Cerina Cortez

Professor Ditch

English 113 A

May 9, 2017

Sexist Cartoons

Children have the purest minds; however children are the ones who are growing up

watching sexist cartoons. Exposing them to believe in the social construct that people follow

today. One of these shows would be Johnny Bravo. Johnny Bravo is a typical guy society

expects from a man. He his a male who cares about his looks, he has big shoulders and a small

waist, he lives with his mother, and he always tries to pick up on girls. Not just that his mother

Bunny Bravo plays the typical women, one who tends to the man by cooking and cleaning.

Society has different expectations for men than they do for women. In the article Gender

and Sociology by Boundless educate us that in In American culture, masculine roles have

traditionally been associated with strength, aggression, and dominance, while feminine roles

have traditionally been associated with passivity, nurturing, and subordination. Specifically,

men are expected to be masculine and by that, they are expected to be aggressive, not emotional,

and to be the bread maker in the family by providing food and money. While women are meant

to be dependent on the man, take care of the children, tend to the garden, and to be emotional. In

the article Traditional Gender Roles Create Feminine Women informs us a woman submits

to a mans power because, as dictated by nature, men have been given more intellect and

strength than women. In other words it's just a natural instinct for us women to be

dependent on men. Also in Judith Lorber's article Night to His Day she admits every society

classifies people as girl and boy children...fully adult women and men...and assigns them to
different roles and responsibilities such are their personality characteristics, feelings,

motivations and ambition flow (21). In other words societies only have two genders and society

expects men and women to follow their gender norm and meet up to the expectation that is

meant for them. In this case Johnny Bravo lives a life where he's trying to find a women even

though he's unsuccessful, he is very muscular, while his mother believes no one can treat my

son better than me mentality causing him to be bad with women. Johnny Bravo is a man who

does not put the woman's feelings, and decision into consideration. His actions mislead young

boys that type of behavior is acceptable in society. Despite cartoons enforcing this type of

behavior it's also their environment. Children also see these types of behaviors from their family

too.

Societies have different expectation for males. In the article The Social Meanings of

Gender by Aaron Devor gives examples of what a normal male would be by their body

posture, speech patterns, and style of dress in this case Johnny Bravo had a great posture, he had

a good style but, his speech pattern was too aggressive for women causing him to fail at getting

one (42). Johnny Bravo would treat women like objects and that caused them to reject him. He

shows the young viewers that it is ok for boys to treat girls badly when they like them or in

general. But it does show that some women arent accepting of that and by showing that the

females in the shows would beat or hit him so he can get the hint to leave them alone. In a way

Johnny Bravo had broke the social construct of female not being aggressive by making the ladies

in the show aggressive to Johnny.

Boys and girls determine their gender identity at an early age by learning from their

environment and what society believes is right or wrong for their biological sex organs. Children

at five years old, for example may be able to accurately recognize their own gender and the
other gender of the people around them by their hairstyles, and gender roles (37). Yet there are

some children who do not follow the social construct which makes people feel uncomfortable

with the fact they cannot follow their biological sexs role.

Johnny Bravo has shown the expectation males should fulfill in society by being rude to

females, being muscular, and well dressed. It also shows the expectation of what a mother should

be like by making Bunny Bravo take care of Johnny by cooking and cleaning to him. Because

cartoons advertise these kind of behavior, children tend to take on these roles of what society

expects them to be like. Again in Boundless article Gender and Sociology notifies us each

agent reinforces gender roles by creating and maintaining normative expectations for gender-

specific behavior. Our society society has an expectation and people spent their entire life

trying to meet up to those expectations. However there are some girls and boys that break these

social construct and some of those are found Johnny Bravo as well.
 Works Cited

Boundless. "Gender and Sociology - Boundless Open Textbook." Boundless. Boundless,

17 Apr. 2017. Web. 03 May 2017.

Devor, Aaron. "Becoming Members Of Society." Composing Gender. By Rachael Groner

and John F. O'Hara. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2014. N. pag. Print.

Lorber, Judith. "Night to His Day." Composing Gender: A Bedford Spotlight Reader. By

Rachel Groner and John F. O'Hara. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2014. N. pag. Print.

Roosh V. Np, n.d. Web. 02 May 2017.