Both in narrative content and visual form, Dr. Seuss’s children’s books portray a majority of female characters as inferior to men. Girls in his books tend to be conservative, and women are depicted as housewives. The numbers of women in roles outside of the household, or in leadership positions are not there at all. In fact, a number of books do not include female characters at all. And when they are present, female characters are placed in highly stereotyped gender roles. Girls and women are typically shown as irrational, unintelligent, and feminine—always seen wearing pastel floral dresses and carrying out quiet, insignificant activities.
In contrast, boys are very straight, not at all effeminate, and they play strictly traditional gender roles. The male characters are always in view, occupying central position in the narrative. The central character’s gender is important in a story since by definition the story revolves around this individual (Williams, et al 152). Since central characters are the main focus of the texts, they have a major influence in determining gender stereotypes. In many cases, central characters in Seuss are coded as male. Even when the gender of the central character is left unspecified, prime visual indicators—such as clothing and facial features—and linguistic markers like pronouns are used to drive home the message of gender inequality. As Engel points out “the total number of male and female images a child receives from a book may be more influential on the child’s developing concepts of sex roles than just the number of different characters” (648).
In most of Dr. Seuss’s books, the animals and birds are female. In the illustrations, male animals are the default, and female animals are distinguished by artificiality and exaggeration–for instance, long or heavily-styled hair with decorations, longer eyelashes, redder lips, a big bow etc. The birds have long hair, flowers somewhere, some type of jewellery, and something pink or red in their hair or dress clearly marking them as female,
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Under-representation of females, and portrayal of girls and women as gender-stereotyped characters is widely prevalent in a children’s literature and Dr. Seuss’s books contain many such common stereotypes. To Goss “Females, in picture books, have been portrayed in home-related roles doing dull and uninteresting things while the males did a variety of exciting activities. Because of the limiting roles in which female characters were shown, most girls grew up with a narrow view of themselves and their opportunities” (4). Seuss’s female characters never do anything out of the ordinary and conform to the types of gender roles that are conventionally assigned to females.
Some of Seuss’s books have characters in the illustrations which are not part of the story in which males are still the more dominant characters. The behaviour of the characters represents significant differences. In addition, characters of unidentified sex are extremely rare.
A majority of Dr. Seuss’s children’s books have more male characters than female, whereas just a few of them have characters of undetermined sex, or an equal number of male and female characters. Many of them have only male protagonists. No book has only females, and no book has more females than males.
The images of male and female characters clearly show that Seuss’ books are sexist and enforce gender inequality. The inequalities of women and girls in children’s literature inform children that these characters are less valuable and less important than their male counterparts: “The disproportionate numbers of males in central roles may encourage children to accept the invisibility of women and girls and to believe they are less important than men and boys, thereby reinforcing the gender system” (McCabe 199). The ‘invisibility’ according to Tuchman amounts to “a symbolic annihilation because it denies existence to women and girls by ignoring or under-representing them in cultural products” (qtd. in McCabe198).
The illustrations in his books often depict female characters with a scared, timid look on their face. They are shown as spoiled or self-righteous, and are always in the kitchen or at home making food or doing household chores. Female characters are locked up in the house, and jobs are divided differently, encouraging children not to push the boundaries of stereotypical confines.
Dr. Seuss’s work is a site of gender stereotypes and it can be considered a male-dominated genre. Females rarely appear in the titles the one exception being—for example Daisy-Head Mayzie. They have a narrower variety of occupational role models and often receive only negative feedback. Male characters, on the other hand, are involved in several activities and occupations and their actions always receive positive feedback. Reading such books and their traditional interpretation undoubtedly affects children’s attitudes and values. Children of today do certainly need non-sexist books, but surprisingly the representation of females doesn’t seem to have changed much over the centuries. There is still no balance in the presentation of female characters and in fact children’s books seem to have become even more male-dominated.
Since children’s books are “a vehicle for presentation of social values to children” (Weitzman 1125-26), the conspicuous absence female characters of any sort from both content and visuals convince children that “boys are more highly valued than girls” (Weitzman 1125-26). As Goss points out, “To help children grow into the roles that will be required for the world today, it is vital to expose them to reading material that contains non-stereotypical models for both genders. Girls especially need messages that tell them they are competent and capable of fulfilling their potential” (8).
While there are far fewer female characters than their male counterparts in other books by Dr.Seuss, the portrayal of male and female characters in both content and visual formats contribute to children’s opinion of what it means to be a boy or girl. Seuss reflects the dominant view about female’s place by writing about men’s adventures while females are portrayed in apron or as mothers. The depiction of the domestic virtues of the sweet, intuitive housewife promotes societal role expectations. Dr. Seuss’s books exhibit the weaknesses of poor characterization and a lack of patriarchal society’s interest in portraying female characters as strong, independent, visible and dominant. Female characters are undeniably weighed down by stereotypes which ultimately serve as a front to promote a patriarchal agenda.
All his books stress as the following factors. Women/girls are not important. Even if they are present their roles are relegated to the background. They are like wall flowers to be seen but not heard. If at all some female character has a role/dialogue in the story it is to explain how silly, stupid, selfish and superficial she is. Even if there is contribution by them as mothers, it is belittled as something which is not too important. On the other hand, the male character be it a boy/a man or even male animal/bird is shown to be. They are portrayed strong, brave, kind and intelligent. They have a central role in the story. The story revolves around them. It shows their contribution and usefulness to society. It would seem as if society would not exist/ the world will come to an end if they stopped contributing.
