How is gender represented in Children's Literature?

Section B Revision

Female vs. Male characters

• My Naughty Little Sister Does Knitting: male to female characters = 2:3 (30s and 50s = more rep. than 40s and 60s, Clark et al.)

• Flat Stanley: only one female character (“invisible”, Weitzman 1972), and her role in the story is as a wife and mother (stereotypes)

• Hit the Ball Duck: all characters are (assumed to be) male (underrepresentation, Weitzman 1972 → 2005, so diverges from Heinz and LeGrange saying underrepresentation is no longer a big deal in children’s books)

• The Mystery of the Mosaic: inciting incident of the series is Ella and Ethan’s mum’s job (diverges from stereotypes, diverges from “men engaged in a wide range of occupations whereas women were depicted as wives and mothers", Weitzman)

Use of Verbs

• Flat Stanley: Mrs Lambchop “began to cry” vs. no male characters in text crying → stereotype that women = more emotional than men (“females [in children’s literature] often displayed outbursts of crying” while “fear or sadness was never expressed in the form of tears by males”, Le Grange)

  • reflects social atitudes: perceived idea → “invisible ideologies” (Aina and Cameron)

• Hit the Ball Duck: semantic field of sport and action (“hit”, “hurls”, “climb” etc.) → stereotype that active/sporty hobbies are masculine (“active and adventurous”, Weitzman 1972); Duck’s verb phrases “come on” and “at least we can still play” = desperate to play baseball → “active and adventurous”

  • Similarly, Flat Stanley: Arthur and Stanley both try to “slide under a door” = “active and adventurous”

• My Naughty Little Sister Does Knitting: verb phrase “always knitting” about Mrs Jones → stereotypically ‘feminine’ hobby

Subject and Object Position

• Flat Stanley: Mrs Lambchop often object of sentences (“to his mother”, “with Mrs Lambchop”) = passive role (women presented as “passive”, Weitzman 1972; women involved in “instrumental activities” but still “passive and dependent”, Kortenhaus and Demarest)

  • Similarly they use “Mr and Mrs” → male firstness (Spender)

• The Mystery of the Mosaic: “Ella and her twin brother, Ethan” Ella = first (diverges from “male firstness” (Spender) & dominance approach), “her twin brother” = presented through his relationship to her (diverges from depiction of women as “supplementary to men”, Weitzman 1972)

  • The Mystery of the Mosaic: “Ella and Ethan” and “Ethan and Ella” used seemingly interchangeably (more balanced, equal portrayal of gender dynamics; diverges from “male firstness”, Spender)

• A Squash and a Squeeze: the lady’s house= frequently direct object of sentence (stereotypical association between women and the home?)

Sentence Moods/Voices

• A Squash and a Squeeze: the lady uses the interrogative mood “won’t you help me please?” vs. man uses imperative mood “take in your hen.” (dominance approach, Spender; men “lead and rescue” while women are “passive and submissive”, Weitzman; even when the “female character is cast in a leading role, subtle depictions would occur in which the male character exerted dominance [...] indicating that the power still lies with the male character”, Le Grange → “results in the perception that females are inferior and incompetent”, Diekmann and Murnen)

• Hit the Ball Duck: every sentence is in the active voice (boys = “active and adventurous”, Weitzman); exclamative mood “WATCH HOW FAR THIS GOES!” and “DUCK YOUR OUT!” shows dedication to & excitement and game (stereotype for men to be very sporty + also competitive)

• Hit the Ball Duck: Duck uses exclamative “don’t forget me"!” when group is saving equipment (conforms: performing masculinity (Butler) by wanting to be seen leading and rescuing; diverging: working as a team = stereotypically feminine)

• A Squash and a Squeeze: the lady uses the exclamative “stop, I implore!” (asserting dominance over male character w/ language, subverting gender norms and the dominance approach)

• Flat Stanley: Stanley uses imperative mood “lower me” → “boys appear to lead and rescue” (Weitzman)

Modality

• Flat Stanley: Stanley uses epistemic modality “I will look for the ring” → “boys appear to lead and rescue” (Weitzman)

• Hit the Ball Duck: epistemic modality “I’ll bat first” → “boys appear to lead and rescue” (Weitzman)

• The Mystery of the Mosaic: deontic modality "had to travel with her", suggesting obligation with a negative connotation that implies that they did not want to go (through the use of deontic over buloumaic modality) -> the connotation that Jo's family are obligated to travel with her against their will could be interpreted as presenting her as demanding/uncompromising/unempathetic, which reflects the stereotype that women are selfish for wanting to pursue their careers rather than focusing all of their energy on their families, and reflects how society punishes women for wanting successful careers while also being mothers under the patriarchy

Naming

• A Squash and a Squeeze: “little old lady” vs. “wise old man” (asymmetry, gendered age stereotypes)

• My Naughty Little Sister Does Knitting: “naughty little sister” = presents “naughty” as marker of identity (diverges from depictions of female characters as “passive”, Weitzman)

  • However marking this aspect of identity draws attention to it as non-normative which “reconfirms the binarism implied in the construction of normative masculinity and normative femininity”, thus “reinforcing the same norms it purports to subvert” (Zanfabro 2017)

  • little sister also referred to as “that fidgety child” → article “that” others her for being “fidgety” and thus marks it as a non-normative characteristic and further presents her as “troubled” because of it (Zanfabro)

Politeness

• My Naughty Little Sister Does Knitting AND A Squash and a Squeeze: “would you please teach me” and “won’t you help me, please?” respectively (appeals to negative face, Brown and Levinson → politeness → stereotypes about women)

Formality

• A Squash and a Squeeze: “won’t you help me, please” syntax = very formal (could reflect gender OR age stereotypes)

• The Mystery of the Mosaic: “the twins’ mother” vs. “dad” (asymmetry in formality → stereotype that women = more formal than men, Labov, Trudgill; stereotype of fathers as the ‘fun parent)

Prosodics (diverging)

• Flat Stanley: Mrs Lambchop speaks “sharply” to the police officers (subverts depictions of women as “passive and submissive”, Weitzman 1972)

• The Mystery of the Mosaic: Ella jokes “with a sneaky smile” (diverges from depictions of women “lacking a sense of humour”, Lakoff)

  • Diary of a Wimpy Kid: reported speech (diary conventions (stereotypically ‘feminine’) while performing masculine identity)

Prosodics (conforming)

• A Squash and a Squeeze: lady = “cried” vs. man = “said” (asymmetry, presents female character as more overly emotional)

• Hit the Ball Duck: male characters “shout” “bellow” “yell” etc. (loudness=presents masculinity as aggressive?)

Parenting Representations

• Flat Stanley: Mr Lambchop says “expensive'“ “cheaper” and is the only character who is associated with finance (stereotypical gender roles → men = breadwinners)

  • can further be seen when he “comes home from the office”

  • especially since Mrs Lambchop has no job outside of housewife/mother

    • "men engaged in a wide variety of occupations whereas women were depicted as wives and mothers" (Weitzman 1972)

• Flat Stanley: Mrs Lambchop asks Stanley “are you alright?” (the parent of the two who focuses on feelings → stereotype that mothers are more present and nurturing than fathers, Zhai et al.)

• The Mystery of the Mosaic: Mr Briar jokes around w/ Ella (diverges from fathers as “stoic actors”, Anderson and Hamilton; diverges from "mother-children bond is constructed to be much tighter than the father-children bond", Zhai et al.); Mr Briar homeschools and takes care of twins while Mrs Briar works (subverts norms of fathers as "largely absent from parenting duties”, Zhai et al. and have "much less obligation to care for the children”, LeGrange)

• Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Greg’s dad “always getting on [him]” and “started hussling [him]” (overbearing → diverges from fathers as "largely absent from parenting duties", Zhai et al.)

  • when dad is nagging Greg, Greg says “as usual” suggesting it is a common occurrence (overbearing)

  • Rowley’s dad is also presented as overbearing → strict about what kind of video games they can play

Hobbies and Interests

• Hit the Ball Duck AND Diary of a Wimpy Kid: male characters have interests in stereotypically masculine hobbies (baseball and sports/car-related video games respectively)

  • however Greg likes video games because you can play “football and soccer” without getting “all hot and sweaty” → link to gender performativity (Butler)

• My Naughty Little Sister Does Knitting: the sister has a doll → stereotypically ‘feminine’ children’s toy; she doesn’t want to learn knitting (stereotypically ‘feminine’ hobby therefore non-normative desire); she wants to learn knitting to make things “all by herself” (diverges from norms as women weren’t allowed much independence back then)

• Flat Stanley: boys presented as “active and adventurous” (Weitzman 1972) ; the event that happens to Mrs. Lambchop is her "favourite ring" falling through a grate (jewelery is a stereotypical 'feminine' interest)

Emotions

• Flat Stanley: “Mrs Lambchop began to cry” vs no male characters crying (“females often expressed outbursts of crying or exasperation […] fear or sadness was never expressed in the form of tears by males"“, Le Grange); Police officer calls Mrs Lambchop “cuckoo” (euphemism/metaphor for calling her crazy → stereotype that women are ‘over emotional’ → reflects how women in wider society are treated as crazy or overreacting for going outside of norms); The police officer's’ apology doesn’t contain the word “sorry” (could reflect stereotype that men are less open to talking about emotions); Mrs Lambchop is the one of Stanley’s parents who asks about his feelings “are you alright?” (the mother is focused on the emotions → link to gender stereotypes)

• Hit the Ball Duck: “WATCH HOW FAR THIS GOES!” exclamative + all caps graphology = strongly excited (diverges from stereotype of men as more stoic and less capable of showing their emotions

• A Squash and a Squeeze: “I’m tearing my hair out!” (emotional response → presents her as very emotional especially in comparison to the man who remains unexpressive/stoic throughout the book → stereotype that women are overly emotion and have “outbursts” of “exasperation”, Le Grange)

  • can further be seen in her use of the exclamative mood i.e. “stop, I implore!”

• The Mystery of the Mosaic: Ella tries to “push all those [negative] thoughts out of her mind” (repressing emotions = diverges from stereotypical portrayals of female characters who “displayed outbursts […]which were then interpreted as overreaction” while male characters are displayed with an “inability to express emotion as it was deemed humiliating not to be ‘tough’”, Le Grange); both Ella and Ethan feel “sad and mad” (both depicted as equally emotional → diverges from stereotype that women are more emotional than men)

Power Dynamics

• Flat Stanley: Stanley uses imperative mood “lower me” and epistemic modality “I will look for the ring” → “boys appear to lead and rescue” (Weitzman); Mrs. Lambchop is the indirect object in the sentence describing Stanely preparing to rescue her ring, which reflects Kortenhaus and Demarest's research showing that female characters are depicted in instrumental activities with passive and dependent roles; Police officers assert dominance over Mrs Lambchop and undermine her → "male [characters] exerted [their] dominance in order to disrespect or disempower the female, indicating the power still lies with the male character" (LeGrange 2015) (however the officers are critisised for there actions/words and then apologise, so this depiction could be a critique of gender stereotypes and misogyny; Mr. Lambchop brought home "an enormous brown-paper envelope", presenting him as a problem-solver, ( stereotype that men solve problems and "appear to lead and rescue",Weitzman 1972 → emphasised Mrs. Lambchop waiting for Stanely getting her ring from the shaft and only having a minor, assistive role in its retrieval)

• Flat Stanely: Mrs. Lambchop speaks “sharply” to the police officers and uses the exclamative mood (asserting dominance over them → diverges from dominance approach, Spender; diverges from depiction of male characters as “assertive” and female characters as “passive”, Weitzman)

• Hit the Ball Duck: epistemic modality “I’ll bat first” → “boys appear to lead and rescue” (Weitzman); noun “team” = working together = balanced power; “don’t forget me” = reinforcing masculinity through trying to be in a leading/rescuing role

• A Squash and a Squeeze: male character instructing female character throughout book mostly shown through sentence mood (even though she is protagonist → "portrayed in instrumental activities, but in passive and dependent roles", Kortenhaus and Demarest)