Introduction
Gender roles are widespread within the Western world and they subtly encourage society to follow and conform to the hegemonic ideals about femininity and masculinity until they are considered common sense. These hegemonic ideologies are particularly important when it comes to children’s programming as children are easily influenced and these ideologies could harm them in the future, by convincing them they have to live up to the strict and sometimes impossible standards set forth by society.
Femininity in Children’s Television
The concept of femininity in children’s television has been evolving for many years, but in many cases, there are still flaws with the amount of gender stereotypes used, sexualisation of girls, as well
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The commercials that are targeted and shown to children often feature the hegemonic ideologies surrounding gender, even if the television shows featured on the channel are considered diverse (Kahlenberg & Hein, 2009). Nickelodeon is one of the pioneering television channels for children and is very outspoken about their inclusion of non-stereotypical female leads on their shows, as mentioned by Kahlenberg & Hein (2009), (as cited in Seiter & Mayer, 2004, p. 122), but unfortunately this outspoken diversity does not translate to the commercials being featured. These commercials feature boys playing competitive games such as various sports, video games, and other activities featuring concepts of maintaining status. In contrast, the commercials targeting females feature girls playing more cooperative games, usually revolving around fashion and/or home-life, and feature themes of domesticity (Kahlenberg & Hein, 2009). By showing girls and boys in roles that rely heavily on gender stereotypes it influences children to conform to the hegemonic ideals set in place by society, and in turn, further segregates the