Gender representations

Gender Representation
(i) Developmental Importance
In the longer term television has the potential to shape children’s sex-role attitudes... more women should be presented on television (Tannis, Macbeth, Williams 1986, in Gunter, McAleer 1990:64)
It is true that for most children in our society, television offers many more opportunities to view differences in sex-role relationships, than does their immediate, everyday world of reference. As such its potential influence upon their outlook should not be overlooked or dismissed. Indeed for many, if not most, children gender identification is perhaps the most fundamental and salient of all the frames of self reference available. Above all it is understood that it will remain as a constant, despite changes in other developmental areas; from childhood to adulthood gender will remain, and as such is understandably regarded as a key element of the 'self' and utilized as a primary building block towards the development of a sense of 'place' in the world. Given that gender identification is employed from an early age, as a basic strategy in the child’s negotiation of a vast array of complex social relationships, and that "the cultures of childhood... are enmeshed in the larger divisions of the social world" (Richards 1991, in Buckingham, ed. 1993:45), it seems somewhat unrealistic to expect the child to question stereotypical representation. Indeed as an area of such stability, it may well be argued that children actually like and enjoy 'being gendered', continually seeking reinforcements which the media would perhaps be foolish to ignore. Throughout the world children actively seek reinforcements as "futures where the power of adulthood will be available" (Richards 1991, in Buckingham, ed. 1993:39). 'Boys do choose blue and girls do choose pink', actively making selections for their own uses and purposes, be they socialization, information, escapism or identification; as active interpreters, if not endorsers, of their own environment then should their judgements be questioned?