This research project analyzes the popular preschool television program Dora the Explorer and its marketed brand, including toys and furniture, in order to better understand the gender roles that Dora reinforces. By using third wave feminist media theory as well as semiotic analysis, this project uncovers the contradictory representations of Dora as empowered female role model as well as subjugated feminine subject and examines how the marketed Dora brand resolves this contradiction by favoring the traditional, passive and subjugated feminine role, reinforcing sexist attitudes beneath the progressive, popular feminist appearance of the show.
Whew. I know that's a lot, and it needs to be ironed out. All in all, I want to show how the Dora the Explorer presents an apparently positive role model for active and empowered young girls, but actually undermines Dora's power and agency within the show and further reinforces this message of subjugated and passive Dora through the marketed brand of toys and furniture which is centered around glamour, beauty, popularity, sexuality and caregiving. I'm in the process of moving from rough to final drafts, so I'm going pretty crazy, as you can imagine. The messages that we send to young girls and boys, whether subtle and subliminal or overt and obnoxious, severely limit the scope of "appropriate" behaviors and experiences for children, stifling their creativity and individuality. Girls especially are prone to negative messages from their favorite television characters and their toys because they are the marginalized and oppressed gender. I think it is important to be aware of the messages, intended or otherwise, of children's media and how they shape notions of gender identity.
More to come as the paper gets closer to publication.
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