Rescuing our kids from too much princess glitter and camo gear: TV
Posted May 28th, 2009 by Morra Aarons-MeleWhen I was a kid I wasn’t allowed to watch anything but PBS. I was completely out of the loop and constantly teased for my lameness. I will never do that to my kids!
Kids loving TV is a reality for parents, and it can be a positive force. But a SurveyUSA poll of 1000 parents finds that more children are spending time with media at a much younger age and for much longer periods of time than what is recommended by experts. According to the survey, 62% of preschoolers spend two or more hours with media per day while 69% of children seven years or older spend two or more hours with media per day. Little girls today are more sexualized than ever, and maybe because they idolize kids TV stars like Miley Cyrus or the Jonas brothers’ girlfriends. Little girls are “girlier” than ever, more princessy and glittery than ever. “Every girl goes through a princess phase,” says my mom, and yes, when I was five, I only wore pink for a whole year. But today’s princesses now have a scary sexy edge. I have a little boy- his little onesies are already mostly sports-themed and he can’t even walk! And when he starts to watch TV, I’ll have an even harder time letting him wear colors besides blue and camouflage.
Research from a new non-profit called TrueChild.org confirms my fears. “we know that narrow and extreme images and messages, including the hypersexualization of girls and emphasis on war-ready toughness for boys, is causing a lot of harm to children,” says Tammy Palazzo, who heads research for TrueChild. These limiting and unrealistic “ideals” are strongly linked to eating disorders, bullying, early sexual activity and other problems that surface in the tween and teen years as children struggle to conform.
The survey of 1000 parents finds kids are watching more shows, and parents are worried about the shows’ effects. Parents with daughters under the age of six were three times more likely to worry about their daughters becoming sexually active at a young age as a result of the images they see than parents with school-age and tween daughters (who I guess are already indoctrinated?). Parents with sons under the age of six were five times more likely to worry about their sons becoming bullies as a result of the images they see than parents with school-aged and tween sons. The children’s TV analysis of popular shows from Jonas to iCarly, Higglytown Heroes to Go Diego Go revealed that:
• 24 school-aged programs reviewed, only six (25%) had exclusive girl leads.
• Of the major and minor characters, girls represented 28% to boy’s 72% and 60% to boy’s 40% of the minor characters, respectively.
• In general, the major and minor girl characters fell into three main archetypes: the boy-crazy beauty queen, the nagging and annoying friend or sister of the male lead, or the nerdy girl. In contrast, when leading girl characters were created, the networks got it right.
• The top scoring show in the school-aged category was iCarly on Nickelodeon, a show that features strong, confident girls who are technologically savvy, creative and bright. That’s so Raven on the Disney Network also received high marks.
The shows’ stereotypes harm boys and girls.
“While boys have the lion’s share of roles, in fact, the creativity surrounding their characters is stagnant. Most of those characters fall into two categories: the central lead boy who the girls love or the sidekick goofy boy who loves girls, but is chronically tongue-tied.
There are some bright spots, Go Diego Go (Noggin) edged out Dora the Explorer (Noggin) for the highest grade– the original Dora creators (new, thinner, urban tween Dora aside) did just that much better in creating a more expansive boy character when they created Diego. Another breakout character is Josh from Drake and Josh on Nickelodeon. He is far more vulnerable and emotional than most boy characters on television. He also breaks out of the typical body type. “
And, although his recent escapade into Burger King land was a scandal, SpongeBob of SpongeBob SquarePants, also on Nickelodeon, is “another refreshing breakout male character.” SpongeBob exhibits a broad range of emotional and is exceedingly vulnerable. He is willing to talk about his fears and readily asks for help.
Go Spongebob! Who knew.
Both MomsRising and TrueChild want to provide our kids with good role models on TV. This isn’t about isolating our kids from pop culture, it’s about bringing about positive culture change.
What would you tell the producers of popular children’s shows?
You can join TrueChild founder Eliabeth Birch and Tammy Palazzo tonight at 7:30 Eastern for a Twittercast to talk about Tween/kids TV and stereotypes and how to fix it
On Twitter, use #TrueChild and visit tweetchat.com/room/TrueChild
11 Comments
October 6, 2009 at 9:18 am by EKUnless I missed it, no one mentioned reading instead of television. I am the mother of a 15 year old. In her early years we did not have cable. Although PBS was available we spent very little time watching television. We read to our daughter. As a result, she is an avid reader, an honor student, athlete and a great young lady. We now have cable and yes we watch a few programs. We asked her if she wanted a television in her room and her reply was no it would be a waste of money. I think that some television programs have merit but I also think that kids can get addicted to watching tv. Could that be why obesity is prevalent amongst our young people today??
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September 21, 2009 at 4:27 pm by AshleyMy daughter will be two next month. I’m a younger mom, (just turned 21) and wasn’t sure how to get her involved in learning songs and dancing and other fun things of that nature. We watch Barney almost every day and we own a few Barney dvd’s. With the help of that show, basically giving me ideas of things to teach her and fun songs to sing and dance to, she can identify more animals than most older children and can sing the tunes to numerous songs. We always watch them together and she never watches anything that isn’t appropriate or educational. Tv can be a god send when used correctly and not just as a baby sitter.
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August 24, 2009 at 8:07 pm by TiffanyWatching television wastes time that could be better spent in imaginative play, making crafts, reading, running around outside or sitting and just talking to each other.
I’d never claim that I don’t like TV. I like it alot, and that’s the problem. I never want my LO to feel that he’s bored if he’s not being entertained. I want him to know how to entertain himself.
And from what I’ve read, television that’s on constantly as ‘background noise’ is not good at all.
They’re paying more attention than you think, and studies have shown that when kids play in the same room where a TV is on, they get less involved in the play & focus on that play for a shorter period of time.
Television is not evil, but it should be used carefully & with purpose. And as little as possible.
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August 16, 2009 at 2:58 pm by KatherineI think people that pretend they don’t enjoy tv are full of crap. I get so sick of hearing people say we don’t watch tv and its really not that big of a deal. TV can be very educational, just like computers. I”m all about enjoying life and unplugging the tv every once and a while. But without TV we may not have any great film directors.
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July 7, 2009 at 10:04 pm by Geralyn Bywater McLaughlinAs a teacher, I observed first hand the harmful effects of media on young children. I documented it in the recent article “Six, Going on Sixteen” for Rethinking Schools.
Many parents leave the TV on for background noise, but the harmful effects of that are now being documented. http://www.empoweredbyplay.org/2009/06/two-good-reasons-to-cut-cable.html
I have two young sons and have also given up TV. I get my news from other sources (newspapers, NPR, internet) and my sports updates from my dad! My boys watch show I select. We watch DVDs and they only watch with me…never alone. It is do-able because we only watch an hour or two a week (a bit more in the winter!). The boys know how to entertain themselves.
PBS worries me these days because of the ridiculous amount of toy tie-ins (not to mention clothes, room decor, lunch boxes, food, etc!!!). PBS has taken advantage of parents’ trust when they market expensive electronic Elmo toys and videos for babies (Sesame Workshop). These products are not good for children and do not support healthy development.
I am a mom, now working hard to protect and promote imaginative play!
Geralyn
http://empoweredbyplay.org
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June 2, 2009 at 10:49 am by PetulaI really think it is just up to the parents what and how much TV their children watch. My daughter is 4 years old and the only channels that are on are watch Noggin and PBS Sprout (at least while she is awake). The TV is on all the time at our house but mostly for background noise. She doesn’t pay much attention to it. We play games, read books and do other things together. I personally am not worried about the messages that supposedly are being sent from the TV shows because I try to make sure that my daughter understands that most of what is on TV is not real. I really think that if you are giving your child good grounding, there is not much to worry about as far as outside influences.
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May 29, 2009 at 1:28 pm by AmberOur TV died a little more than 6 months ago, and we decided to see how long we can last without it. We’ve made it this far, and I love it. It’s eliminated a lot of my daily battles with my daughter. And I hated the messages TV was giving her, too.
I am not looking to socially ostracize my daughter. But right now she’s really young, and being TV-free hasn’t yet been a problem. I’m not sure what I will do if that changes. I sort of think that if it’s not one thing it’s another. I was teased and angry about the healthy food my mom insisted on. My husband was teased about the jogging pants he wore. Having TV does not guarantee social cohesion and acceptance, I’m afraid.
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Julie Reply:
June 2nd, 2009 at 10:07 am
@Amber,
Good for you!! You’ve got it right!!
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I’m a firm believer in just turning the thing off, cancelling cable and enjoying life. We didn’t have TV for 6 years (2 of those with a small child) and jumped back on the very slippery slope in 2004. We saw ourselves increasingly using TV as a crutch to get thru the afternoon, then the morning, then both morning of the weekend…
This year we’ve pulled the plug, again. In February, we just told our girls there was no more cartoons, just news. That was it: they didn’t ask again. In ways I think they were grateful! Now it’s our turn: the end of our cable days has arrived…on May 27 to be exact.
Just stop watching and you won’t have to worry about content!
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Julie Reply:
June 2nd, 2009 at 10:08 am
@Hilary,
Good for you!! You’ve got it right!!
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MR Reply:
June 2nd, 2009 at 12:40 pm
@Hilary, I applaud you for unplugging your lives!! I agree that you’ve got it right as well.
Further, it’s my opinion that it is not for “society/media” to dictate to me or my kids morals, behaviors, ideas on who they should be, etc., etc… That is my job as a parent and I would never give that away to the networks.
Exposing our children to garbage (including the commercials in between the garbage) just so they can “fit in” is completely idiotic. When you stop watching, you stop caring and when you stop caring you are free to just be yourself. That is what I hope to instill in my children.
We are a PBS only family and I appreciate the intelligent programming that is available via this “network”. I feel it’s too bad the author of this article could not, and still does not see the value of it – perhaps it was it’s programming influence that prepared her to become a superior writer? Curious, what avenue would she have taken had she been raised on Hanna Montana??
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