Animation and socialization process: Gender role portrayal on cartoon network

Abstract

Animated cartoons for young children have always been significant in the life of many children all over the world. The present research is conducted to investigate the gender representation of male and female characters in the animated cartoons broadcasted from Cartoon Network, the worldwide popular channel for children. This popular TV genre is broadcasted in different languages from Japan, Pakistan, Australia, Taiwan, Korea, Malaysia, India and many other countries of Asia and pacific as well. Content analysis of selected animated genre or cartoons broadcasted from the month of Jan to July, 2013 is done. The objective of this paper is to examine the representation of male and female characters in children's animated genre. The universe for the present article is the most popular cartoon channel for children. The technique of purposive sampling is used to analyze the data and to represent the findings of the research. The relationship among the data collected is also explored. The findings of the study reveal that the worldwide popular animated cartoon channel for children portrays the male and female characters in a biased and stereotypical way, which to a certain extent play an important role in socialization process for shaping and constructing ideas about male and female's position and characteristics in society.