From the moment they are born and wrapped in a pink or blue blanket, a child's gender is unmistakable. From this point on, they will continuously be bombarded with the socialization into their gender by many sources. One of the main sources of this socialization is media, more specifically television. The purpose of this paper is to describe gender roles and stereotypes, and to take a closer look at how the media's representation and portrayal of males and females affects children.

Gender differences are the "sets of attributes socially and culturally constructed on the basis of birth assignment as male or female" (Creedon, 1993, p.5). When a baby is born and wrapped in a colored blanket based on their gender, one of the first things many parents think about his how perfect their little boy or girl is; How strong and handsome their son...