Transcript Gender and Children`s Literature

As you come in…
• Read and highlight the article ‘Language
and Gender : Boys and girls
• At the end of the article, make a note of
two observations you agreed with and
three ideas you found interesting.
Gender and Children’s
Literature
• "Everything we read...constructs us, makes us
who we are, by presenting our image of
ourselves as girls and women, as boys and
men" (Mem Fox, 1993).
• Besides being an important resource for
developing children's language skills, children's
books play a significant part in transmitting a
society's culture to children. Gender roles are an
important part of this culture. How genders are
portrayed in children's books thus contributes to
the image children develop of their own role and
that of their gender in society.
Contextual factors
• Purpose of the text (how might this link to
gender?)
• Genre of the text – it’s an adventure story
• Time of composition
Lexis
• Naming conventions
• Semantic fields - the storm vs Tom’s
actions
• Word choices attached to male and female
characters
Grammar
• Sentence types – declarative,
interrogative, imperative, exclamative
• Pre-modification
• Verb choices – active or passive?
Graphology
• Use of images
• How the images support the text
Discourse
What the characters say. Who speaks most?
What sentence functions do they use?
(statement, exclamation, question,
command)
What do they say?
What speech tags are used? For example
‘said’ , ‘exclaimed’.
Write your paragraph …..
•
How does this children’s story represent
gender?
Fill the card with your ideas. Remember to:
1. Use subject specific vocabulary
2. Quote examples from the text
3. Explore what your findings suggest about
gender representations
How Is Gender Portrayed in Children's
Literature?
•
Numerous studies analyzing children's literature find the majority of books dominated
by male figures. For example, Ernst (1995) did an analysis of titles of children's books
and found male names represented nearly twice as often as female names. She also
found that even books with female or gender-neutral names in their titles in fact,
frequently revolve around a male character. Many classics and popular stories where
girls are portrayed usually reflect stereotypes of masculine and feminine roles. Such
gender stereotypes are prevalent not only in mainstream children's books but also in
Newbery and Caldecott medal winners. Children's books frequently portray girls as
acted upon rather than active (Fox, 1993). Girls are represented as sweet, naive,
conforming, and dependent, while boys are typically described as strong,
adventurous, independent, and capable (Ernst, 1995; Jett-Simpson & Masland,
1993). Boys tend to have roles as fighters, adventurers and rescuers, while girls in
their passive role tend to be caretakers, mothers, princesses in need of rescuing, and
characters that support the male figure (Temple, 1993). Often, girl characters achieve
their goals because others help them, whereas boys do so because they
demonstrate ingenuity and/or perseverance. If females are initially represented as
active and assertive, they are often portrayed in a passive light toward the end of the
story. Girl characters who retain their active qualities are clearly the exception
(Rudman, 1995). Thus, studies indicate that not only are girls portrayed less often
than boys in children's books, but both genders are frequently presented in
stereotypical terms as well.
Your own story
• Rewrite the text for one of these pictures
making it politically correct.
Adventure at the Lighthouse
Take 2
•
Consider the following aspects of the text
1. The words and phrases used to describe the
characters. How many references are there? What
order do they occur in? What adjectives are used to
describe them?
2. The actions the characters perform. What verbs are
used? Can these be grouped in any way? What
adverbs are used to describe these actions?
3. What the characters say. Who speaks most? What
sentence functions do they use? (statement,
exclamation, question, command) What do they
say? What speech tags are used? For example
‘said’ , ‘exclaimed’.