Seminar 3 - Gender, Sexuality, and the Body (click to comment)

Katarina Filipović - Gender Representation in Children’s Books: Case of an Early Childhood Setting

Katarina Filipović’s essay is an exploration of the effects of children’s books on early development. She points out that “Children’s books are one of the main aspects of the environment in early childhood settings that influence children’s perceptions of gender and gender stereotypes (Huntington, 2013). Focus on children’s experiences in early childhood settings is important because everyday experiences and the treatment of children in these settings have a significant impact on the child’s construction of gender” (Filipović). This shows that the literature and images children are exposed to from a young age have a critical impact on their mental and psychological development.

Children’s books often teach and tell children how to function in and view the world around them. Today’s day in age it’s not uncommon, in certain parts of the world, for both parents to have to work. If the children of working parents turn to books for entertainment, this means that those very books could become one of the primary resources of education.

It should be noted that the research was done in inner city Dublin at a community-based early childhood center. This means that the results of the experiment, if done in a completely different setting, such as a rural town in Russia, the results could be different However, the results could also be quite similar, which would further demonstrate how humans are more alike than we sometimes believe.

There were a total of 15 books studied in this project. The intended audience ages of these books span from waddler to toddler to pre-school and the book selection was chosen by educators. Filipović explains that content analysis was used, specifically categorized into The Counter, The Picture Reader, and the Norm Critic which were chosen from a list of six strategies listed on Nordic website. The project focused on “characters count, illustrations count, main characteristics attributed to the characters, activities carried out by the characters, characters described as being active or passive, the majority of time spent inside or outside, nurturing and parenting behavior, and character’s occupation” (Filipović). Something that was explored was the idea of overt vs. covert markers of sexism. Filipović explains that overt “markers include the frequencies with which female and male characters appear as main characters in texts and illustrations, whereas covert markers manifest through the subtle use of language” (Filipović). Having Filipović explain all these different criteria, approaches, and strategies was incredibly helpful and insightful, I felt that it broadened the scope of exploration and well detailed the project on a whole.

The results showed three times more male characters than female and even more neutral, non-gendered characters than female. In addition there were twice as many males as females in illustrations. Children even associated characters with being male if they didn’t portray feminine features, such as long eye lashes. The books studied included Monkey Business and Elephant Pants both of which show animals as the leading characters with the females having rosy cheeks or long eye lashes.

Monkey Business

Monkey Business

Elephant Pants

Elephant Pants

But this makes me wonder if children have an innate sense to associate girls with certain qualities such as long eye lashes and bows. How have they already learned this association at such a young age? Is it simply because of portrayals in literature and media? Or is it somehow built into our DNA? The results of the project Filipović explains also found that many animal characters were referred to as “he” which would make it abundantly clear to identify those animals and males. In many other languages outside of English, genders are already associated with animals, such as in German the word for dog is masculine, der Hund, and the word for cat is feminine, die Katze. This makes me wonder if the results from this study would be somewhat different in another part of the world that doesn’t speak English. For example, the term fireman vs. firewoman, how does language play a part? Do non-English speakers have the same concerns? Are we just becoming overly sensitive, searching for more ways to become ‘politically correct?’ Is there a time where the message is already understood and people just fight for effect? Is it about what we say or what we convey? Maybe if we saw more females fighting fires in books the term used to describe them would become secondary to what the images represented.

Being a role model for future generations is a delicate business. The USA women’s soccer team fights for equal pay, especially considering they are significantly more successful than the men’s team, however some of the players have also received bad press which counters any positive portrayals they may have achieved. Again, I feel that today’s society is very, very quick to judge and attack others as if they, themselves, are so superior (“May he who is without sin cast the first stone” John 8:7) and so those fighting to better represent the underrepresented often struggle to maintain a positive image in the public eye.

The New York Times - USA Women’s Soccer Team

The New York Times - USA Women’s Soccer Team

Are those growing up around our age with our experiences and new views of the world more likely to create broader-reaching images in our books than the generations before us? For example, if I don’t think it unusual for a single parent to raise a kid by themselves or for a girl to be highly skilled in the field of engineering, perhaps that would flow into my illustrations organically without feeling the need to research and artificially concoct a story including these non-stereotypes. While essays like this are important and filled with applicable research that I am aware is dynamic and current, sometimes I feel like responding with the same teenage eye roll that parents so often receive from children, as if to say “Yeah, I already know there needs to be more diverse representation in literature.” But the fact that I feel this doesn’t discount or diminish the topic’s significance.

In general, I agree with the essay’s results that girls are often underrepresented or represented in a specific way. I remember I didn’t enjoy the book Eloise at the Plaza not because of the illustration style, but because I disliked the character Eloise and felt I couldn’t relate to her. I found her to be rude and selfish, it was both her overt and covert depictions I disliked. Instead, I connected much more deeply, perhaps in a more covert than overt way, with Winnie the Pooh because the characters there, both Christopher Robin and all the animals, were curious, considerate, supportive, and adventurous. Why couldn’t a little girl be portrayed in a similar fashion?

Eloise at the Plaza

Eloise at the Plaza

E.H. Shepard illustration for A.A. Milne’s Winnie the Pooh

E.H. Shepard illustration for A.A. Milne’s Winnie the Pooh

Part of me wonders, is there something in human nature, regardless of external influences, that make us associate certain things with certain characteristics? For example, CNN Business published an article back in 2011 that stated “Scientific studies have shown that people generally find women's voices more pleasing than men’s,” attributing it to humans’ biology. Meanwhile ASHAwire’s article “The Unheard Female Voice” from 2019 brought up the fact that women are more often interrupted when speaking than men. In general women do have higher pitched voices, and as we age humans often are unable to hear higher pitches resulting in the elderly hearing males better than females. The association of lower tones with authority has also been found in humans, resulting in some women, such as former PM Margaret Thatcher, taking lessons from a voice coach to sound more authoritative. But at what point does nature change to external influence? Is Hillary Clinton’s voice really as shrill as is perceived, or has that been accentuated by society so we are now trained to search for her shrillness?

Growing up I had trouble, and still have trouble, finding female characters who look like me: dark, curly hair with an olive complexion. Disney princesses in some ways have made efforts to demonstrate diversity, but even with all the hair and skin colors represented (Mulan, Aurora, Belle, Jasmine, Ariel, Tiana, Snow White…) none look like me. Of course, the world is painted without the limits of a coloring box, so maybe my princess is yet to come. In fact, Angela Mary Vaz has even gotten the ball rolling, creating illustrations depicting Disney princesses with realistic, curly hair.

Angela Mary Vaz - Straycurls

Angela Mary Vaz - Straycurls

At times I believe gender stereotype counter-offenses can go too far. For example, in Filipović’s essay she mentions the book Owl Babies portrayed the only female character as being nurturing of her siblings, taking the role of “mother.” Filipović says that this “type of depiction reinforces the idea that females are the ones who nurture and comfort,” and from this I can see two perspectives: first that this shouldn’t be seen as negative necessarily because many women do want to be nurturing, or second, what about a book showing a man being the nurturing one (Filipović)? Would that stereotype the need for a boy to be the ‘man of the family?’ Recently I saw a commercial that showed a dad cooking his daughter dinner. It made me wonder, did they choose to show a dad over a mom to avoid the stereotype? In many ways, I think this is fantastic and necessary. The number of stay at home dads has seemed to increase in recent years and there should be a representation of them in society. But, what if we completely eliminate women being shown in the kitchen out of fear for supporting a stereotype. Would this then have a negative effect where girls either believe they can’t cook (already we need more female chefs to be represented.

Cat Cora - Iron Chef

Cat Cora - Iron Chef

Cat Cora was the first female American Iron Chef and, even though I don’t plan on pursuing a culinary career, she is still an inspiration to me) or that girls feel cooking and being home isn’t their responsibility. What effect will that have on the sense of family and home life? I think we need a shared balance of representation across the board, and moreover I believe we need to expand our minds to not find faults in everything. Try judging whether a commercial is good or bad, effective or insufficient, before you narrow in on whether or not they depicted a mixed race couple. Maybe the next commercial will, at least that would be my hope.

Filipović’s essay made me wonder what effect the person who reads a story to child can have on that child’s experience of it. My dad used to read to me and I loved it because he would animate his voice for the different characters. Do some children associate genders to neutral characters based on the voice given to them by the reader? This I think would make an interesting extension to the study in Filipović’s essay.

Children’s Books are often guilty of under representing women and gender stereotyping, and this is an issue because this is one of the earliest vehicles through which children are able to learn. Books and illustrations can have a significant impact on the subconscious associations in children’s minds. Filipović’s essay touches on how the ideas silently woven through children’s literature could infiltrate the way children view the world and their role in it based on their gender. As she points out in her essay, children are innocent and absorb everything like little sponges, learning and repeating what they see and hear. This means we as illustrators as well as designers are able to pave new paths in the minds of children which will then affect the future.

 
Victoria Trentacoste1 Comment