Winnie The Pooh Stereotypes

Within different franchises, there are many diverse reboots that pose as positives and negatives towards the overall quality of the certain media or toy text. Focusing on the article: “The Production of Meaning through Peer Interaction: Children and Walt Disney’s Cinderella,” written by Lori Baker-Sperry, we get an overview of the different gender stereotypes seen throughout Disney productions. With the information taken from the article, the correlation between Winnie-the-Pooh and gender stereotypes is proven. These stereotypes are present throughout each adaptation of Winnie-the-Pooh, and make an impact on children, both positively and negatively. They demonstrate unrealistic expectations of the roles each gender should be taking on, however,

they also happen to signify that even Disney characters go through the struggles of stereotypes, therefore allowing children to be hopeful when faced with situations that seem impossible to conquer from their point of view. Winnie-the-Pooh started as a poem in 1924, and over the years turned into a cultural phenomenon. It eventually became a collection of stories, Walt Disney productions, numerous animated episodes and movies, and lastly, a line of merchandise including the ever so popular plush version of Winnie-the-Pooh himself. The article mentioned prior focuses on the idea that “gender roles in children’s literature have the capacity to create and reinforce “meanings” of femininity and masculinity (Baker-Sperry, 716). While reading the article, a passage that caught my attention is the following: “They often combined the fantasy world with their everyday lives to create a space for their own storytelling and/or interaction with others (Baker-Sperry, 722). This is an important part of the text to take into consideration as the point of what children are learning in franchises, in particular, the gender stereotypes, makes an impact on their everyday lives. Comparing this to Winnie-the-Pooh, we see that certain boy characters like Christopher Robin, and Tigger represent more masculine attributes such as being tough, and fearless, whereas a female character such as Kanga represent more feminine attributes, such as being kind-hearted and calm. This article proves that gender stereotyping is a common issue throughout franchises, even ones that seem innocent, such as Winnie-the-Pooh.
Throughout the different reboots of Winnie-the-Pooh, semiotics becomes interconnected in various ways.

Whether the viewer becomes aware of semiotics or not, they still play an important role throughout different franchises. For some children, noticing the ways in which symbols or signs are used to replace the meaning of an idea is a complicated task, however, for those who are able to achieve this, they happen to have an interpretation of the text in a completely different way. Teddy Bear, the first writing in the Winnie-the-Pooh franchise, includes various amounts of semiotics. Throughout this poem, a passage that was found to be representative of semiotics is: “We crossed the river and found a few-Yes, those are dragons all right,” said Pooh (Milne, 1).” Although it is likely that the majority of readers will believe that there were dragons in the river, this is not only unrealistic, but also unrepresentative of what the actual meaning is. As the poem continues, we learn that the dragon refers to a swan, and the reason it was interpreted as a dragon is because of how aggressive the swans were towards Winnie-the-Pooh. This passage proves that semiotics often become interconnected within such a simple text, and changes the view of the overall poem once understood by the reader. “The messages within these films…are reiterated through other sources…. (Lugo, 167).” Taken from an academic article, this quote represents that symbols and signs often stand in place for an idea, in

oppose to it being explained in a more straightforward way. Depending on the viewer, semiotics plays an important role when analyzing the overall meaning of a toy and/or media text. With this, we are able to see the meanings of texts in different ways, therefore allowing one’s imagination to wander as they interpret what will happen next.
The term cultural phenomenon can, and often will be viewed in many different ways.

Personally, I believe that a cultural phenomenon is a media and/or toy text that has been made extremely popular, and continues to be a popular commodity in society, a good example of this would be the Harry Potter franchise. Although Winnie-the-Pooh was, and always will be a large franchise, it had never gained the same amount of attention that the Harry Potter series gained; a large portion of this success gets attributed towards the advertising for Harry Potter. Gathered from the article: “Children as Consumers: Advertising and Marketing,” written by Sandra L. Calvert, we see the following statement that exemplifies the importance of advertising towards children: “…make children younger then eight vulnerable because they lack the cognitive skills to understand the persuasive intent of television and online advertisements.” This in an important passage to take into consideration when viewing the significance of advertising on children, as it proves that the majority of children under the age of eight are unable to understand the meaning of the advertisement, and may interpret it in a different way, therefore possibly harming their mental health. Throughout this article, it is clear that the author’s goal was to inform readers on how much of an impact advertisements make on children’s lives, especially when influencing them towards becoming fanatics of certain franchises. With the high

amount of advertising for Harry Potter, it is apparent why it became a larger cultural phenomenon than Winnie-the-Pooh. One of the largest ways the Harry Potter movie was advertised was through the books themselves. By having the books out prior to the movies, consumers already were aware of the franchise, therefore leading them to be excited and optimistic for the movies. So, with this being said, it is evident that advertising poses significance towards the study of media and toy texts for young people. The ways in which cultural phenomenon’s differ between franchises was shown, and help prove that with a large amount of advertising, a franchise has a greater chance of becoming successful within society.
Fern Johnson and Karren Young focused their theory upon Gendered Voices in Children’s Television Advertising. Since they believe that new inventions must always be made in order for consumers to spend more money towards a product, a connection is seen that relates directly to the previous paragraph on how advertising makes an impact on the overall success of a franchise. After learning about this theory, as well as the different ways a franchise becomes a cultural phenomenon, I was able to make my own interpretation on how this theory connects to, and emphasizes the idea of the impact of advertising on children. Unfortunately, children are bombarded with advertisements that happen to make a negative impact on not only their lives, but also their parents lives. One might wonder how? Well, when children are constantly seeing advertisements, they believe that in order to fit in with everyone else, they must have the products that are being advertised. This places a new level of pressure on parents, as they want to make their children happy, but often don’t have the money to be constantly buying new items seen within advertisements. Whether the advertisements are through the television, billboards, magazines, or even on other toys, they constantly surround children, therefore increasing their desire for each product. Although these advertisements pose as negative attributes in society rather than positive ones, they have helped many franchises gain their success as cultural phenomenons.