Bettina Breitenberger

Gender and Emotional Language in Children's TV Series. An Analysis of Avatar: The Last Airbender Bettina Breitenberger

Seminar paper from the year 2013 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Linguistics, grade: 2,3, University of Augsburg, language: English, abstract: As TV series can have a big impact on children's development, it is the purpose of this term paper to examine, whether gender-specific stereotypes in regard to emotions can actually be found, or whether the claim that TV series are stereotyped is a prejudice itself. Therefore, the characters' emotional language in "Avatar: The Last Airbender" will be analyzed. It will be closely looked at, whether both genders are associated with differing types and amounts of emotion talk. Due to the results of several researchers, it was expected that female and male characters display emotions considered appropriate for their sex in order to provide children with idealized gender role models to imitate. As research sees a relationship between showing gender-conform emotions and popularity among peers, it was furthermore anticipated that fans of the series would vote those characters most popular that show emotions considered appropriate for their sex.