{"id":392511,"date":"2010-03-05T09:46:55","date_gmt":"2010-03-05T14:46:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/childrenshospitalblog.org\/?p=5330"},"modified":"2010-03-05T09:46:55","modified_gmt":"2010-03-05T14:46:55","slug":"tackling-gender-imbalance-in-children%e2%80%99s-films","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/392511","title":{"rendered":"Tackling gender imbalance in children\u2019s films"},"content":{"rendered":"<\/p>\n<p><em><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-5339\" title=\"stockphotopro_51363907WHF_young_children\" src=\"http:\/\/childrenshospitalblog.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/03\/stockphotopro_51363907WHF_young_children-300x199.jpg\" alt=\"stockphotopro_51363907WHF_young_children\" width=\"300\" height=\"199\" \/>by <a href=\"http:\/\/cmch.tv\/about\/memberProfile.asp?id=33\">Dafna Lemish, PhD<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<p>Actress Geena Davis\u2019s recent speech to the United Nations highlighted a concern that researchers of children and media have been speaking about for many years. The programs on the screens our children view &#8211; on television, computers, movie theaters or even their mobile phones &#8211; portray a world of gross gender inequality: Girls still appear marginal to society.<span id=\"more-5330\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Indeed, a recent study of children\u2019s television in 24 countries, including the United   States, found that there are two boys on average for every girl character. Furthermore, girls and boys continue to be represented in traditional, conservative and stereotypical ways: Girls appear largely as emotional and passive, hypersexual, and are overly concerned with consumption, beautification and romance. Boys are portrayed as aggressive, adventurous, rational, technologically-oriented, risk taking and \u201cwomanizing.\u201d The more exciting stories and challenging adventures in the media still happen to boys rather than girls.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_5342\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"width: 150px\">\n\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-5342\" title=\"dafna lemish\" src=\"http:\/\/childrenshospitalblog.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/03\/dafna-lemish.jpg\" alt=\"Dafna Lemish, PhD\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Dafna Lemish, PhD<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Most of the video, computer games and even television programs continue to be oriented towards boys\u2019 tastes and interests. The media industry continues to operate under their working axiom: Although girls will watch boys\u2019 shows, boys will not watch girls\u2019 shows. Therefore, they would rather cater to boys.<\/p>\n<p>In addition, commercial corporations continue to divide and drive boys and girls into two different media worlds by assigning different toys, clothing and games for each. Have you noticed recently how the aisles in the big toy stores are divided between the girls\u2019 pink area and the boys\u2019 metallic-grey-blue one?<\/p>\n<p>While these are all well-documented facts, researchers are only now learning about the long term implications of this situation for our children\u2019s well-being and healthy development. Some of the questions we are studying include:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>What kind      of role models do these stereotypical images of boys and girls provide our      children?<\/li>\n<li>What      kind of aspirations do they foster?<\/li>\n<li>What      do they tell children about whom they are and who they can strive to become?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>What we do know from earlier studies is that when presented as marginal to the narrative, as a passive minority mainly concerned with appearance and attracting boys, girls learn that this is the way society values them. These studies demonstrate that girls learn from media images to experience themselves as inferior and to limit their ambitions for themselves and for their futures.<\/p>\n<p>Boys, on the other hand, internalize the pressure to be \u201cmuscular,\u201d \u201cdaring,\u201d in control of their emotions and of others (people, animals and technology alike). While girls learn that their most important quality is their sexual appeal, boys learn that they are defined by their aggressiveness. These are not the kinds of lessons that promote a healthy sense of self or a humane environment for fostering mutual respect.<\/p>\n<p>Furthermore, these gender-segregated childhoods provide different contexts for children&#8217;s social development. Such an environment does not necessarily prepare them for mutual understanding and collaboration. Nor does it foster common interests, friendships and recognition of such basic human commonalities as:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Both girls and boys are      children who share the same challenges, aspirations, morality, dreams and      hopes<\/li>\n<li>Children of both      genders need love and friendships, have adventures and overcome      difficulties<\/li>\n<li>Both are curious and      eager to explore their surroundings, and both struggle with their multiple      identities<\/li>\n<li>Both sets of children      are trying to carve their place in the world<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The good news is that awareness to these issues is growing. There is an expanding body of knowledge about the images of gender in media and we are learning more and more about their implications<\/p>\n<p>A lot of these efforts are available on Children\u2019s <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cmch.tv\/\">Center on Media and Child Health\u2019s<\/a> website. Geena Davis has established an <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thegeenadavisinstitute.org\/\">advocacy and research institute<\/a> that focuses on gender equity in films and television. Many producers of quality television, internet sites and computer games are working towards changing these images and seek to create a more healthy media environment for children.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/cmch.typepad.com\/cmch\/2010\/02\/research-toolbox-new-book-on-children-and-television.html\">My own work<\/a> in this area has documented many ways by which we can contribute to this process of change. But most importantly, the adult members of our families can make a difference in the everyday choices we make for our children\u2019s media exposure \u2013<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>In the movies we take      them to<\/li>\n<li>Computer games we encourage      them to play<\/li>\n<li>Television programs      we watch with them<\/li>\n<li>And comments we make      about sexist images or aggressive boys<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>\t<a rel=\"nofollow\"  href=\"mailto:?subject=Tackling%20gender%20imbalance%20in%20children%27s%20films&amp;body=http%3A%2F%2Fchildrenshospitalblog.org%2Ftackling-gender-imbalance-in-childrens-films%2F\" title=\"email\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/childrenshospitalblog.org\/wp-content\/plugins\/sociable\/images\/email_link.png\" title=\"email\" alt=\"email\" class=\"sociable-hovers\" \/><\/a><br \/>\n\t<a rel=\"nofollow\"  href=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/share.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fchildrenshospitalblog.org%2Ftackling-gender-imbalance-in-childrens-films%2F&amp;t=Tackling%20gender%20imbalance%20in%20children%27s%20films\" title=\"Facebook\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/childrenshospitalblog.org\/wp-content\/plugins\/sociable\/images\/facebook.png\" title=\"Facebook\" alt=\"Facebook\" class=\"sociable-hovers\" \/><\/a><br \/>\n\t<a rel=\"nofollow\"  href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/home?status=Tackling%20gender%20imbalance%20in%20children%27s%20films%20-%20http%3A%2F%2Fchildrenshospitalblog.org%2Ftackling-gender-imbalance-in-childrens-films%2F\" title=\"Twitter\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/childrenshospitalblog.org\/wp-content\/plugins\/sociable\/images\/twitter.png\" title=\"Twitter\" alt=\"Twitter\" class=\"sociable-hovers\" \/><\/a><br \/>\n\t<a rel=\"nofollow\"  href=\"http:\/\/digg.com\/submit?phase=2&amp;url=http%3A%2F%2Fchildrenshospitalblog.org%2Ftackling-gender-imbalance-in-childrens-films%2F&amp;title=Tackling%20gender%20imbalance%20in%20children%27s%20films&amp;bodytext=by%20Dafna%20Lemish%2C%20PhD%0D%0A%0D%0AActress%20Geena%20Davis%E2%80%99s%20recent%20speech%20to%20the%20United%20Nations%20highlighted%20a%20concern%20that%20researchers%20of%20children%20and%20media%20have%20been%20speaking%20about%20for%20many%20years.%20The%20programs%20on%20the%20screens%20our%20children%20view%20-%20on%20television%2C%20c\" title=\"Digg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/childrenshospitalblog.org\/wp-content\/plugins\/sociable\/images\/digg.png\" title=\"Digg\" alt=\"Digg\" class=\"sociable-hovers\" \/><\/a><br \/>\n\t<a rel=\"nofollow\"  href=\"http:\/\/delicious.com\/post?url=http%3A%2F%2Fchildrenshospitalblog.org%2Ftackling-gender-imbalance-in-childrens-films%2F&amp;title=Tackling%20gender%20imbalance%20in%20children%27s%20films&amp;notes=by%20Dafna%20Lemish%2C%20PhD%0D%0A%0D%0AActress%20Geena%20Davis%E2%80%99s%20recent%20speech%20to%20the%20United%20Nations%20highlighted%20a%20concern%20that%20researchers%20of%20children%20and%20media%20have%20been%20speaking%20about%20for%20many%20years.%20The%20programs%20on%20the%20screens%20our%20children%20view%20-%20on%20television%2C%20c\" title=\"del.icio.us\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/childrenshospitalblog.org\/wp-content\/plugins\/sociable\/images\/delicious.png\" title=\"del.icio.us\" alt=\"del.icio.us\" class=\"sociable-hovers\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~r\/childrenshospitalblog\/~4\/v9GyIQSfy9I\" height=\"1\" width=\"1\"\/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>by Dafna Lemish, PhD Actress Geena Davis\u2019s recent speech to the United Nations highlighted a concern that researchers of children and media have been speaking about for many years. The programs on the screens our children view &#8211; on television, computers, movie theaters or even their mobile phones &#8211; portray a world of gross gender [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":481,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-392511","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/392511","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/481"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=392511"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/392511\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=392511"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=392511"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=392511"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}