Gender and Madagascaar

by SJ

Kids grow up believing who is important through the messages they see in all social institutions.  When a priest talks to the parish, the people learn that religion belongs in the hands of the men.  When they go to school and all their primary teachers are women, they learn that school is a girly place.  So, it makes sense that they learn messages about men and women from television and movies.  

Take the movie Madagascaar.  It's a funny film about a bunch of animals who go from the zoo to the jungles of Madagascaar.  However, the ratio of male to female is nothing near the fifty percent that exist in the real world.  The following is a breakdown of the characters with speaking parts.  I've color-coded female in pink and male in blue:

1. Alex the Lion 
2. Melman the Giraffe
3. Gloria the Hippo
4. Mothers of the Kids
5. Marty the Zebra
6. Penguin #1
7. Penguin #2
8. Penguin #3
9. Penguin #4
10. Monkey - Phil
11. Monkey
12. Police Officer
13. Police Officer Horse
14. Old Lady with the Purse 
15. Reporter
16. Ship Captain
17. Julian, King of the Lemurs
18. Julian's Assistant
19. The baby lemur
20. The Foosa

Four out of twenty equals twenty percent.  That's less than half of what would make it equal.  So, when kids grow up and twenty percent of the characters are women, there is a subtle message that the men are important.  The same thing goes with how the characters act.  Gloria is known only for her beauty (though she is large, which is a different message than many shows) and when she holds a baby lemur.  All of the important jobs are taken by men.  Marty and Alex are the ones who build things.  The ship captain and the police officers are all men.  Alex is the one who saves the day with his superior strength. So, when kids grow up they end up believing that women are not only unimportant, but that they don't hold positions of power.