Blog Post #19

Geena Davis noticed that kids see the same gender segregation in their shows that we see as adults in real life. She gives several examples of cartoons that based on stereotypes and masculinity. Winnie the Pooh only has one female character, and she is the mother of Roo, and never does anything by herself. In the Looney tunes, the only female character is Granny, the owner of Tweety, who must leave in order for the story to happen. She even finds that these cartoons characters emphasize the importance of the female body. Miss Piggy had cleavage. In the Smurfs, there were originally no female characters. Until a witch made Smurfette, who was considered ugly, to ruin the Smurfs. However, the Smurfs accepted her after she was turned into a blond bombshell. Things like this tell young children that it is only important that girls look pretty. It teaches that the worth of women is different and less then men. The foundation that Geena Davis started found that very few of the top animated movies have female characters, and the ones that do show highly stereotyped women. When of think of movies like this I think of Cinderella, Snow White, and the Little Mermaid who were all “damsels in distress,” who couldn’t fend for themselves and needed a man to save them. Even this shows that women are unable to deal with physical violence and cannot handle typical male activities.

It is assumed that women are not physically strong enough or aggressive enough to deal with physical violence. Colleagues see these women more as liabilities and someone who will have to be saved if violence arises. It is assumed that the women mo=must be able to use physical means in order to control violence. Many male workers feel that women are not cut out for jobs that deal with violence, but men are, “strictly by virtue of being male.”