For the analysis, I chose the children’s animated series “Max and Ruby.” Attention was focused on the episode “Surprise for Ruby,” one of the most popular among children. The target audience of the cartoon is preschool children of three or four years old. “Max and Ruby” is suitable for both boys and girls; the TV show is watched with interest by children worldwide with various cultural backgrounds. In my blog entry, I will cover the features of the language in the cartoon and its impact on the development of children’s speech. I will also focus on the cultural and gender stereotypes and their effect on forming the young viewer’s worldview.
Among the positive aspects in the cartoon, the use of various linguistic means to design a coherent utterance, which will help activate the audience’s vocabulary, can be noted. The cartoon meets the goals of the concept of linguistic pragmatics – the study of language in context. For example, in the selected episode “Surprise for Ruby,” the audience and Max will learn the meaning of the word surprise. The concept of pragmatics is implemented in the animated series as a social and situational study of language as a means of communication. In general, watching the cartoon “Max and Ruby” will contribute to the formation of different speech aspects: phonetic-phonemic, lexical-grammatical, prosodic.
The cartoon selected for the analysis clearly shows gender stereotypes: the female characters all wear dresses or skirts; no one came to the birthday party in a suit or overalls. Cooking food for the holiday is also done exclusively by female rabbits. Although Max shows a desire to cook and make a cake out of mud, he is not invited to help in the kitchen. Children are shown images of men and women that can influence a child’s gender identity formation. Initially, children imitate their parents and the norms that operate in the family. Still, children also tend to imitate the images that they see in cartoons, and these stereotypes can lead to the formation of a patriarchal worldview in the child.
Cultural criticism of the TV show may be based on the fact that the main characters are white rabbits. And, although the cartoon occasionally features rabbits of other colors (black or brown), they are given secondary roles. The whole cartoon is built on traditional white values, because it follows the usual scenario for white people during Ruby’s birthday celebration. None of the rabbits of other colors offers to play their national games or does not tell about other possible traditions of celebrating a birthday. The demonstrated cultural stereotypes are outdated and can negatively affect the development of the child. The viewer will form an idea that everyone follows the same traditions, values, moral attitudes, norms of behavior and communication. The child will not develop a tolerance for the dissimilarity of each other, acceptance of differences in lifestyle, clothing, thinking. As a result, the foundations for the possession of strategies of cross-cultural contacts aimed at the successful flow of interaction will not be laid.
Based on the material reviewed in this course, “Max and Ruby” cannot be given the highest rating. This is due to the fact that the cartoon is filled with gender and cultural stereotypes and promotes their development in children. The key conclusions from the point of view of the cartoon’s influence on growth are the formation of outdated gender stereotypes and the lack of examples of cross-cultural communication. For instance, although watching “Max and Ruby” can help develop a child’s literate speech, it can create a distorted worldview in a young viewer. Given the theory from Developmental Psychology, it would be worth making some changes to the cartoon—for example, the positive experience of Max and Ruby with rabbits-representatives of other cultures. In addition, to overcome gender stereotypes, it is necessary to erase a clear line in the clothing and activities of male and female characters.