1. Pouty Princesses and Skeletons in Fishnets:
A Content Analysis of Sexualization and Stereotypes in Children’s Fashion Dolls
Christy R. Starr, B.A., Eileen L. Zurbriggen, Ph.D.
University of California, Santa Cruz
Introduction
Concern is often expressed that fashion dolls are sexualized and contain a variety of stereotypes about gender and race, however few empirical studies have explored the topic.
The age when young children are playing with toys is also the time in development when gender schemas about what it means to be female or male are forming (Signorella, Bigler, & Liben, 1993).
Unfortunately, there are many gender differences documented in toys (e.g., Blackmore & Centers, 2005) and there is anecdotal evidence of increasing sexualization. This may increase self-sexualization and lead to poor outcomes, such as lowered self-esteem and restricted career aspirations among young girls (APA, 2007; Sherman & Zurbriggen, 2014).
Although past content analyses have assessed the presence of gender stereotypes in toys (e.g, Blackmore & Centers, 2005), no prior study has assessed the presence of sexualization.
Study Goal:
Assess sexualization as well as gender, race, and class stereotypes present in fashion dolls.
Results
Results Continued
Only 20% of dolls were found to be of average weight, while 65% were “unnaturally thin”, or thinner than would be physically possible for a female human.
African American dolls were significantly more likely to be portrayed as part animal, most commonly part-wolf or part-cat (X2 = 8.93, ϕ = -.16, p = < .01).
Sexualization was negatively correlated with price of doll, with less expensive dolls having higher levels of sexualization (r = -.225, p = < .001).
High priced dolls trended towards being more likely to contain action oriented accessories (e.g., violins) while low priced dolls were more likely to contain consumer oriented accessories (e.g., shopping bag).
An overwhelming majority of female dolls (97%) contained some aspect of sexualization.
67.5% of dolls were rated as moderately to very sexualized, based on clothing, makeup, hair, and mouth.
Methods
We coded 380 female and male fashion dolls to explore sexualization and stereotypes present.
Stores: Toys R Us, Target, Walmart, Amazon
Filtered for “best sellers”, took top 100 from each store
Repeats were not used, nor were sets of multiple dolls
Dolls of color and male dolls were over-sampled
Coding Manual
Appearance and accessory codes were inspired by manuals recently used for content analysis of sexualization.
29 Codes in total, ranging from the dolls’ body size to whether or not career accessories were present.
64% of the dolls were double coded to ensure reliability.
Sexualization comprised of clothing, makeup, hair, eyes, mouth, on a scale of 0 (not at all sexualized) to 16.
Discussion
Combined with theories about how children learn from the media, such as social cognitive theory (Bussey & Bandura, 1999), our findings indicate that fashion dolls are indeed communicating many messages to young children, predominately girls, which have broad implications for gender role schemas and development.
Prior studies have found that playing with sexualized dolls that are unnaturally thin leads girls to believe that they can do fewer careers, specifically male dominated careers, when they grow up, and leads them to have decreased body esteem and an increased desire to be thin (Sherman & Zurbriggen, 2014; Dittmar, Halliwell, & Ive, 2006). Given that a large majority of the dolls we coded had both of these features, implications for future outcomes are large.
Future research should look at direct effects of playing with sexualized dolls, as well as potential ways of decreasing negative effects of doll play, such as media literacy or instruction for young children.
What Can We Do?
Pressure Toy Companies to reduce sexualization and stereotypes in their dolls (e.g., grassroots Merida and Pussy Cat Dolls campaigns to reduce sexualization).
Develop and implement media literacy programs for schools (Zurbriggen & Roberts, 2013).
Support initiatives to create a more diverse array of toys for girls (e.g., Kickstarter campaign for Lammily doll).
Male dolls had significantly more career and action oriented accessories (X2 = 27.54, ϕ = .27 , p = < .001; X2 = 7.80, ϕ = .14, p = < .01).
Female dolls contained significantly more fashion and consumer oriented accessories (X2 = 30.76, ϕ = -.28, p = < .001; X2 = 15.64, ϕ = -.2, p = < .001).
Not Sexualized (0)
High school aged dolls were significantly more sexualized than adult dolls (t = 7.9, r = .48, p < .001).
Female dolls were significantly more sexualized than male dolls (t = 25.0, r = .84, p = < .001).
Mod. Sexualized
(8)
Very Sexualized
(16)
Contact Christy Starr at