Equally Super?: Gender-Role Stereotyping of Superheroes in Children's Animated Programs

Abstract

This study analyzes portrayals of female and male superheroes in children's cartoons. Specifically, this study investigated whether or not animated superheroes were portrayed in gender-role stereotypical ways. Coders analyzed 70 characters from 160 hours of recorded programming. Surprisingly, the researchers found few instances of traditional gender-role stereotyping. However, a trend toward defining “superheroics” in strictly traditional masculine terms was noted. Various media theories are used to discuss the potential effects of these portrayals.