Flawed Fathers and Model Mothers: Portrayals of Parenting in Mainstream Children's Films

• In Event: Sociology of Sex and Gender Section Open Call Paper Session-Gender, Media, and Power: Representation, Resistance, and Ideology

Abstract

Children’s films are an important site for exploring ideas about gender and parenting because they both reflect mainstream understandings and teaching them to audience members. In this paper, we examine animated films produced during the 25-year period between 2000 and 2024 that: 1) were rated G or PG; 2) grossed over $150 million in the United States; and 3) featured a main character under the age of 18 (n=47). We found that most films (n=39) examined from this 25-year period had at least one parental main character and that there were distinctly gendered patterns in their portrayals. Whereas animated films in previous decades often exhibited what we call the “missing mom” and “distant dad” tropes, the majority (62%) of children’s films we analyzed feature two-parent families with actively involved mothers and fathers. These newer films (re)produce different, yet still distinctly gendered ideas of parenting through tropes we term “model mothers” and “flawed fathers.” Mothers in these films are usually presented as nurturing, affectionate, and competent caregivers who communicate well with, and are viewed positively by, their child(ren); they are nearly perfect and rarely make mistakes. By contrast, “flawed fathers” are shown as fumbling and incompetent in the films’ beginnings, often struggling to communicate with and support their child(ren), who are often both disappointed in, and disappointing to, their fathers. However, over the course of the films, these flawed father characters tend to grow emotionally and develop parenting skills with the help of their wives and child(ren). These tropes portray women as innately capable or “born parents” and men as “learning parents” who must be socialized through lessons from women and girls in their lives, thereby contributing to impossibly high parenting standards for women and exceedingly low standards for men while reproducing binary and essentialist understandings of gender.

Authors

• Laurel Westbrook, University of California, Santa Barbara

• Jennifer Randles, California State University-Fresno