Report on gender discrimination in toy story 3

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FINAL REPORT
1.Group Information
● Our group name:“Gender Story 6”
● Group members: Şeyma Nur GÖK (1866722), Seda ASİL (2023661), Sinem Elif
ASAR (1604958), Ezgi UZUNBACAK (1866912), Muhammet Şamil YILMAZ
(2024453), Hilal Derya KILIÇ (2005635)
● Contribution: The group consists of six people. It was tried to reach other two group
members at the first stage of the “Proposal” part of the group work. However, other
group members did not join the all process of the group work. As it was stated the
table part of the “Proposal”, it was decided which method and movie would be used
as first step as a group. After that, every members of the group watched the movie “
Toy Story 3” and talked about the gender stereotype samples in the movie. The points
about gender stereotypes that would be used in presentation and final report has been
stated by all group members. The presentation was prepared by Şeyma Nur and Ezgi
in the light of data coming from other group members. The datas came from Seda and
Sinem, the video part came from Şamil and the brochure part came from Hilal Derya.
In the first step, before starting the final report, the final report of previous semester
was taken as sample and kind of rubric. Working of the our final report stated
according to previous semester report. However, we had to change our report
according to rubric in the ODTUCLASS. After that, the report was splitted into seven
part . Every members took a part and the result part of the report was written by all
group members.
2. Project Information
● Project Name: Toy Story 3’s Effect on Children’s Development of Gender Role
● General Topic
In this study, gender representations in children movies considered as the main topic
by regarding of equality. According to Bhasin (2003), there are two basic concepts of gender
representations which are sex and gender. Sex is described as individual’s genetic,
physiological and biological properties. On the other hand, Oxford dictionary describes
gender as ‘the state of being male or female with reference to social and cultural differences
(e.g., personality traits, roles, values, etc.) rather than biological ones’ (2016).
Studies show that media is ranked as one of the top for adolescents’ sexual
informants. It is often placed second after peers and before parents. (Andre, Frevert, &

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Schuchman, 1989) Moreover, presentations of gender roles in cartoons is important in terms
of the construction and formation of children’s perspective about gender. Failing to represent
females/males on screen may affect viewers in at least two different ways. For one thing,
young children grow up consuming biased media messages. With time and repeated
exposure, some children may come to normalize inequality in storytelling. This normalization
process may "spill over" to other arenas, where girls/young women and boys/young men fail
to question or even perceive gender bias in a variety of academic, athletic, social, or even
occupational contexts. For another thing, the lack of gender balance on screen -- if noticed --
may communicate to girls that they are of less value than boys. Extracting this message,
rather than creating oppositional texts while viewing, may negatively affect the self worth or
self esteem of some female viewers.
Despite the fact that gender equality is protected by law, stereotype in minds of
individuals could be seen as the most important barrier of taking equality in action.
Therefore, prevention of gender discrimination on media tools is very important, especially
on children programmes. Those programmes could either help to overcome prejudices about
gender roles, or conduct stereotypes about them.
● Narrowed Topic
As it is almost impossible to analyze all children movies in such limited period, the
topic had to be narrowed in terms of content and analyzing.
There are two powerful global companies on children movies sector: Disney and
Pixar. Toy Story movies are like a statement of their leading of this sector. There are three
Toy Story movies in total. The first and the second movies of Toy Story were produced by
Pixar and Disney separately. On the other hand, Toy Story 3 is a co-production of these two
important companies. That is why the movie “Toy Story 3” is chosen to be analyzed between
three of them.
To sum up, this report will investigate the actions of male and female main characters
in the movie “Toy Story 3” as an example of gender representations in children movies.
3. Project Rationale
● Problem statement: Gender stereotypes are important issue in children development.
Parents and teachers should be aware of gender stereotype. In this project, as group

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members, it was discussed that Toy Story 3 includes many examples of gender
stereotyping which are harmful for children.
● Literature review:
When Toy Story, Toy Story 2 and Toy Story 3 is reviewed, it is observed that Toy
Story 3 is different from the others in terms of gender roles. Unlike Toy Story and Toy Story
2, Toy Story 3 is more relationship-centered. These relationships create more gender
stereotypes than the other ones. Most of the characters have a relationship such as Barbie and
Ken, Mrs. Potato Head and Mr. Potato Head, Buzz Lightyear and Jessie. There is also a
similarity between Toy Story, Toy Story 2 and Toy Story 3. The number of the female
characters in the series is very limited. Wilson (2010) also agrees that Bo Peep is inexplicably
missing in this third installment, leaving even fewer female figures. The existing female
characters are also a reflection of the male characters such as Mrs. Potato Head for Mr. Potato
Head, Barbie for Ken. Wilson (2010) also agrees that Bo Peep is inexplicably missing in this
third installment, leaving even fewer female figures. In addition, while male characters
dominate the movie in Toy Story and Toy Story 2, Toy Story 3 ends with Young Bonnie as
the happy new owner of the toys. As Wilson (2010) claims Woody would have to become
Wanda, and Buzz become Betty, which makes a way for breaking Pixar’s male-only
protagonist tradition.
In order to analyze gender representations in the movie Toy Story 3, there were some
previous steps for preparation.
Firstly, Toy Story movie is chosen. There are three Toy Story movies in total and
deciding on analyzing only the third movie was not random. The first and the second movies
of Toy Story were produced by Pixar and Disney separately. On the other hand, Toy Story 3
is a co-production of these two important companies. That is why the movie “Toy Story 3” is
chosen to be analyzed between three of them. Secondly, some gender representation codes
are created in order to make observations in a more systematic way. Thirdly, characters’
actions in the movie are observed and noted according to these codes. And lastly, as it is
aimed in this study, those actions and behaviours are analyzed in respect to these codes.. The
results will be discussed in the analyses part of the report.
4. Methodology:
Content analysis is used to detect gender discriminations and stereotypes in the movie
Toy Story 3. By analyzing the movie, it is aimed to raise an awareness about how media can

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influence children in terms of gender development. In order to decide which content is
harmful for children, several features of the movie was examined. Primarily, the movie was
famous for its assumptions of gender roles as it was promoting the idea of traditional
masculinity and femininity.
The movie was generally criticized as a sexist one by many viewers. The reason for
that was the amount of sexist jokes, gender specific expressions, gender stereotypes, and the
inequality of characters’ distribution in terms of gender. The main goal of the analysis was to
find out how certain expressions and properties of characters could influence children and
young adults while constructing their own gender roles. Therefore the sexist expressions was
divided into categories in order to ease the analyzing process. The gender stereotypes were
examined in three main categories. First one was verbal stereotyping, which includes jokes,
nicknames, stigmatizing, commanding, and mansplaining. The second category was
stereotyping based on attitude. For example ‘like a boy, like a girl’ jokes, emotional
fluctuation and heroic actions. Lastly the stereotypes based on physical features were
analyzed.
After completing the data collection, the results were discussed by all the researchers
who participated in the study. As this was a qualitative study, any kind of personal
contribution from each member was taken into consideration. In order to decide whether an
expression is sexist or not we consulted the established gender roles of the modern society.
According to that code of gender, the content of Toy story 3 was found harmful because of
the possibility that some characteristics of the movie might provoke gender discrimination
among children.
As children are easily deceived by the media, they might easily believe what they see
on TV is real. Therefore these kinds of information they take from movies might influence
their habit formation and character. In order not to let children be exposed to, or be
influenced by, the harmful content; the findings of this study should be publicized. So that the
parents and their children will be informed about the bad sides of an innocent-looking
children’s movie. And this objective brought us to the second and most important step of the
study, which is creating informative brochures and blogs to inform parents and their children.
Firstly the workload was distributed on creating interesting brochures that highlights
the gender discrimination in this movie. Then a short video, lastly a Facebook page and a
blog was added to this study. In today’s world it is easier to reach people through web,
therefore we thought it would be a better idea to use the easiest way to reach people and tell
them what is wrong with this movie. To sum up, thanks to these publications that are made in

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the light of this study, it is aimed to help parents and their children find answers to these
questions; how to differentiate between a sexist and a normal joke?, what is a gender
stereotype?, what is sexism?, and how to avoid bad sides of an innocent-looking children’s
movie?
The blog, Facebook and Twitter links about the gender stereotype for parents and
teacher;
http://genderstory.weebly.com/
https://www.facebook.com/genderstory/
https://twitter.com/gender_story
5. Results
In this project, we examined the gender stereotyping examples in Toy Story 3. The
gender stereotypes in Toy Story 3 are observed and the variables are created accordingly. To
show the variables, the content analysis was made. The occurrence of the variables is
calculated until finding important points about gender stereotype. The variables are also
evaluated apart both for male and female characters. The age of the characters are not
considered. Both semiotics and verbal actions are taken into consideration while creating the
variables. The rationale behind this study is to observe the gender stereotypes which tell the
children how boys and girls are supposed to act. The aim of this study is to raise the
awareness of gender stereotypes in Toy Story 3. http://genderstory.weebly.com/contact.html
6. Discussion
Discussion was about gender stereotyping and how those issues transmit to children
the way of using animation movies. From general to specific, animation movies evolve to
Toy Story then the third movie. After observing and analyzing stages done by group
members, results were incredibly sexist. Data can be seen below:
● Opening scene: On play time, with Andy, Woody try to catch One-eyed Bart and
Betty. On top of the train Woody put his boot on Bart’s face, and says that “You have a date
with justice One-eyed Bart”. Bart (Mr. Potato Head) replies him “Sorry sheriff I’m a married
man”(1.20’)
This conversation shows us this is a conservative joke. Like because of Bart a man, he
cannot has a date even justice.
● One-eyed Betty comes to save her husband from Woody. However, when she hold a

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kneazle on her right hand she hits Woody with her red bag on her left hand
irrelevantly.(1.39’)
She is a criminal and has a weapon but she uses her bag far from being a criminal. It
means that even she is a felon she still a “woman”.
● Jessie comes with Bullseye, in the saddle, takes Woody while he falling down from
the train. Woody sits behind Jessie and say that “Fly like a wing Bullseye”(2.18’)
However, Jessie rides the horse and with her command Bullseye starts to move. Here
woody actually seemed to give command to Jessie. Alternatively he could ask Jessie for to
move Bullseye.
● Andy’s mother ask Andy and Molly to dissociate their stuff for Sunnyside
Kindergarten. Molly throw away her Barbie to the box not even think twice. (12.39’)
In this scene, although Molly younger than Andy and can still play with her toys she
does not care about them. On the other hand, Andy thinks a lot about his toys and he even
wants to take with him while he is going to college. The story here is like women are
careless, unconcerned but men are different, they are concerned.
● After Bonnie finds Woody, she banquet a fake tea party in her room. Until Woody
comes there is no hero in Bonnie’s toys. She gives to Woody a mission of being hero.
(33.35’) We can see that here Bonnie as a girl kid, gives a tea party in her play time, and
Woody satisfies her hero need in a sense. Because of a unicorn, a dinosaur or a melancholic
lion ‘cannot’ be hero.
● In the gambling table scene, other toys talks about Barbie and they banter Ken. Ken
says “Barbie is different” and the other toys say that to Ken “What do we expect from a toy
for girls!” (39.46’)and “Mr. Softy over here!”(39.49’) Really strong stereotyping examples.
Because of Ken likes to wear nice clothes, he kind to other people and he is not get angry
easily and also he is emotional.
● Woody and Buzz not seen for a while in the film, a Jessie scene we can see that her
eyes and acts, “what are we going to do?!” expression. However, the third main character is
Jessie, we understand that from Woody and Buzz interlocutor is Jessie most of the time not
the other toys. Jessie is also a strong female character and she sometimes shows leadership
qualities. However, this is valid only for when Buzz and Woody next to her. When she is

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alone she just does perturbed talks to other toys to stick together but she is actually wait Buzz
and Woody to save her and the others. (44.47’) One more time, there is no hero when Woody
and Buzz not exist the scene.
Toy Story is one of the most popular movie all of the time. Not only for children but
also adults. In that context, children's subconscious impact very negative way. Because of
gender roles beats to children's head and they learn it as is true, they will start to act when
they will be adults so that they will reproduce those roles. Scenarists may be think about this
danger or not. However, they have to. When all the world fight gender discrimination,
because of very powerful media impact, next generation will still apply those discriminations.
About adults, the film watch an empty mind and they find it cute and fun. Using a different
point of view will change their ideas. Therefore, a brochure was prepared by group members
to provide a different perspective.

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To sum up, the next time people watch a movie, parents or teachers could be careful
about those both open also close clues included those movies and they can teach to children
those actions in the movie is wrong and discriminative.
7. Final reflection
Our group involved four prospective educators and two sociologists so each of us had
a chance to work with different people from different departments. All of us taught that it was
a really good experience for us because in the process, we helped and informed each other so
much and we always kept in touch each other. In our group, Sinem and Derya were from the
Sociology Department. By this way, they qualified with the our topic ‘the gender
stereotyping’ much more than the rest of the group. Hence, they had a really important role in
the preparation part of our project because they broaden the rest of the group’s horizons about
gender stereotyping. For instance, when we gathered in order to share our notes after
watching the movie, all of us catched some important points in the movie. However, Sinem
and Derya had much more points than other group members because they could succeed to
see underlying points thanks to their departmental background. Besides, as Ezgi and Şeyma
were from Early Childhood Education Department, and Seda and Şamil were from Foreign
Language Education Department, Sinem and Derya could have a chance to look from the

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educator perspective into the important points. They could have the awareness about
children’s perception and psychology. All in all, it can be said that this project was so
beneficial and effective for each of us in terms of looking from a different aspect and get
along with each other.
As for the project itself, we taught that this project was so beneficial for all of us.
Especially, it can be said that before taking this lecture, we were unaware of the media’s
effects on people, especially on children. Media is part of our lives and we did not know how
to add it to our lives. The most important thing that we learned from this lecture is media is a
sea and we need to learn how to swim in it properly. Also, we gained an awareness that
children do not see the world how adult see it. We learned to see how they do. Moreover, we
realized that things that we think they are innocent are not really innocent. They could have
hidden messages that affect children’s psychology. Moreover, things that are normal for us
actually become harmful things for children. For future life, we learned to become more
careful and conscious about using media tools by children. We thought that there need to be
an adult guidance so as to choose a movie, a toy, or a magazine for children. At the end of
this project, it can be said that we become more informed, conscious and aware of the media
and its effects on children.
REFERENCES
● Wilson, N. (2010, June 24). Third Time Still Not the Charm for Toy Story’s Female
Characters.
● Andre, T., Frevert, R. L.,& Schuchmann, D. (1989). From whom have college
students learned what about sex? Youth and Society, 20, 241-268.
● Oxford Dictionary, 2016 edition
● Bhasin, K. (2003). Toplumsal cinsiyet “bize yüklenen roller”. (K. Ay, Çev). İstanbul:
Kadın Dayanışma Vakfı Yayınları.