Girls Gone Missing: Kids' Movie Posters in 2011

[thunderboltsandlightning]

So where are the girls:

margotmagowan.wordpress.com/2011/07/07/heres-a-visual/

Females don't appear to really exist according to Hollywood.

Nor any humans that aren't white it would seem.

Depressingly, this isn't anything new. Back in the early 80's when I did a one-off course at uni in writing for children, the tutor, an esteemed author of children's books, told the class (there were about 8 of us, all women,) that if we wanted to achieve commercial success, make sure our lead characters were male. Girls will read about girls or boys, but boys will no read stories that mainly feature girls in the lead.

If you look at most children's tv programmes, films and books, that rule seems to still apply 25 years on. Even non-human character leads (e.g. Rango, Smurfs, etc.) tend to be male or at least assumed male. On the issue of ethnicity, non-white human characters tend to be at the fringes (wow, tokenism, yeah,) and again, the assumption is that non-human characters are also white, unless they are given other "attributes" like accent, clothing or settings (and often these just reflect very negative stereotypes of that ethnic or cultural group.)

There's oodles of research out there (just on a lunch break now, so can't get my hands on it) that shows the importance of small children being able to identify with characters in books, stories etc. as a means of developing self-awareness and self-esteem. If the female and Black characters in a story are absent, or relegated to the background, that sends a powerful indirect if not overt message that females and non-white people, well, aren't important enough to lead, to drive a story, to have the fun, to have the adventures, to achieve, etc.

I mentioned above that indicators of ethnic or cultural difference in characters often resorts to crass stereotypes. It's also worrying that portrayals of the few female characters (human or otherwise) in cartoons, films, etc. also often reflect sexualised, sexist stereotypes. Think Smurfette, think the females in the Chipmumks, think the stylising of the female cat in Puss n Boots. That's probably worse than having no female characters at all.

This video describing Katha Pollitt's is quite revealing (even Smurfette's transition from dark haired, evil tool of Gargamel to the blonde, passive, feminised form has racist and sexist undertones.)

Yes indeed it has been going on a long time. It's possibly getting worse though. Back in the day at least you used to get films starring Judy Garland or Elizabeth Taylor as little girls. Or thirty years ago it was Jodie Foster or Tatum O'Neal.

What it really made me think was that those claims of "misandry" on the other thread are truly laughable.

Girls will read about girls or boys
*Is that true though? As a child, I think I only ever read books with girls as the main character or one of the main characters. I don't recall ever reading an enjoying a book with boys as the sole main characters.

As an adult though, I have recently started to read books where the main characters are men. Not quite sure what that says about me .*

Rosy, I think I was attracted to books with female lead characters, like the "Little House" books by Laura Ingalls Wilder and Louisa May Alcott, Dick King Smith's "Charlotte's Web," and Scott Odell's "Island of the Blue Dolphins." But, I do recall it was harder to find such books in the grade school library AND when we read books as a class, I remember even as a 9 or 10 year old noting that more often than not, the main character or characters were boys.

Thinking back to movies and tv programmes I liked that were targeted specifically at children (not just family shows or sitcoms), I can't actually think of a single one that had a female character as a lead.

This article depressingly illustrates the "gender gap" in depictions of characters in children's literature over the past century (unfortunately the full text of the study is behind a paywall.)

Thunder, there were good films aimed at children by the actors you mentioned, although sadly, Jodie Foster is probably better known for depicting a child prostitute in Taxi Driver than her excellent stints in Bugsy Malone and Freaky Friday. Tatum O'Neal was super in Paper Moon (which wasn't for children and I was probably too young at the time to watch it!) and I loved her character in Bad News Bears, although she was about the only female character in that one. Sadly, I think she, as well as Judy Garland and Elizabeth Taylor were known as much for their turbulent relationships as their acting careers. I think it's always been hard for young women actors.

Is it possible that we remember stronger female leads from when we were younger because even then, we were looking out for them, so they stand out in our minds?

And while I think folks were genuinely shocked to see Jody Foster or Brooke Shields styled as child prostitutes back in the 1970's, no one seems to blink when Miley Cyrus, Dakota or Elle Fanning are styled the same today.

Realise that's a bit of a ramble from the original posting.

Well look at the smurfs, the only girl is her whole character....lacking in explanation......yes. I'm not sure what the other smurfs are, but I imagine papa, brainy, nose picky or whatever, they are particular characters, defined by actions and name. Girl smurf is characterised and named purely on the basis of being a girl. It really pisses me off. If we took the bull by the horns and made fiction project strong images if girls, you may just find fact follows suit. The girl/boy admires the female heroin.

Also have to mention that I asked Cressida Cowell why hiccup was a boy....she said it was because of her brother, I asked why not yourself. She didn't really answer. Whilst I think it was about her brother I am sure it was because we're all factory set to think hiccup couldn't be a girl, a successful book couldn't have a girl as the main character.

If boys are only interested in boy characters, then why does my ds1 like Dora the Explorer? And Rosie? And Strawberry Shortcake? I think this is a lazy excuse.

It isn't that boys won't like girl characters, it's more to do with the prejudices of the writers/ producers/ people who choose what's going on the TV schedule and of course parents.

However are you watching kids TV? Because there are lots of strong female characters in what my kids watch eg. Tracey Beaker and the Young Dracula. Actually the sister in Young Dracula makes several good feminist points, and isn't "good", and so on.
I do have to say that the sexism in films could be argued to be at least partly because most films are made in Hollywood, which is in the USA, which has a lack of awareness of the sexism (and racism) in its society. Such as almost totally Black or White shows (when I lived in Chicago you would get a White Sitcom followed by a Black one); or the Swimsuit edition of Sports Illustrated (a national institution).
But hopefully the Judy Moody film will be as good as the books.
Actually bad shows can be useful, as my kids and I have discussed at length just what is so bad about the most recent series of Scooby Doo (including the sexism and steriotypes, of both that one and the older series).

Posie - I liked Train Your Dragon very much, but likewise, thought how much better it would have been with a female lead! :) It did have two females in the primary cast, but it was disappointing that the main female role seemed to abandon her bolshie confidence at the end to become the love interest/reward of the "hero."

Alexpolismum I suppose it's something of a self-fulfilling prophecy. If it is the "received wisdom" of children's writers and film makers that you have to put a male in the driving seat for something to appeal/be commercially successful, they'll lean towards that. But then that feeds into the wider expectation that main characters should be male, so if they aren't, films, books, tv programmes, etc. don't cut it. The same could be said for the "gendering" of children's toys, games, clothes, etc. (often discussed here.) Is it market driven parent choice or are choices being limited by providers of goods and services following a gender demarcated formula?

Mummytime I agree that books, films, etc. that reflect negative stereotypes can be useful for discussing tricky issues with young people and helping them develop the skills and confidence to question and challenge stereotypes and pigeon-holing. However, not all parents have the time, inclination or skills to use the materials in this way. Children often consume films, books and tv programmes without adults being involved (sometimes they consume things with adult content with out adult involvement as well - even more scary!) and particularly if they are very young, are going to pick up the direct and indirect messages perhaps without question or context.

Argh, yes, I hated that theme in How To Train Your Dragon, although I loved the film.

I thought it was an interesting one because although the main character was a boy he was acting in more of a stereotypically female way, being "weak" and then making the more emotional connection with the dragon, building up a trust and friendship rather than gaining power over it by defeating it. I don't know whether it would have worked as well with a girl character without becoming saccharine. I'm not sure why I think that, though.

Kritiq - I believe the restrictions come from the top down. If it is on TV, then children will watch it, and a lot of parents don't restrict what their children watch, as long as it's on a child-friendly channel or whatever.

I admit I am coming at this from a different perspective. A lot of what my children watch is on dvds recorded in the UK and sent over to us by my parents, who are anxious that my children should get plenty of exposure to English. Generally I find they are equally happy watching Engy Benjy or Dora the Explorer for example, but I try to make sure they have variety. The dvds arrive with their compressed files, so when I convert them on the PC and record them in a format my player can read, I try to make sure they have a good balance on each dvd.

Perhaps it will change as they get older and have more exposure to societal expectations, but they seem quite happy with either gender in the lead at the moment. I expect that left to themselves, a lot of children would be like that.

I must admit I don't restrict what DS watches because, although it's frowned upon, I do rely on TV as a coping mechanism. I started off with all these great intentions of only letting him watch what I approved of, but it slipped fairly quickly. It's just too easy with 7-7 children's TV always there to just stick it on. When I started nursery, my mum would record Playdays for me every day because I was upset about missing it - I'd never do that for DS now, he just isn't that attached to any one programme, there is always something on which he likes.

Happy Feet is a case in point. The storyline follows the male characters even though they stay put looking after the egg while the females go out to find food. Males are apparently more interesting than females even when they are standing still.

It is very cheering to me that DS2's favourite film is Spirited Away. The lead is female (and so is the baddie for that matter). DS1 loves Tracy Beaker and ICarly (the actual content of which is for a discussion another time )

However, it is depressing and something i have noticed that default is always male and it seems more so the younger the viewer.

Tonight I told ds1 (7) he could choose 2 books from the bookclub leaflet he brought home from school. I was really pleased that he chose a Leog Harry Potter sticker book and "The Worst Witch". Obviously not all boys are averse to books where the main character is female. In fact all the characters are female as far as I know.

Those film pictures are really interesting. I never really saw many films as a child so couldn't say whether films at the time had male or female characters. It does seem that now the males dominate. I have 2 boys, so haven't really given it much thought before

My ds really enjoyed Tamora Pierce, who writes predominantly from a female point of view. He said he really enjoyed reading about a girl character. I couldn't get dd interested though.

Film wise we have all the Studio Ghibli, most of which are girl led, or have a pair of children as the leads. They are also very enjoyable!

dd is the TV consumer in our house and most of what she watches is utter dross, much of it highly stereotyped (including some really dodgy racial stereotyping we've noticed recently).

Racial stereotyping can be really insidious. Even in Thomas the Tank Engine they have this ridiculous "rivalry" between the "Steamies" and the "Diesels" - okay they're not human but there is quite a clear parallel there.

BB....really racism between different engines? FGS. Too much hand wringing for me.