Lexington Books
Pages: 280
•
Trim: 6¼ x 9⅜
978-1-4985-3957-9 • Hardback • September 2017 • $116.00 • (£89.00)
978-1-4985-3959-3 • Paperback • June 2019 • $47.99 • (£37.00)
978-1-4985-3958-6 • eBook • September 2017 • $45.50 • (£35.00)
CarrieLynn D. Reinhard is associate professor in the Department of Communication Arts and Sciences at Dominican University.
Christopher J. Olson is Ph.D. student in the English Department at the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee with a media, cinema, and digital studies concentration.
Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction: Looking Past Stereotypes of Gender Identity and Sexuality in Children’s Media—CarrieLynn D. Reinhard, Christopher J. Olson, and Susan G. Kahlenberg
Chapter 1: SheZow: Costume Changes and Gender Non-Conformity—Rebecca Feasey
Chapter 2: A Little Queer: Ambivalence and the Work of Gender Play in Children’s Literature— Jennifer Miller
Chapter 3: Hungry for Change: Analysis and Application of The Hunger Games—Chrys Egan
Chapter 4: “I’ll Show You What a Girl Is”: Analyzing Non-Stereotypical Representations of Gender on Liv & Maddie—Nancy Bressler
Chapter 5: “She really knows her stuff”: Counter-hegemonic Messages about Gender in Disney Junior’s Doc McStuffins—Jerralyn R. R. Moudry
Chapter 6: Female Gender Modeling Between Now and Then: Two Western Cartoons and Their Resonance with an Arab Culture—Fatima Q. Al Hattami and Richard J. Schaefer
Chapter 7: Cold, Tactless, Brave, Heroic, Technowizards: The New Feminine of Mattel’s Fashion Dolls—Sara Austin
Chapter 8: Feroumont’s, Hubert’s and Kerascoët’s Heroines: Debunking the Myths of Happiness in Romantic Fairy Tales and Romance Novels—Annick Pellegrin
Chapter 9: “Let It Go”?: Re-Inventing the Disney Fairy Tale in Frozen—Heike Steinhoff
Chapter 10: A Computer Boy or a Computer Girl?: Adventure Time, BMO and Gender Fluidity—Christopher J. Olson and CarrieLynn D. Reinhard
Chapter 11: Sexualized Sponges: SpongeBob SquarePants and Gender Identity—Claire Burdfield
Chapter 12: Quantification of Gender: Gender Counter-Stereotypes Across Disney and Nickelodeon Networks Using Content Analysis—Susan G. Kahlenberg
Chapter 13: “It’s a Bird! It’s a Plane! It’s a Transgender Superhero!”: Transgender Characters in Marvel, DC, and Image Comics—Thomas J Billard and Brian L. MacAuley
Conclusion: New Role Models for Children? —Christopher J. Olson
About the Editors and Contributors
This book challenges our thinking about gender fluidity, heteronormativity, and sexuality by showcasing their presence in innovative media content for children. The contributors’ in-depth, creative analyses of case studies can enable readers to understand how children’s screens have the potential to promote gender equity!
— Dafna Lemish, Rutgers University
As someone who studies gender, media, and children (and a parent of five kids), I really appreciated this book's focus on specific programs that depict positive messages regarding gender and/or sexuality. A great resource for scholars and parents alike. Two thumbs up!
— Sarah M. Coyne, PhD, professor, Associate Director, School of Family Life, Brigham Young University
As a professor of children's literature and a teacher-educator who believes that it is crucial for youth to see themselves represented in literature and other media, I find Heroes, Heroines, and Everything in Between refreshing and regret that I could not discuss every chapter here. I appreciate the work that contributors have done to help reveal successes and failures regarding representations of gender and sexuality. We can only hope that readers of this collection and others address the areas for future scholarship listed by Olson in his conclusion to this collection.
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Heroes, Heroines, and Everything in Between includes exciting examples of how children’s entertainment media has become more inclusive, tolerant, and accepting of those who may not feel as though they fit in one of the heteronormative binary boxes. The book offers researchers and media developers the opportunity to see what strides have been made in children’s media and where improvements can be made.
— Sex Roles: A Journal of Research