Gender in Childrens Books

I have for a long time noticed the gendered messages found in children's books, television shows, and other media. Often, "girl" books are stories about princesses, dolls, and playing nice with others. Looking back to my own childhood, my strongest memories of books and movies are not gender specific. I feel that this could be due to my parent's lack of pressure for me to be girly, as my mom is not stereotypically "girly" herself. Having had an older brother, from whom I acquired most of my playthings, I learned more about superheroes than barbies, and had more ninja turtles in my life than princesses. However, as I grew up, more gendered messages were conveyed to me as I started school, and was exposed to more traditional female roles through my peers. Growing up well-rounded, I feel that I obtained valuable knowledge that it was okay to play with "boy toys", and recognized that I didn't relate as well to female characters in most books.

However, I do realize that my experience is probably not the norm. In the book that I analyzed, Anamalia, there were few gendered characters, as most were animals. One of the pages that contained specific gendered characters was rather violent, in my opinion. Kid Kookabura and Kelly Kangaroo were depicted as mobsters, kidnapping Kitty Koala with automatic weapons in hand, with police rushing to the scene. The scene represented Kitty as done-up, with lipstick, heels, and pearls on. Her Captors held her at gunpoint, while she has an expression on her face of surprise. I believe that this scene conveys a message of female weakness and masculine strength. Kitty does not fight back, and is at the mercy of Kid and Kelly.
While this scene in my book is rather discriminatory, I would still recomend this book to children of preschool age and above. I learned a lot of vocabulary from this book, as each object on the indivicual pages starts with the same letter of the alphabet. I feel that parents can use this page to start a discussion with their children about safety, and what the child should do in a situation such as this. Children are exposed to the "damsel in distress" stereotype unavoidably, and at least this book was not all about this image, as are books such as rapunzel and goldilocks. Other depictions of female animals within Anamalia contain healthy messages.
While many childrens books are, in my opinion, sexist and harmful to children's psyches, Anamalia is not one of these books. It is a fact that females are more vulnerable to kidnapping, and it is unwise to shelter children from this reality. I feel that instead of hiding from it, parents can use the opportunity presented in this book to teach their children about the dangers of strangers, and how best to defend themselves.