Excellent post from eleven o clock alchemy about the need for creating family-friendly radical and inclusive movments-
http://elevenoclockalchemy.wordpress.com/2010/11/02/towards-a-family-friendly-radical-movement-intergenerational-liberation-for-all
Showing posts with label sexism. Show all posts
Showing posts with label sexism. Show all posts
Saturday, 6 November 2010
Thursday, 1 April 2010
Pinkstinks' Victory Over UK Supermarket's Sexist Labelling
PINKSTINKS FORCES SAINSBURY’S SUPERMARKET CLIMBDOWN OVER ‘SEXIST’ LABELLING:
Pinkstinks has forced UK supermarket giant Sainsbury’s to withdraw the ‘sexist’ labelling on some of its children’s clothes. The retailer – which has more than 500 stores nationwide – has agreed to re-label thousands of children’s dressing-up outfits after pressure from Pinkstinks and the group’s 13,000 supporters.
Sainsbury’s has now admitted that its gender-specific product-labelling was ‘not acceptable’. The store was selling princess outfits and a ‘circa 1940s’ nurse outfit labelled GIRLS, while pilots, superheroes, soldiers and most astonishing of all, even doctors white coats were marked BOYS.
Abi Moore, Pinkstinks co-founder said: “We asked what sort of message this was sending to girls about what they are ‘fit’ for and what their aspirations might be. As far as we are aware, there are more women at medical school than men nowadays. On our website – www.pinkstinks.co.uk - one of our most popular role models is Flight Lieutenant Kirsty Moore, the first female Red Arrows pilot. An amazing achievement and yet Sainsbury’s pilots’ outfits were also labelled ‘boys’. As were the army outfits even though women have been fighting alongside men at the front line for years. We simply drew to Sainsbury’s attention the fact that it would be a hugely confident and independent little girl who would dare risk the ridicule of her friends by asking for a costume in-store clearly ‘meant’ for boys, no matter how much she wanted to dress up like a doctor, while the nurses outfit sends a message to boys that they are not ‘meant’ to be nurses either.”
Sainsbury’s has pledged the outfits with new non-gender specific labels will be in-store from July. Sainsbury’s customer director, Gwyn Burr, told Pinkstinks: “It isn't
acceptable to suggest certain professions are the reserve of any gender. This is an error and one I am seeking to address ASAP. The new labels which will be non gender specific will go on the next allocation of clothing, so will be in store from July.”
Says Abi: “Though this may seem trivial, it is important. This kind of labelling is
part of the drip, drip of messages that girls (and boys) receive on a daily basis about their roles in life and the expectations that they should have. Pinkstinks is committed to tackling any kind of gender stereotyping, in particular that which is aimed at children, which we see as damaging, limiting or just plain old-fashioned. We want to congratulate Sainsbury’s on its swift action to redress this matter and hope other retailers will follow their lead. We will be watching.”
For further information contact Lucy Lawrence, Head of communications, at media@..., or on 020 8318 4582. For out-of-hours enquiries please phone 07887 635698.
MORE INFO ON PINKSTINKS:
Pinkstinks was established in 2008 to challenge the culture of pink which invades every aspect of girls' lives. In 2009 its founders won the Sheila McKechnie Foundation’s campaigners award in the Women Creating Change category.
Last December, Pinkstinks ran the campaign Early Learning Centre – Early Learning Emergency, to try and raise parents’, educationalists’ and other concerned parties’ awareness of the widespread gender-stereotyping of the toys and dressing-up outfits being sold in its stores. We felt very strongly that, although the ELC is by no means the only such offender on the high street, its commitment to stretching children’s boundaries was being directly undermined by the products it was marketing towards girls while, at the same time offering boys all manner of exciting action,
adventure, educational and other toys. That campaign received coverage on hundreds of websites, in newspapers, on TV and radio, in 43 countries around the globe and gained us more than 11,000 supporters on Facebook alone.
Pinkstinks aims to counteract the national obsession with celebrities and to champion women who we see as inspirational, important, ground-breaking and motivating. Our website is for parents and non-parents alike and aims to gather support, promote discussion and ultimately to mobilise that support to influence commerce and the media about the importance of promoting positive gender roles to girls.
Also, under development, is our project cooltobe.me, aimed directly at children themselves. Using the best in design, writing, interactivity and content, we will use the power of the web and multi-media to challenge the norm. Unlike many toy manufacturers we will credit our audience with intelligence. We will engage with girls - and boys - to give them something real and cool to aspire to be."
VIVA LA REVOLUCION FEMINISTA!
Pinkstinks has forced UK supermarket giant Sainsbury’s to withdraw the ‘sexist’ labelling on some of its children’s clothes. The retailer – which has more than 500 stores nationwide – has agreed to re-label thousands of children’s dressing-up outfits after pressure from Pinkstinks and the group’s 13,000 supporters.
Sainsbury’s has now admitted that its gender-specific product-labelling was ‘not acceptable’. The store was selling princess outfits and a ‘circa 1940s’ nurse outfit labelled GIRLS, while pilots, superheroes, soldiers and most astonishing of all, even doctors white coats were marked BOYS.
Abi Moore, Pinkstinks co-founder said: “We asked what sort of message this was sending to girls about what they are ‘fit’ for and what their aspirations might be. As far as we are aware, there are more women at medical school than men nowadays. On our website – www.pinkstinks.co.uk - one of our most popular role models is Flight Lieutenant Kirsty Moore, the first female Red Arrows pilot. An amazing achievement and yet Sainsbury’s pilots’ outfits were also labelled ‘boys’. As were the army outfits even though women have been fighting alongside men at the front line for years. We simply drew to Sainsbury’s attention the fact that it would be a hugely confident and independent little girl who would dare risk the ridicule of her friends by asking for a costume in-store clearly ‘meant’ for boys, no matter how much she wanted to dress up like a doctor, while the nurses outfit sends a message to boys that they are not ‘meant’ to be nurses either.”
Sainsbury’s has pledged the outfits with new non-gender specific labels will be in-store from July. Sainsbury’s customer director, Gwyn Burr, told Pinkstinks: “It isn't
acceptable to suggest certain professions are the reserve of any gender. This is an error and one I am seeking to address ASAP. The new labels which will be non gender specific will go on the next allocation of clothing, so will be in store from July.”
Says Abi: “Though this may seem trivial, it is important. This kind of labelling is
part of the drip, drip of messages that girls (and boys) receive on a daily basis about their roles in life and the expectations that they should have. Pinkstinks is committed to tackling any kind of gender stereotyping, in particular that which is aimed at children, which we see as damaging, limiting or just plain old-fashioned. We want to congratulate Sainsbury’s on its swift action to redress this matter and hope other retailers will follow their lead. We will be watching.”
For further information contact Lucy Lawrence, Head of communications, at media@..., or on 020 8318 4582. For out-of-hours enquiries please phone 07887 635698.
MORE INFO ON PINKSTINKS:
Pinkstinks was established in 2008 to challenge the culture of pink which invades every aspect of girls' lives. In 2009 its founders won the Sheila McKechnie Foundation’s campaigners award in the Women Creating Change category.
Last December, Pinkstinks ran the campaign Early Learning Centre – Early Learning Emergency, to try and raise parents’, educationalists’ and other concerned parties’ awareness of the widespread gender-stereotyping of the toys and dressing-up outfits being sold in its stores. We felt very strongly that, although the ELC is by no means the only such offender on the high street, its commitment to stretching children’s boundaries was being directly undermined by the products it was marketing towards girls while, at the same time offering boys all manner of exciting action,
adventure, educational and other toys. That campaign received coverage on hundreds of websites, in newspapers, on TV and radio, in 43 countries around the globe and gained us more than 11,000 supporters on Facebook alone.
Pinkstinks aims to counteract the national obsession with celebrities and to champion women who we see as inspirational, important, ground-breaking and motivating. Our website is for parents and non-parents alike and aims to gather support, promote discussion and ultimately to mobilise that support to influence commerce and the media about the importance of promoting positive gender roles to girls.
Also, under development, is our project cooltobe.me, aimed directly at children themselves. Using the best in design, writing, interactivity and content, we will use the power of the web and multi-media to challenge the norm. Unlike many toy manufacturers we will credit our audience with intelligence. We will engage with girls - and boys - to give them something real and cool to aspire to be."
VIVA LA REVOLUCION FEMINISTA!
Thursday, 4 June 2009
Children and Parents in Feminist Activism
“We expect to struggle against the world; we don't expect to struggle in our own community.” Radical Anarchist Mom and Baby League
In this vast metropolis that is London, it is sometimes hard to feel a sense of community. Caught up in the rat race that is survival in this city, we can sometimes feel isolated from our near neighbours and may not feel a sense of belonging to the area in which we live.
Fortunately there is a strong feminist community in London. We share some common values, we struggle together, we socialise together, we look out for each other, we care for each other and it is a community that I feel privileged to be part of.
However as a mother of young children I’ve got to say that I do feel that just like I struggle in the wider community, I also struggle in this community of ours.
I don’t know how many times I’ve raised the issue of childcare when we organise, I don’t know how many emails I’ve sent asking whether there will be childcare available or whether children are welcome at certain meetings and events, I don’t know how many meetings or actions I’ve just not gone to because I feel that I cant bring my children, I don’t know how many workshops I’ve walked out of coz my children start getting loud and I can see that it’s just not appreciated. But the thing I notice most is that, unlike most other communities, within the feminist community there just aren’t many children around.
Maybe it’s just I’m going to the wrong meetings, but I don’t think so because I speak to other mothers and they seem to feel the same way too.
We want to spread this movement of ours yet we don’t make our activism accessible to parents. Many of the women in this country are mothers yet we don’t provide childcare at our meetings. Is feminism for everyone or just for a small clique of childless women?
We rally en masse for abortions rights (rightly so!) but where are the rallies to protest against single-parents being forced back to work, for better childcare for working parents, for better maternity services, for recognition of the unpaid work parents do raising children and what exactly are we doing in our activism to facilitate parents attending?
Sometimes I feel like we’ve fallen for the idea that mothers should be home, tied to the kitchen sink, cooking and changing nappies, voiceless and uncomplaining and that children should be seen and not heard. I suppose it’s so ingrained in all of us that there is a time and place for children that meetings aren’t seen as one of those times or places. I think like that too sometimes, but its ageist against children and sexist against mothers and we all need to address and confront it within ourselves and as a group. Maybe a meeting isn’t the most suitable place for young children but if parents are going to be there we need to accept that children will be too and sort out ways to deal with it.
Everyday as mothers we challenge patriarchy; a system, society and culture that sees us as just women with children, needing and worthy of little space besides the home, school and playground. We’re not welcome in the workplace, in education, on public transport, in the pub, yet we still go there. Capitalism places no value on our work, but we know the true value of what we do, and as such we see the fallacy of capitalism, we feel its injustice in our bones. Even though its difficult we leave our homes to work, we educate ourselves, we realise the value of the work we do raising children and we celebrate it, thus challenging false notions of true fulfilment through career, we find ways to support each other, we find solidarity through motherhood, we know in a very real way the strength of women and we know true exhaustion yet keep on going. Many of us became feminists at the same time as we became mothers, because it was then that we truly collided with patriarchy. Feminist parenting is a truly political, radical and effective form of direct action and is an everyday form of feminist activism.
That’s why I find it so weird that feminism in London does not seem to be welcoming parents with children or addressing our needs or campaigning for our wants. Parents are political, passionate, caring, strong, organised people, used to working for free and dealing with frustration, we are an asset to any movement.
Mainstream feminism like mainstream society and culture is (I think) hierarchical, with value, respect and power being given to those who are the most “active”, the most educated, with the best jobs, the loudest voices, the most money, and unfortunately mothers are near the bottom of this hierarchy. Sexism isn’t just something that exists out there in the big bad world; it also exists in each one of us. It isn’t our fault but it is something we must accept and try to unlearn and dealing with sexism in activism in this context means recognising the value and needs of parents and children.
We also need to think about children and the benefits they gain from being involved with feminism and what we gain from them being involved. Personally I am so glad that my children know feminism and feminists. It’s all very well me talking to them about gender roles, stereotypes and sexism but for them to actually see feminism in action, positive female role models and alternative ways of working and being together privileges them and reaches them on a much deeper level. I want my children to understand feminism on a day-to-day level, so that for them it is the norm.
Feminism has so much to gain from children being involved. Children can bring creativity, imagination and freshness to activism and a definite impetus to dissent, protest and organise against the status quo. Why are we feminists if not for future generations! At the end of the day if we really want to end the cycle of sexism and sexist oppression then socialising our children in a non-sexist way, as well as educating them about feminism and showing them how it can work is the only way.
Butterflea 2009
Copyleft (original article published in Raise Some Hell - A Feminist Childrearing Zine for Everyone)
In this vast metropolis that is London, it is sometimes hard to feel a sense of community. Caught up in the rat race that is survival in this city, we can sometimes feel isolated from our near neighbours and may not feel a sense of belonging to the area in which we live.
Fortunately there is a strong feminist community in London. We share some common values, we struggle together, we socialise together, we look out for each other, we care for each other and it is a community that I feel privileged to be part of.
However as a mother of young children I’ve got to say that I do feel that just like I struggle in the wider community, I also struggle in this community of ours.
I don’t know how many times I’ve raised the issue of childcare when we organise, I don’t know how many emails I’ve sent asking whether there will be childcare available or whether children are welcome at certain meetings and events, I don’t know how many meetings or actions I’ve just not gone to because I feel that I cant bring my children, I don’t know how many workshops I’ve walked out of coz my children start getting loud and I can see that it’s just not appreciated. But the thing I notice most is that, unlike most other communities, within the feminist community there just aren’t many children around.
Maybe it’s just I’m going to the wrong meetings, but I don’t think so because I speak to other mothers and they seem to feel the same way too.
We want to spread this movement of ours yet we don’t make our activism accessible to parents. Many of the women in this country are mothers yet we don’t provide childcare at our meetings. Is feminism for everyone or just for a small clique of childless women?
We rally en masse for abortions rights (rightly so!) but where are the rallies to protest against single-parents being forced back to work, for better childcare for working parents, for better maternity services, for recognition of the unpaid work parents do raising children and what exactly are we doing in our activism to facilitate parents attending?
Sometimes I feel like we’ve fallen for the idea that mothers should be home, tied to the kitchen sink, cooking and changing nappies, voiceless and uncomplaining and that children should be seen and not heard. I suppose it’s so ingrained in all of us that there is a time and place for children that meetings aren’t seen as one of those times or places. I think like that too sometimes, but its ageist against children and sexist against mothers and we all need to address and confront it within ourselves and as a group. Maybe a meeting isn’t the most suitable place for young children but if parents are going to be there we need to accept that children will be too and sort out ways to deal with it.
Everyday as mothers we challenge patriarchy; a system, society and culture that sees us as just women with children, needing and worthy of little space besides the home, school and playground. We’re not welcome in the workplace, in education, on public transport, in the pub, yet we still go there. Capitalism places no value on our work, but we know the true value of what we do, and as such we see the fallacy of capitalism, we feel its injustice in our bones. Even though its difficult we leave our homes to work, we educate ourselves, we realise the value of the work we do raising children and we celebrate it, thus challenging false notions of true fulfilment through career, we find ways to support each other, we find solidarity through motherhood, we know in a very real way the strength of women and we know true exhaustion yet keep on going. Many of us became feminists at the same time as we became mothers, because it was then that we truly collided with patriarchy. Feminist parenting is a truly political, radical and effective form of direct action and is an everyday form of feminist activism.
That’s why I find it so weird that feminism in London does not seem to be welcoming parents with children or addressing our needs or campaigning for our wants. Parents are political, passionate, caring, strong, organised people, used to working for free and dealing with frustration, we are an asset to any movement.
Mainstream feminism like mainstream society and culture is (I think) hierarchical, with value, respect and power being given to those who are the most “active”, the most educated, with the best jobs, the loudest voices, the most money, and unfortunately mothers are near the bottom of this hierarchy. Sexism isn’t just something that exists out there in the big bad world; it also exists in each one of us. It isn’t our fault but it is something we must accept and try to unlearn and dealing with sexism in activism in this context means recognising the value and needs of parents and children.
We also need to think about children and the benefits they gain from being involved with feminism and what we gain from them being involved. Personally I am so glad that my children know feminism and feminists. It’s all very well me talking to them about gender roles, stereotypes and sexism but for them to actually see feminism in action, positive female role models and alternative ways of working and being together privileges them and reaches them on a much deeper level. I want my children to understand feminism on a day-to-day level, so that for them it is the norm.
Feminism has so much to gain from children being involved. Children can bring creativity, imagination and freshness to activism and a definite impetus to dissent, protest and organise against the status quo. Why are we feminists if not for future generations! At the end of the day if we really want to end the cycle of sexism and sexist oppression then socialising our children in a non-sexist way, as well as educating them about feminism and showing them how it can work is the only way.
Butterflea 2009
Copyleft (original article published in Raise Some Hell - A Feminist Childrearing Zine for Everyone)
Tuesday, 26 May 2009
Children's Television - Sexist media representing a sexist world.
I’m the first to admit that I am at times a slack mum. What with two children, two jobs, a partner, activism, a social life, a flat and garden and the rest, I wasn’t going to beat myself up for leaving my daughter in front of the telly, sometimes for hours at a time so that I could just get on with it. However it wasn’t something I often admitted to others and I did used to feel guilty. I knew it was bad parenting but the quiet time it gave me was precious and necessary, I thought. Molly loved tv, and could literally watch it for hours, leaving me time to have a cigarette, send some emails, tidy the house, sit and chill for five minutes, whatever!
It did however come as a shock when, surprise surprise, despite all my best efforts at feminist parenting, age four my daughter transformed from a happy-go-lucky confident unselfconscious grubby child into a pristine pink princess with a “passion for fashion”. Her sexist utterances were even more surprising, “girls can’t have short hair”, “boys can’t play fairies” and her refusal to wear anything that wasn’t a dress and pink or sparkly ensured mornings were traumatic for all involved.
Although I tried to deny it for a while, I knew it was my fault, after all mothers are the primary passeroners of patriarchal values. My slackness, my desire for a few quiet moments, had left my daughter vulnerable to the brainwashing. I knew the risks, I knew the danger of the mainstream media, its power to corrupt, and I deliberateraly sat her down in front of it. I thought I could beat it. I couldn’t!
Its sexist, its racist, its homophobic, its classist, it twists reality, it makes us feel insecure, its pushes consumerism down our throats, it promotes violence, competition, vanity, selfishness, and that’s just the children’s programmes, never mind all the rest.
Bob the Builder, Postman Pat, Underground Ernie, Lunar Jim, Gordon the Gnome, Bottletop Bill, Mr. Men Show, Thomas the Tankengine, Roary the Racingcar, eh hello, say no bloody more! Its obvious what the problem is, isn’t it? The whole plotline is based around boys and men, the main character is male. There are sometimes female characters but they’re always the sidekick. Even when the main character is an inanimate object, like a train or car or robot, or an animal, its still blatantly a male character. Even if I had a son I would find these characters deeply sexist, they’re so 2d, strong, clever, they work hard in traditional male roles, they don’t show emotion, etc.
Where are the programmes with girls or women as the stars, where are the female role models? Although few and far between there are programmes where girls and women star such as Peppa Pig, the Little Princess, Bratz, Fifi and the Flowertots. But then these types of programmes are even more disturbing than the overtly sexist ones mentioned above. The female characters in them are kind, caring, passive, spoilt, and immature, they love cooking and ballet and very little more, and they’re all bloody pink!
And it’s not just me with my “warped” feminist mind making problems where there’s none, last year a comprehensive study of children’s television was done and it proved rather conclusively that it is a biased media representing a biased world.
The International Central Institute for Youth Educational Television (better known by its German acronym IZI) released findings on gender representation in 19,664 programmes from 24 countries in what was according to them “the worlds large quantitive media analysis of children’s television so far”. The survey showed very clearly that there IS a gender imbalance in favour of male characters in television programming for children in public and private programmes, domestic and international programmes and in animated and real life formats and that this is the trend all over the world. Surprisingly, to them perhaps, public and state broadcasters have a worse gender balance ratio (31%:69% female to male representation) than their private counterparts who stand at 33%:67%. The reports authors consider this a remarkable result “since public broadcasters – with the public mandate – have the responsibility for representing reality in a balanced way. The reality of human life is 51% female to 49% male (unfortunately the report does not consider those people who are trans, intersex or do not identify as male or female), which could not be found in children’s TV anywhere”.
The researchers found that girls and women account for only 32% of lead characters compared to 68% for boys and men. In some series girls and women are almost absent. Animation programmes have 87% male characters as compared to 13% female and this leads the researchers to conclude that “the reality of children’s television proves. that today gender equality is still a long way off”, but hey we already knew that.
And this is just the gender bias, children’s tv is also racist. 72% of all main characters in children programmers around the world are white. I would also like to know what the figures are in relation to representations of lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans people in children’s programming, as well as people with disabilities and I don’t think that I have ever seen any representation of any other family structures other than that of the traditional nuclear family.
Basically this report backs up what many of us have observed, the media, in this case children’s media, as a cultural vehicle only presents an extremely limited, sexist, racist, homophobic, transphobic, ableist view of society where women and girls are portrayed as beautiful, underweight, sexualised, modest, tidy and moral beings who are motivated by a romantic interest and are dependant on males who, in their turn are leaders, heterosexual, able-bodied and white!
What are we saying to our children? In particular what are we saying to our daughters? We’re saying to them that they can’t be builders, or postmen, or astronauts, or whatever they want, that they can merely aim to being feisty yet fashionable. Little girls are presented as only valid as princesses, pretty in pink, secondary to males. Our daughters are not secondary, they are the primary characters in their own lives, and so should be represented as such.
I hate it on so many levels, for what it does to me, my children, women, and the world. I got so fed up of shouting at the telly, of trying to critique the propaganda with my daughter, of seeing little fairy princess dvds, of seeing advertisements aimed at parents through their children, where girls wear pink and play with dolls and boys wear blue and like transformers. I was going to try to write a letter to the heads of broadcasting for children at the various tv channels, but I reckoned we’re too far gone for that. This rubbish has become an institutional part of our life and we just accept it. Even if I did complain, nothing would change.
Then about six months ago sister fate played her hand and provided a solution for my family that was so simple yet so effective. One night, thank the goddesses, our tv died. It choked, it spluttered and before our very eyes, it passed away. I admit at first I was gutted, what would I do without my almost daily dose of Eastenders, and Neighbours, and Home and Away, but then almost immediately I felt better. Molly cried for a while, but she quickly got over it, after all there are so many things for a five year old to do. She still loves pink, and dresses, and glitter and all that, but maybe that’s just what she likes. But instead of sitting in front of the tv, she spends hours drawing, or reading, or just playing. I have no more or no less time than I had before, but we are all a lot happier doing the things we want to do.
For a practical and immediate solution to the nightmare that is the television just throw the bloody thing out, after all the television will not be revolutionised!
The full report can be found at http://www.br-online.de/jugend/izi/english/publication/televizion/21_2008_E/21_2008_E.htm.
Butterflea, 2008
butterflea@riseup.net
Anticopyright
It did however come as a shock when, surprise surprise, despite all my best efforts at feminist parenting, age four my daughter transformed from a happy-go-lucky confident unselfconscious grubby child into a pristine pink princess with a “passion for fashion”. Her sexist utterances were even more surprising, “girls can’t have short hair”, “boys can’t play fairies” and her refusal to wear anything that wasn’t a dress and pink or sparkly ensured mornings were traumatic for all involved.
Although I tried to deny it for a while, I knew it was my fault, after all mothers are the primary passeroners of patriarchal values. My slackness, my desire for a few quiet moments, had left my daughter vulnerable to the brainwashing. I knew the risks, I knew the danger of the mainstream media, its power to corrupt, and I deliberateraly sat her down in front of it. I thought I could beat it. I couldn’t!
Its sexist, its racist, its homophobic, its classist, it twists reality, it makes us feel insecure, its pushes consumerism down our throats, it promotes violence, competition, vanity, selfishness, and that’s just the children’s programmes, never mind all the rest.
Bob the Builder, Postman Pat, Underground Ernie, Lunar Jim, Gordon the Gnome, Bottletop Bill, Mr. Men Show, Thomas the Tankengine, Roary the Racingcar, eh hello, say no bloody more! Its obvious what the problem is, isn’t it? The whole plotline is based around boys and men, the main character is male. There are sometimes female characters but they’re always the sidekick. Even when the main character is an inanimate object, like a train or car or robot, or an animal, its still blatantly a male character. Even if I had a son I would find these characters deeply sexist, they’re so 2d, strong, clever, they work hard in traditional male roles, they don’t show emotion, etc.
Where are the programmes with girls or women as the stars, where are the female role models? Although few and far between there are programmes where girls and women star such as Peppa Pig, the Little Princess, Bratz, Fifi and the Flowertots. But then these types of programmes are even more disturbing than the overtly sexist ones mentioned above. The female characters in them are kind, caring, passive, spoilt, and immature, they love cooking and ballet and very little more, and they’re all bloody pink!
And it’s not just me with my “warped” feminist mind making problems where there’s none, last year a comprehensive study of children’s television was done and it proved rather conclusively that it is a biased media representing a biased world.
The International Central Institute for Youth Educational Television (better known by its German acronym IZI) released findings on gender representation in 19,664 programmes from 24 countries in what was according to them “the worlds large quantitive media analysis of children’s television so far”. The survey showed very clearly that there IS a gender imbalance in favour of male characters in television programming for children in public and private programmes, domestic and international programmes and in animated and real life formats and that this is the trend all over the world. Surprisingly, to them perhaps, public and state broadcasters have a worse gender balance ratio (31%:69% female to male representation) than their private counterparts who stand at 33%:67%. The reports authors consider this a remarkable result “since public broadcasters – with the public mandate – have the responsibility for representing reality in a balanced way. The reality of human life is 51% female to 49% male (unfortunately the report does not consider those people who are trans, intersex or do not identify as male or female), which could not be found in children’s TV anywhere”.
The researchers found that girls and women account for only 32% of lead characters compared to 68% for boys and men. In some series girls and women are almost absent. Animation programmes have 87% male characters as compared to 13% female and this leads the researchers to conclude that “the reality of children’s television proves. that today gender equality is still a long way off”, but hey we already knew that.
And this is just the gender bias, children’s tv is also racist. 72% of all main characters in children programmers around the world are white. I would also like to know what the figures are in relation to representations of lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans people in children’s programming, as well as people with disabilities and I don’t think that I have ever seen any representation of any other family structures other than that of the traditional nuclear family.
Basically this report backs up what many of us have observed, the media, in this case children’s media, as a cultural vehicle only presents an extremely limited, sexist, racist, homophobic, transphobic, ableist view of society where women and girls are portrayed as beautiful, underweight, sexualised, modest, tidy and moral beings who are motivated by a romantic interest and are dependant on males who, in their turn are leaders, heterosexual, able-bodied and white!
What are we saying to our children? In particular what are we saying to our daughters? We’re saying to them that they can’t be builders, or postmen, or astronauts, or whatever they want, that they can merely aim to being feisty yet fashionable. Little girls are presented as only valid as princesses, pretty in pink, secondary to males. Our daughters are not secondary, they are the primary characters in their own lives, and so should be represented as such.
I hate it on so many levels, for what it does to me, my children, women, and the world. I got so fed up of shouting at the telly, of trying to critique the propaganda with my daughter, of seeing little fairy princess dvds, of seeing advertisements aimed at parents through their children, where girls wear pink and play with dolls and boys wear blue and like transformers. I was going to try to write a letter to the heads of broadcasting for children at the various tv channels, but I reckoned we’re too far gone for that. This rubbish has become an institutional part of our life and we just accept it. Even if I did complain, nothing would change.
Then about six months ago sister fate played her hand and provided a solution for my family that was so simple yet so effective. One night, thank the goddesses, our tv died. It choked, it spluttered and before our very eyes, it passed away. I admit at first I was gutted, what would I do without my almost daily dose of Eastenders, and Neighbours, and Home and Away, but then almost immediately I felt better. Molly cried for a while, but she quickly got over it, after all there are so many things for a five year old to do. She still loves pink, and dresses, and glitter and all that, but maybe that’s just what she likes. But instead of sitting in front of the tv, she spends hours drawing, or reading, or just playing. I have no more or no less time than I had before, but we are all a lot happier doing the things we want to do.
For a practical and immediate solution to the nightmare that is the television just throw the bloody thing out, after all the television will not be revolutionised!
The full report can be found at http://www.br-online.de/jugend/izi/english/publication/televizion/21_2008_E/21_2008_E.htm.
Butterflea, 2008
butterflea@riseup.net
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