Boys dont like girls, boys like cars and money Ellen Lee 007

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Today in class we discussed the power of the media in correlation with male and female messages. I agree that young women are more glorified then the men characters on these shows produced by Nickelodeon and Disney. In shows such as ICarly Spence, Carly’s brother, is portrayed as a dimwitted older brother who provides for his sister, but only her food and shelter. Carly is seen as the intelligent young girl who creates her own business and she isn’t even out of high school yet. I think these shows are aiming high for young girls but completely ignoring their male audience.

I was a nanny for a nine-year old boy and a six-year old girl. Both enjoyed watching the same shows on Nickelodeon and Disney but the male characters were not as strong as the females. I noticed that Devon (the boy I watched) loved watching old westerns such as Bonanza and classic western movies. I had always thought that was strange because the only other person I had known to watch those shows were my grandparents, but then it started to make sense to me. The men he was watching in these shows were action stars to him but without so much violence. The shows are about cowboys and Indiana’s but there is not much violence because of the times these shows were created. Devon had to look to these shows so that he could know that he could be strong and powerful without hurting others in any way. Now whether this is what he actually think or this is my interpretation, but I think those shows are still the apex of television for younger children.

Addi, the little girl I babysat, enjoyed ICarly, Zoey 101, and Big Time Rush. I found this interesting too because these shows seemed almost too old for a six/seven year old girl. There were situations where I am sure Addi did not understand the conflict within the show, but I think her real reason for watching these shows was because she enjoyed the music and the crappy jokes. I do not think this is always bad to have younger girls seeing more mature content but I think there needs to be a very fine line. Some of the materials on these shows are not always appropriate and when they become appropriate for a certain age the people want to watch even more mature shows. I think it is a never ending cycle.