Ice Age 3: Dawn of the Stereotypes
I recently took my son to see the latest installment in the Ice Age series. Ice Age 3: Dawn of the Dinosaurs opened just over a week ago. My son had seen a commercial and thought the movie looked funny. The first Ice Age movie, which we had rented the day before seeing this sequel, was heavily dominated by male characters. In the interest of research, I offered to take my son to the third in the series to see if any progress had been made on the gender front. Here is a review I posted on Common Sense Media (an excellent site for reviews on kids’ TV shows and movies).
“My problem with this movie lies in the gender stereotypes it perpetuates. First, there are too few female characters. Second, the ones that are present are highly stereotypical.
The female squirrel uses her feminine wiles to manipulate the male. Ultimately, she is rescued by him and, of course, falls in love. Once the two are “married” she turns into a bossy shrew and he longs for escape. Terrible messages all around.
Then there is Ellie. I see that other people consider her a strong role model, and in many ways she is. She is brave and courageous. Yet she is held back from rescuing Sid the Sloth because she is having a baby. How convenient that the baby comes just as they are about to go on the most dangerous part of their mission, which keeps her out of the hero role – a situation that is all too common for female characters in kids’ movies.
What kind of messages does this movie send about women? They are either manipulative vamps or beatific mothers who are strong enough to bear children but not qualified to be rescuers.
On the male side, we have other stereotypes, namely the idea that men cannot talk about their feelings. Manny is very uncomfortable admitting how he feels about his friends. Ultimately he is shown to be wrong in this belief, but his discomfort never quite goes away. Very unfortunate. This film was funny and had lots of action, but it sends entirely the wrong message about gender.”
©Crystal Smith 2009
True, it’s much harder for a boy to identify with female role models than a girl with male role models.
Some studies even show that the sense of self-esteem of girls who have chosen a male model is higher than of girls who opted for a female model. The reason for this is not entirely clear. It’s possible that male models are chosen by girls who already have a great sense of self-esteem. (*)
Anyway, boys choose almost exclusively male role models. Maybe this says something about the hierarchy between male and female roles. In our society it is clearly not a problem that girls aspire to male roles, but the opposite, boys who aspire to roles of women, still often encounters resistance. And of course, the (toy, film,…) Industry knows that and reinforces it.
(*) Allen, T. D. (2004). Factors related to mentor reports of mentoring functions provided: gender and relational characteristics. Sex Roles
Your point about boys not being able to aspire to roles of women is one of the reasons I began writing my book. Not to say that girls have it easy – far from it – but boys do not have the freedom to explore non-traditional interests in the way that girls do. As I say in the book, girls can like Bakugan, but boys cannot like Hannah Montana; girls can play hockey, but boys cannot make beaded jewellery. The list goes on and on and on. With those restrictions placed on them, boys are taught that there is a clear line between masculine and feminine behaviour – with the latter considered less important – and gender stereotypes continue to be reinforced.
If we ever want to achieve equality, boys need to be part of the equation and they can’t be if they are confined to a rigid definition of masculinity.
i must say that on some things you are dead off. Stereotypes have come about because for the most part there right i’m not saying all the time but “The female squirrel uses her feminine wiles to manipulate the male.” my wife is very good at this i’m not saying i don’t love her but i also do the same to her, there’s give and take in all things.
“men cannot talk about their feelings” is a funny one, i can’t in all situations but this also go’s for my better half to.
“held back from rescuing Sid the Sloth because she is having a baby” having a baby is hell if it go’s bad and your right why are they not telling us about sex education? love outside of two rings? Story telling thats why
I think we can agree to disagree on this one. The characteristics shown through stereotypes may indeed apply to certain individuals, but they cannot be held as universal truths. Stereotypes are inherently negative because they are nothing more than assumptions based on prejudice.
As for the things I note in my review – that women are manipulative and that men can’t talk about their feelings – again, they may hold true for some people, both men and women. My concern is that these messages are delivered consistently across all children’s media and they teach children some very damaging lessons, in this case, that women are bossy and domineering, that men are stupid enough to fall for manipulation, and that it is unmanly for a guy to discuss how he feels.
And, yes, having a baby is hard work. I know that the addition of a baby was intended as a plot development for use in future films, but the idea that domesticity is the domain of women is repeated across all kids’ media.
If this kind of messaging appeared sporadically, I wouldn’t feel the need to write about it. But it comes through constantly in popular films, television, and books aimed at young children, and gives them some very confusing and, ultimately, negative ideas about what it means to be a boy or a girl.