American Gender Stereotypes
As children move through childhood and adolescence, television plays a large part in their gender role socialization. The stereotypical behaviors and attitudes that young people are exposed to everyday will shape their views on female and male roles in society. Children learn about stereotypes from books, songs, television, and the movies. However, television is the most influential form of media in shaping ideas of sex-roles, since research shows that children spend more time watching television than they spend on anything else except sleeping (Aulette, 1994; Kaplan, 1991; Anderson, Lorch, Field, Collins & Nathan, 1986). As children grown and develop, they are absorbing new information every day. Children’s ideas and beliefs come from what
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Browne, A study of Saturday morning cartoon commercials was used to examine current levels of gender stereotyping in television commercials targeting children. The study was done in Australia and the United States, since these two countries resemble each other in industrial development, language, and child-rearing practices. With a total of 298 ads, of which 150 were Australian and 148 were American (Browne, B. (1998). What they found was that Australian and American gender stereotypes were relatively similar, but not identical. Though numbers of commercials depicting girls were similar in the two countries, approximately twice the number of boys and men were depicted in American commercials as Australian commercials. Australian commercials also were more likely than American commercials to depict both genders in the same commercial. Commercials of both countries featured predominantly male voiceovers, more than 64% (189 commercials) (Browne, B. (1998). That was true for commercials primarily targeting boys, but also for commercials with gender-neutral products. Female voiceovers were used in less than 16% of commercials, primarily where girls, preschool children, or mothers were the targets. This data shows that, regardless of gender of the person demonstrating the product, voiceovers were more frequently male (Browne, B. (1998). Despite the similarities in gender stereotyping between countries, Australian commercials tended to contain more nearly equal male-to-female proportions, more often depicted both boys and girls in the same advertisement, and less frequently portrayed girls as shy or giggly and boys as directive (Browne, B.
Browne, A study of Saturday morning cartoon commercials was used to examine current levels of gender stereotyping in television commercials targeting children. The study was done in Australia and the United States, since these two countries resemble each other in industrial development, language, and child-rearing practices. With a total of 298 ads, of which 150 were Australian and 148 were American (Browne, B. (1998). What they found was that Australian and American gender stereotypes were relatively similar, but not identical. Though numbers of commercials depicting girls were similar in the two countries, approximately twice the number of boys and men were depicted in American commercials as Australian commercials. Australian commercials also were more likely than American commercials to depict both genders in the same commercial. Commercials of both countries featured predominantly male voiceovers, more than 64% (189 commercials) (Browne, B. (1998). That was true for commercials primarily targeting boys, but also for commercials with gender-neutral products. Female voiceovers were used in less than 16% of commercials, primarily where girls, preschool children, or mothers were the targets. This data shows that, regardless of gender of the person demonstrating the product, voiceovers were more frequently male (Browne, B. (1998). Despite the similarities in gender stereotyping between countries, Australian commercials tended to contain more nearly equal male-to-female proportions, more often depicted both boys and girls in the same advertisement, and less frequently portrayed girls as shy or giggly and boys as directive (Browne, B.