Gender And Sexuality In Children's Media Analysis

The theoretical framework I use for this paper originates from an analysis of media depictions of sex, gender, and sexuality in programs whose primary audience is children or young adults. Although my focus is on queer identities, those contained within the LQBTQIA umbrella, I will analyze all depictions of sex, gender, and sexuality. Kelso (2015) provided me with a comprehensive analysis of the current representation of gender-variant individuals in pre-adolescent children’s media today. The analysis he provided gives me a sense of the amount and type of representations that are depicted on the screens watched by children i.e. film and television, as well as, the progression of these depictions through time. Li-Vollmer and LaPointe (2003)

Queering is to reframe and so reinterpret what is being shown in order to pick up on non-normative themes. The piece by Pugh and Wallace (2006) is important to my analysis because it focuses on how the queering of a work of fiction that upholds gender and sexulaity normativeity that is intended for a younger audience can be accomplished. Schildcrout (2008) offers an account of an older child’s television show and the ways in which queer identities are depicted. They find that most of the non-conforming play with gender and sexuality were used for a comedic effect and that those who transgressed were always set ‘straight’ in the end. All of these articles center on media representations of queer identities and I will use them to better understand the types of representation and the different ways media can be interpreted. Since I am looking at the depiction of sex, gender, and sexuality in general, these pieces will give me a sense of what to look out for and multiple ways of understanding what is being

Horkheimer and Adorno (1944) suggest that since audiences passively consume culture produced by powerful institutions, these media representations which conform to the social hierarchy end up reinforcing the status quo of the system. In the case of Adventure Time, this concept relates in that children would passively accept and mirror the depictions of gender and sexuality on screen. Children are especially vulnerable to the influence of media because they are in the early stages of forming their identities and of understanding the expected way of existing in society (Kelso, 1059-1060). Although children may be influenced by the media to conform to normative ideologies, I also draw on Hall (1995) to inform my analysis. Hall’s article is important because it focuses on the possibility of a sort of play when it comes to interpreting media, particularly reinterpreting among those individuals whose identities are left out of the mainstream which connects to the idea of queering media. Since children are the target audience for Adventure Time, it is beneficial to consider the ways a child may take what is being depicted, either at face value or an alternate