Media and Girls
You’ve come a long way, baby?
Mass media, especially children’s television, provide more positive role models for girls than ever before. Kids shows such as Camp Cretaceous, Odd Squad and Eureka! feature strong female characters who interact with their male counterparts on an equal footing.
There are an increasing number of strong role models for teens, as well. A 2020 study by the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media found that “female characters account for a majority of screen time (58.7%) and speaking time (58.8%) in live action kids’ tv shows, which is higher than any other year.”[1]
Despite this progress, there is a long way to go, both in the quantity of media representations of woman and in their quality. Stereotyped portrayals start early: an analysis of the channel BabyTV, which is distributed in more than a hundred countries, found that female characters were underrepresented and portrayed as fearful and helpless.[2] Even the mascots on children’s cereals are twice as likely to be male as female, with female mascots almost twice as likely to be portrayed in a gender-stereotyped way.[3] Despite recent pushback, toys have actually become significantly more gendered than they were decades ago,[4] even as younger parents are less likely to choose gender-specific toys for their children.[5] Video games also feature fewer female characters than male ones; female characters in games also speak half as much dialogue – and are more likely to be hesitant or apologetic when they do.[6]
While almost half of human characters in TV aimed at older children are women, when we look at non-human characters – a majority of all characters, given the dominance of animation in children’s TV – the numbers are much smaller, with just 32% of animal characters being female. Overall, including both human and non-human characters, 35% are female.[7] Both human and non-human female characters are frequently stereotyped: “girls [on TV were] often blond and presented as members of a team. If they were leaders, they tended to be red-haired,” explicitly tying female characters’ appearance to their personalities.[8] Girls and women are also frequently portrayed as motivated primarily by love and romance and as less independent than boys in kids' media,[9] and are more likely to use magic to solve problems than science or technology.[10]
Children’s books, in many ways, are no better. There, too, the percentage of female human characters (40%) only looks good by comparison to the number of female non-human characters (25%). Women and girls in children’s books are also half as likely as boys or men to have leading roles.[11] Science books for children feature three men for every woman in photographs, and when women do appear they are often treated like the astronaut whose training, qualifications and effort are all dismissed with the caption “in zero G, every day is a bad hair day.”[12]
Advertising has long been seen as the medium most prone to stereotyping. While there are some indications that this is changing, nearly half of Millennial parents see ads as an obstacle to raising their children without stereotypes.[13] Sexist and stereotyped ads, which were once confined to TV shows or magazines aimed at women and girls, can now follow them across the internet thanks to data profiling and behavioral advertising.
Though women are active participants in the online world, they’re often hard to find in search results. A 2018 study of job-related image searches found that women were underrepresented in over half of those searches relative to their actual participation in those jobs, in some case by up to 33 percent.[14]
Even in user-created media like Wikipedia, women are typically underrepresented. A survey of English-language Wikipedia found that fewer than one in five of biography articles were about women;[15] physicist Donna Strickland did not have a page at the time she won the Nobel Prize in 2018.[16] Women’s pages are also more likely to link to men’s pages than vice-versa and more likely to have information about their children or partners.[17]
Media, self-esteem and girls’ identities
Media representations have a strong influence on how girls see themselves and how they imagine their futures. Positive female role models in media can make girls and women more confident, more ambitious and even help them escape abusive relationships;[18] seeing female characters in powerful roles, such as superheroes or science-fiction protagonists, can “help bridge the confidence gap for girls, making them feel strong, brave, confident, inspired, positive and motivated.”[19]
Unfortunately, while the number of positively portrayed female characters in children’s television is increasing, things change significantly after kids turn thirteen. Girls aged 14-19 are almost twice as likely as those aged 10-13 to see male characters in media make sexual comments or jokes about female characters (47% of those aged 14-19 compared to 29% of those aged 10-13), more likely to say they’re treated unfairly compared to boys on social media (37% versus 20%), more likely to see female characters whose looks are more important than their intelligence or abilities (57% versus 45%) and more likely to see images of women and girls with unrealistic bodies (71% versus 56%).[20] Female characters in film are often sexualized even before the role is cast, with screenplays typically describing them in terms such as “a freckled hottie,” “gorgeous blond, big breasted, great body” and “cute, but dumb as a bunny.”[21] Girls are more conscious than boys of the influence media has on them. One study found that 75% of girls consider themselves to be “very or extremely influenced by TV and movies when it comes to how they look,” compared to 45% for boys.[22] For more on this topic, see Body Image - Girls.
Research indicates that mixed messages from media and multimedia companies, such as Disney, can make it difficult for girls to negotiate the transition to adulthood.[23] While characters such as Moana and Brave’s Merida are strong and autonomous characters within their own films, in merchandising they blend in with more passive Disney princesses. Similarly, stereotyping and representation can have a long-term impact on girls’ careers. Sexist ads for video games have been linked to a decline in women graduating from computer science programs (from 37% of graduates in 1984 to 18% in 2016).[24]
More positive portrayals have an impact, too. In one recent study, two-thirds of women working in STEM fields cited watching the ‘90s series The X-Files, featuring the cool and competent scientist Dana Scully, as a reason for their choice of career.[25] Efforts to improve representation continue: a 2018 study of young children found that half of those who aspired to STEM careers were girls, with a quarter of all respondents saying they’d been inspired by cartoon veterinarian Doc McStuffins.[26]
Sexualization of young girls
The pressures on girls are exacerbated by the media’s increasing tendency to portray young girls, or young women who appear to be children, in sexual ways. In advertising, camera angles (where the model is often looking up, presumably at a taller man), averted eyes, wounded facial expressions and vulnerable poses mimic the visual images common in pornographic media. The fashion industry has largely abandoned tweens as a separate market, targeting girls as young as ten with adult – and often highly sexualizing – clothing.[27] But kids don’t have to see fashion ads to be exposed to sexualized portrayals of girls and women – sexualized depictions of girls are common on social media,[28] which is itself seen as responsible for the collapse of the tween fashion market due to influencer culture.[29] Even in children’s TV shows, more than a third of characters have signs of sexualization such as long eyelashes, full lips and suggestive clothing, with female characters twice as likely to be sexualized[30] and three times more likely to be shown in revealing clothing or partially nude.[31]
Algorithms on services such as TikTok often default to sexualized images and videos, often made by teens, as a solution to the “cold start” problem of recommending content before anything is known about a user’s preferences.[32]
The normalization of sexualized images of women and girls has impacts on self-perception and wellbeing. Women and girls can internalize the belief that their worth lies in their sexual attractiveness, which is associated with mental health difficulties such as low self-esteem, negative body image and depressive symptoms,[33] while the constant exposure to sexualized images on these platforms reinforces the emphasis on physical appearance and sexual attractiveness.[34] Because girls don’t just consume social media but actively participate in it, it can also pressure them to sexualize and objectify themselves – particularly when this is rewarded with more likes on their photos and more followers on their accounts.[35]
Social media can act as a powerful learning model for girls, shaping their understanding of acceptable social norms.[36] Adolescent girls face challenges in navigating self-presentation on social media, navigating complex social rules as they strive for acceptance while avoiding criticism for appearing too sexually available.[37] The normalization of sexualized images on social media reinforces the focus on appearance and influences girls' perceptions of their value in society.
Girls exposed to these images can suffer from reduced self-confidence, disordered eating and a narrowed sense of their sexual identities,[38] as well as a more negative view of their own gender.[39] Both boys and girls can be influenced by media to believe in “sexual scripts” that require men to be aggressive and unemotional and girls to be sexually attractive but not actively sexual – conquests or prizes for men.[40]
Danielle Bregoli, known under her rap name as Bhad Bhabie, joined adult site OnlyFans weeks after her 18th birthday.
As concerning as sexualization itself is how little content there is aimed at girls between childhood and full adulthood. Rachel Shukert, show-runner of the Netflix adaptation of the Babysitters Club books, has noted that in media “girls are expected to go straight from Doc McStuffins to Euphoria… It’s a really easy time for girls to define themselves solely by how they’re seen by other people and then you don’t get your sense of self back until you’re 35. What if you weren’t missing those 20 years?“[41]
[1] Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media (2020) See Jane 2020 TV. Retrieved from https://seejane.org/research-informs-empowers/2020-tv-historic-screen-time-speaking-time-for-female-characters/
[2] Elias, Nelly, Sulkin, Idit & Lemish, Dafna (2017). Gender segregation on BabyTV. Old-time Stereotypes for the Very Young p. 95-104 in Dafna Lemish & Maya Götz (eds.) Beyond the Stereotypes? Images of Boys and Girls, and their Consequences. Göteborg: Nordicom.
[3] Mascots Matter: Gender and Race Representation in Consumer Packaged Goods Mascots. (2018) (Rep.) Geena Davis Institute on Gender & Media. Retrieved from https://seejane.org/wp-content/uploads/mascots-matter-full-report.pdf
[4] Weisgram, E. S. (2018). Gender typing of toys in historical and contemporary contexts. In E. S. Weisgram & L. M. Dinella (Eds.), Gender typing of children's toys: How early play experiences impact development (p. 9–22). American Psychological Association. https://doi.org/10.1037/0000077-002
[5] Oktaviani, R. C., & Ichwan, F. N. (2021). Imported Toys in Indonesia: Parental Consumer Literacy, Purchasing Decisions, and Globalization. The Marketing of Children’s Toys: Critical Perspectives on Children’s Consumer Culture, 85-103.
[6] Rennick, S., Clinton, M., Ioannidou, E., Oh, L., Clooney, C., Healy, E., & Roberts, S. G. (2023). Gender bias in video game dialogue. Royal Society Open Science, 10(5), 221095.
[7] Gotz, Maya (2017). Children’s Television Worldwide II: Gender Representation in Canada. Children’s TV worldwide. Retrieved from http://www.childrens-tv-worldwide.com/pdfs/Canada.pdf
[8] Götz, Maya (2018). Whose story is being told? Results of an analysis of Children’s television in 8 countries. Televizion. Retrieved from http://www.br-online.de/jugend/izi/english/publication/televizion/31_2018_E/Goetz-et_al-Whose_story_is_being_told.pdf
[9] Götz, Maya. Children’s Television Worldwide: Gender Representation. International Central Institute for Youth and Educational Television, 2008.
[10] Gotz, Maya (2017). Children’s Television Worldwide II: Gender Representation in Canada. Children’s TV worldwide. Retrieved from http://www.childrens-tv-worldwide.com/pdfs/Canada.pdf
[11] Ferguson, Donna. “Must Monsters Always Be Male? Huge Gender Bias Revealed in Children’s Books.” The Guardian, January 21 2018.
[12] How Children’s Books Are Peddling Science’s Gender Problem. Business Telegraph, August 27 2018.
[13] Parenting, Kids and Gender Boundaries. (Rep.) (2016) Harbinger/Ehm & Co.
[14] Lam, Onyi et al. (2018) Gender and Jobs in Online Image Searches. (Rep.) Pew Research Center. Retrieved from https://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2018/12/17/gender-and-jobs-in-online-image-searches/
[15] “Gender by language.” (n.d.) Retrieved from https://whgi.wmflabs.org/gender-by-language.html
[16] Harrison, Stephen. “The notability blues.” Slate, March 6 2019. Retrieved from https://slate.com/technology/2019/03/wikipedia-women-history-notability-gender-gap.html
[17] Guo, Eileen. “Inside the fight to change Wikipedia’s gender problem.” January 8, 2017. Retrieved from https://www.inverse.com/article/39999-wikipedias-women-editors
[18] Female characters in film and TV motivate women to be more ambitious, more successful, and have even given them the courage to break out of abusive relationships. (2016) Geena Davis Institute
[19] Nikolai, Nate. “Kids Want More Female Superheroes, New Study Finds.” Variety, October 8 2018.
[20] Undem, Tressa, and Ann Wang. (2018) The State of Gender Equality for U.S Adolescents. Plan USA.
[21] Putnam, Ross. “Female Script Intros.” (Twitter account) https://twitter.com/femscriptintros
[22] Common Sense Media (2017) Watching Gender. Retrieved from https://wnywomensfoundation.org/app/uploads/2017/08/16.-Watching-Gender-How-Stereotypes-in-Movies-and-on-TV-Impact-Kids-Development.pdf
[23] Barnet R et al (2020). How mixed messages about women can affect girls. Psychology Today. Retrieved from https://www.psychologytoday.com/ca/blog/womans-place/202005/how-mixed-messages-about-women-can-affect-girls
[24] Andrews, T.L. “Silicon Valley’s gender gap is the result of computer-game marketing 20 years ago.” Quartz, February 17 2020. Retrieved from https://qz.com/911737/silicon-valleys-gender-gap-is-the-result-of-computer-game-marketing-20-years-ago/
[25] Ahsan, Sadaf. “Thanks to 'the Scully effect,' women who watch The X-Files are more likely to work in STEM.” National Post, April 23 2018. Retrieved from https://nationalpost.com/entertainment/television/thanks-to-the-scully-effect-women-who-watch-the-x-files-are-more-likely-to-work-in-stem
[26] Lindzon, Jared. “YouTube Is Shaping Your Child’s Career Ambitions More Than You Are.” Fast Company, January 16 2018
[27] Ishmel, A. (2023) “Where Did All the Tween Fashion Go?” Teen Vogue. https://www.teenvogue.com/story/where-did-all-the-tween-fashion-go
Crossa, D., Fisher C., Papageorgiou, A. (2022). “It just Sends the Message that you’re Nothing but your body” a Qualitative Exploration of Adolescent Girls’ Perceptions of Sexualized Images on Social Media. Retrieved from: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12119-022-10022-6
[29] Ishmel, A. (2023) “Where Did All the Tween Fashion Go?” Teen Vogue. https://www.teenvogue.com/story/where-did-all-the-tween-fashion-go
[30] Lemish, Dr. Dafna, and Dr. Colleen Russo Johnson. (2019) The Landscape of Children’s Television in the US and Canada. (Rep.) Center for Scholars & Storytellers.
[31] Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media (2020) See Jane 2020 TV. Retrieved from https://seejane.org/wp-content/uploads/2020-tv-historic-screen-time-speaking-time-for-female-characters-report.pdf
[32] Kelly, H. (2022) “They came to TikTok for fun. They got stuck with sexualized videos.” The Washington Post.
[33] Moncrief, M. (2022). Media Sexualization and its impact on college aged women. Honors Theses.
[34] Crossa, D., Fisher C., Papageorgiou, A. (2022). “It Just Sends the Message that you’re Nothing but your body” a Qualitative Exploration of Adolescent Girls’ Perceptions of Sexualized Images on Social Media. Retrieved from: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12119-022-10022-6
[35] Crossa, D., Fisher C., Papageorgiou, A. (2022). “It just Sends the Message that you’re Nothing but your body” a Qualitative Exploration of Adolescent Girls’ Perceptions of Sexualized Images on Social Media. Retrieved from: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12119-022-10022-6
[36] Maes, C., Schruers L., van Oosten, J., & Vandenbosch, L. (2019). #(Me)too much? The role of sexualizing online media in adolescents’ resistance towards the metoo-movement and acceptance of rape myths. J Adolescence. DOI: 10.1016/j.adolescence.2019.10.005.
[37] Crossa, D., Fisher C., Papageorgiou, A. (2022). “It Just Sends the Message that You’re Nothing but Your Body”: A Qualitative Exploration of Adolescent Girls’ Perceptions of Sexualized Images on Social Media. Retrieved from: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12119-022-10022-6
[38] Delahunty, Isabella, and Kate Harris. (2016) Inquiry in to the sexualizations of children and young people. (Rep.)
[39] Bailey Review of the Commercialisation and Sexualisation of Childhood: Final report published. 2012. http://www.education.gov.uk/inthenews/inthenews/a0077662/bailey-review-of-the-commercialisation-and-sexualisation-of-childhood-final-report-published
[40] Collins et al. (2017) Sexual Media and Childhood Well-being and Health. Pediatrics. DOI: https:// doi. org/ 10. 1542/ peds. 2016- 1758X
[41] VanArendonk, K. (2022) “The Baby-Sitters Club Wasn’t Enough for Netflix Anymore.” Vulture. https://www.vulture.com/article/why-the-baby-sitters-club-was-canceled-at-netflix.html