Author: Noah Hanson

A couple weeks ago I was having a discussion in my Multicultural Education class about the first times we ever thought about our gender identity. Strikingly, about 1/3 of the class made some mention towards children’s television programming influencing their behavior from an early age. Whether we like it or not, children’s television programming sets many of the standards for how our society is formed, introducing norms to children at an early age when they are still trying to figure out how the world works and how they should act. Because of this, it is crucial for these programs to be progressive in how they display our societies norms (specifically gender norms). Unfortunately, this is not the case. Even today, children’s shows are showing the same problematic scenarios that were around in our childhoods.

In the widely popular show Paw Patrol, a show about a group of rescue dogs, only 1 out of the 6 main characters is female. The show does have a female mayor but she is constantly portrayed as dumb and inept. An article published on refinery29 says that one of the most problematic stereotypes depicted in the show is that “men are expected to have a certain amount of aggressiveness,” allowing kids to accept more anger in boys. Seeing violence and aggression as a normal male trait likely leads to the socialization of this trait in kids, as they come to see it as acceptable.

In the show Mickey Mouse and the Roadster Racers, many of these same problematic scenarios occur. Throughout the show Minnie and Daisy, the two main female characters, find themselves all too often in the caregiver roles. They are often given the roles of petsitters, cleaners, cake bakers, etc. This helps reinforce the problematic gender stereotypes that we are actively trying to move away from as a society. Without the ability to think critically on these programs, kids will perceive these depictions as a truth about society: women are meant to be in the caregiver role. This is extremely problematic!

Even the commercials on these children’s networks play a role in depicting problematic gender norms. Kids are being told through subliminal messaging what they should like, how they should dress, how they should act, etc. It’s not just the message that girls should play with dolls and boys should play with Hotwheels, these commercials are influencing kid’s entire behavior and identity. In order to make the change that we want as a society, we must start with a ground-up approach in children’s programming. If not, we will see the same problematic media influencing our kids in the future.

The sitcom format is one of the longest standing television formats ever. Popularized in the mid 1900s by shows like I Love Lucy, The Adams Family, and All in the Family, this format is made up of predictable characters, relatively stagnant relationships between characters, and a return to normality at the end of each episode. This return to normality is the idea that there is: 1. a base starting point of each character at the beginning of the episode, 2. a moderate conflict introduced to the world of the show, and 3. a resolution of this problem at the end of the episode with the characters returning to their original starting point of normality. This allows for audiences to pickup on whatever episode they please without any plot confusion.

While Bojack Horseman adheres to certain elements of this sitcom format (length, character driven plot, and general episodic format), the show strays from this traditional sitcom mold by eliminating this return to normality. Over the course of the show, characters make many mistakes (sometimes drastic ones), but these mistakes rarely get resolved at the end of the episode. We even see the consequences of Bojack’s actions in season 1 come back to bite him in the final season of the show. This theme of actions having consequences also takes form by altering the relationships between the show’s central characters, something that rarely happens in traditional sitcoms. Another key difference from traditional sitcom characters is that the characters actually WANT to change and be better.

The show becomes very meta with this sitcom comparison through the use of the fictional 90’s sitcom Horsin’ Around that Bojack starred in, giving his acting career life. We often see Bojack rewatching his old sitcom at some of his darkest moments in the show, giving him this happy escape from reality that sitcoms are supposed to create. This juxtaposition between the happy Horsin’ Around’ sitcom world and the often dark and depressing world of Bojack Horseman shines a light on the unrealistic reality of almost all sitcoms. Through this, despite being an animated world full of talking animals, Bojack Horseman is able to create possibly the most realistic picture of reality of any sitcom ever.

In the streaming era, we have been given the ability to watch an entire season of a TV series in one sitting, with an uninterrupted flow. We can pick exactly what we want to watch, no matter how niche our taste is. And even if we do encounter an occasional ad, these ads will be personalized and curated for exactly what we want (and even what we don’t know we want). This regulation of this flow that we experience was not always so personalized though, and if you choose to dust off your TV and find your old cable adapter, you can experience the more rigid and calculated flow that is… CABLE TELEVISION (ominous music playing). Whether it’s a TV show, an advertisement, or the news, every second of cable television is curated for a target demographic. These target demographics vary depending on the time, the day of the week, the channel, and other analytics that the TV company receives.

For example, if you turn on CBS at 2:00 PM on a Monday you might catch an episode of The Ellen Show and see ads for Northwestern Mutual or some medication (generally targeted towards an older demographic).

But if you turned on the same channel at 2:00 PM on a Sunday, you would probably tune in to the middle of an NFL football game and see ads for a Ford F-150 or Lowes (generally targeted towards middle aged men). 

Growing up, this television flow was a crucial part of how I enjoyed media. The ads that I would watch on Adult Swim late at night were almost as funny as the actual shows. And I didn’t really care what episode of South Park I watched, as long as they showed me one. But now the responsibility is completely on us. We can watch whatever we want, wherever we want, and whenever we want. Ads are almost unbearable now, even seeing a 15 second ad at the beginning of a youtube video will make me go download an adblocker. Even when I do encounter an ad, I can just tune out and go on my phone, which in turn becomes a part of my flow.

Generally, I think that this individual autonomous flow is a good thing because it allows us to pick exactly the type of flow that we want to experience at any given moment; especially those who have more niche interests that don’t necessarily fit into the “dominant” demographic targeted by TV companies. But with this freedom comes a challenge: people are very bad at making choices for themselves. Thankfully our algorithms know us well and will direct us to the new hit Netflix show at the click of a button. As the years go by, it will be interesting to see how much more personalized our flow gets and how it affects our relationship with media.