Media and Gender Stereotypes Most adults are aware of how influential the media is on children, a notion that is intimidating in today’s world, as currently children have access to numerous types of media. With this massive availability of media, school-aged children are still predominantly impacted by television, watching it around three hours a day (Hentges & Case, 2013). This represents a massive power of the almighty television and puts increased pressure on parents to regulate what is and is not appropriate for them to be exposed to. This is more than just things like sex or violence, but also refers to subtler forces within media that can influence their minds and development—such as representations of gender. How characters on television act, the things they say, and how they dress can be tremendously influential to children regarding what is and is not acceptable behavior for boys versus girls. This paper will examine two shows on the Disney channel: Liv and Maddie (2013-2017) and Austin and Ally (2011-2016) in terms of their portrayals of acceptable feminine versus acceptable masculine behavior. Most notably this paper will attempt to determine if any of the characters were portrayed in gender-stereotyped roles.

The show Liv and Maddie features a show about identical twins (played by one actress, Dove Cameron). Liv is an actress who has moved back to her home town after starring on television series in Los Angeles for several years, and Maddie is her twin who stayed in the hometown, living a more normal life. Episode 13 from season one was watched (“Move a Rooney”). One could argue that this is a show that does not rely heavily on gender stereotypes as the female characters engage in the bulk of the action and in all the exciting plot activities. It is a show about two female characters and so they dominate...

However, things become a bit murkier when it comes to the subtleties of gender representation on the show. Both characters are dressed in very feminine ways, almost like little dolls. Liv, the character who is essentially a young Hollywood starlet, is dressed super-feminine with long curls put throughout out her hair, pretty or sometimes even borderline sexy dresses, and a slightly more air-heady way of speaking. Her appearance is in keeping with the Disney stereotype of making their female leads “pretty as a princess” (Coyne & Linder, 2016). Liv often has a heightened focus on boys and all factors that connect to more romantic interests and issues on the show. Maddie is the sister who at times is dressed down, sometimes looking more masculine, but often just wearing the pants-equivalent of Liv’s outfit. She wears glasses and is portrayed as intelligent, though this can create a troublesome stereotype that suggests girls who do not wear glasses are not smart.
In the episode watched, Liv’s opening lines in the first scene concerned whether or not her sister was aware that a supporting character on the show actually liked her (and how excited she was that he lent her his jacket). The lending of the jacket from a handsome supporting male character to Maddie, one of the leads, happened within the first few minutes of the show. While this does constitute a “helping behavior” and one could argue that it’s good to see men engaging in helping behaviors on TV, as it is traditionally something ascribed to women, this is still a very gendered action. Women don’t really have the ability to return the favor to men when men are cold. The problem with this episode in regards to gender stereotypes is that the episode opens with two young…