations of society and places bias on gender. Boys are portrayed as strong, adventurous, independent and capable and often play the roles of fighters, adventurers and rescuers. Girls are portrayed as sweet, naïve, dependent, sensitive and emotional and play roles such as caretakers, princesses and mothers. The roles of gender portrayed in literature are often a reflection of the views of society and do not offer objective insight. Even though it is important to teach children about gender roles, the fashion in which it is done in does not allow children to see beyond those expectations. If a young girl is constantly read stories about a woman’s role as a housewife, homemaker and mother, she will assume that’s what is expected of her and will not know society will allow her to be anything she wants to be.

According to the social learning theory, the influence of the media in the formation of gender roles and identity is known as being indirectly and vicariously reinforced. It states that we can learn gender appropriate behaviour by learning from others. So by having gender stereotypes portrayed in the media, it has a powerful influence on all of us but especially on children because they are currently

This trope perpetuates some negative stereotypes about women that boys, at an early age, endorse as granted facts. They consequently base their thoughts and attitudes toward girls and woman on those dangerous stereotypes. In her article, “What the Smurfette Principle Teaches your Kids About Girls,” published on the Huffington Post, Soraya Chemali exhibits some of the dangers of this media phenomenon. According to her, the Smurf village story from which Katha Pollitt was inspired to coin the phrase “the Smurfette Principle,” communicates the following dangerous stereotypes about girls to boys:

Television allows people to see more and choose what they want to be. Women need to be shown in occupations that are not the stereotypical, such as the occupations of nurse, maid, sales assistant, or models. Men are often shown as the breadwinners while women are shown as being emotional and domestic caregivers. Television ought to demonstrate strong older women instead of feeble grandmothers baking cookies. Teenage girls should be represented on television as being able to have serious conversations and feeling that their brains are as important as their looks. Women are often shown as only being able to get what they want by using sexuality. Television audiences certainly must demand more from the television shows the audience watches.

* Television viewing creates the concept of gender-role and racial stereotypes in children, as they start considering it as very natural phenomena. Heroic acts are expected out of males, while women are displayed as objects and less powerful.

Gender coding is not a natural or biological characteristic. People are born with different physical and biological characteristics, but make sense of their gender roles through cultural influences. “Stereotypes are amazingly powerful, and we may not realize the degree to which our thoughts, beliefs, and actions are shaped by them” (Silverman, Rader, 2010). Boys and girls are labeled as masculine or feminine, which is considered the “norm” for society. Children are not born masculine or feminine, they learn these roles from parents, peers, media, and even religion. Concepts of gender identity are sometimes placed on children even before their birth, such as with the selection of paint colors for the nursery.” Children begin to form concepts of gender beginning around the age of 2, and most children know if they are a boy or girl by age of 3” (Martin & Ruble, 2004). From an early age, children are encouraged to identify with gender coding. Gender is formed at birth, but self-identification as being male or female is imbedded into their minds by parents and society. A child learns to understand their gender role and their identity by what is taught and expressed to them by others. Yet as a child grows, gender coding can cause cultural confusion, and insecurity issues throughout the course of their life.

As we all know, fossil fuel energy comes from wood and some organic materials from millions years ago. They experienced slow chemical process and became the coal and raw petroleum as we see today. However, since the first industry revolution, the speed of mining fossil materials and consuming all kinds of oil products has been accelerating in a geometric growth. People use coal to generated trains, and they use fuel to generated the majority of their engines, which includes cars, aircrafts, and heating machine. We have billions of people on earth right now, and everyone needs to consume energy for transportation, lightning and many fields in various ways. Where do the energy come from in the past three hundred years? Absolutely from the fossil material. But fossil energy is not unlimited, it has a maximum. When we consume it till the edge, then we have nothing to generate our machine. Luckily, solutions are always more than the problems. We create the way that is called renewable energy. It helps us retrieve energy from nature, like solar, wind, and water. These kinds of energy are unlimited, relatively, which means if the sun doesn’t fall down, the oceans aren’t dry, we can get power from them. However, even though it has a bright future, we still have many obstacles needed to be solved. (Hepbasli & Alsuhaibani 2011)