Poster #69 - Male Default: When Neutral Characters are not so Neutral

• In Event: Poster Session 19

Abstract

A male default exists when people are asked to think of a person (Hamilton, 1991), when reading picture books (DeLoache et al., 1987), and when describing stuffed animals (Lambdin et al., 2003). This means that people generally think of male or masculine as the broader category and when gender cannot be determined for a stimulus it is assumed to be male. Understanding when this default is used and how it can be disrupted is important especially for media presented to children. Current gender representation is severely lacking in gender parity, with female to male ratios ranging from 1:1.4, in children's books (Lindsay, submitted), to as high as 6:1, in video games (Downs & Smith, 2010). Although some children's books appear to be presenting gender-neutral characters, these characters are being identified as male (Lindsay, under review).

The study to be presented asked participants to tell a story about an image from a children's picture book. These images tested perception of stereotypical gender and neutral characters. Participants wrote a story about the image they saw which were then coded for use of gendered or neutral pronouns. The images which were explicitly male and female gender showed significantly different response patterns indicating that participants recognized the gender information. The neutral images were not significantly different from the male image, indicating that participants more often assumed neutral characters were male. Future research needs to address how to present characters that may be viewed as other than male without exacerbating underrepresentation or harmful stereotypes.Understanding which features contribute to viewing a character as gender-ambiguous could create a pathway for authors, illustrators, and other creators of child-directed media, to develop media that children of any gender may identify with. Children who read stories about same-gendered characters have increases in their self-esteem (Ochman, 1996). Being able to create gender-ambiguous characters would help increase parity by allowing children to assign their own gender to characters, as well as decrease the effects of stereotyping by broadening the genders associated with certain traits and behaviors.

Author

• Jennifer Lindsay, Colgate University
  Presenting Author