Fathering and masculinity in children’s animated films: An analysis of top grossing lifetime films released 1989-2017

<p>Understanding gender norms, including norms surrounding parenthood, is one tool acquired during socialization. Film provides an efficient pathway for observational learning to occur in children, especially as they spend more of their time consuming media. Given the importance of the media’s role in socializing children and continued research on how children use media to construct their own ideas, it is necessary to analyze messages regarding fatherhood and masculinity that are portrayed to children to better understand how they may use these messages when constructing their own beliefs. To address this gap, this project analyzed a sample of the top lifetime-grossing children’s animated films released from 1989 to 2017. This qualitative analysis identifies characteristics that fathers and father-figures in these films display, differences that exist in the way characters are constructed and presented in these films, and the ways these characters are representative of and different from societal stereotypes of fathers. Keywords: Children’s media, socialization, gender identity, masculinity, fatherhood</p>

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Arts (MA)

Level thesis:degree_level

Open Access Thesis

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Sociology, Anthropology, and Criminology

Year dc:date.available

2021

Author dc:creator

• Kowalczyk, Kasyera

Contributors dc:contributor

• Rita Shah, Ph.D.
• Tricia McTague, Ph.D.

• Children's media
• Disney
• Fatherhood
• Gender identity
• Masculinity
• Socialization
• Sociology

Repository record dc:identifier

https://commons.emich.edu/theses/1106

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:commons.emich.edu:theses-2482