Children’s gender role socialization occurs across multiple family, school, and media contexts. Using the intersection of popular culture where it converges with childhood, we performed a content analysis of popular children’s books as signifiers of femininity and masculinity. The list of “the 50 best kids’ books” was compiled by Reach Out and Read, a nonprofit organization that advocates for literacy and the book-recommendation site, Goodreads (Velez, 2017). The list originally was published in Parenting magazine. We posit that these books are, perhaps, the first popular culture texts to make the concepts of femininity and masculinity visible to children.
Overall, this study addresses ways that children’s books’ illustrations reproduce and sustain – as natural, normal, and commonsensical – notions of femininity and masculinity as part of meaning making about gender identity. Also, we examine intersections of gender with other social identity dimensions for a more complete view on femininity and masculinity represented to children as consumers of popular culture.
We view these beloved 50 children’s books as a means for discovering specific representations – which ultimately shape gender performances (Wood, 2014) – and critique ways representations of masculinity and femininity have changed over time. Traditional and nontraditional views on gender are reinforced through media messages, as children make sense of the rewards and consequences they see favorite media characters receiving for their gender performances. Representation matters – and seeing various masculinities and femininities depicted on television, in the movies, and through literature may impact children more significantly than other age groups (Gill, 2007).
Gill, R. (2007). Gender and the media. Malden, MA: Polity Press.
Velez, M. (2017). 50 of the best kids books published in the last 25 years. Downloaded December 15, 2017 from https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/....
Wood, J. (2014). Gendered lives. Boston, MA: Cengage.
About the presentersDonnalyn Pompper
Donnalyn Pompper (Ph.D., Mass Media & Communication, Temple University) is a Professor in the School of Journalism and Communication, University of Oregon.
Debra Merskin
I am Professor of Media Studies in the School of Journalism & Communication at the University of Oregon. My research interests are popular culture and media Re-presentations of marginalized human beings as well as animals, nature, the enviornment. My most recent book is Seeing Species: Re-presentations of animals in the media and popular culture. Peter Lang (2018).