"Hot" Girls and "Cool Dudes": Examining the Prevalence of the Heterosexual Script in American Children's Television Media

As children's consumption of media increases, examining the messages prevalent in popular TV programs is central to understanding how children learn to view and understand gender. A coding scheme of themes of the "heterosexual script" related to gender, sexuality, and relationships developed by Kim et al. (2007) was applied to 7 popular American children's TV programs. The prevalence of the script varied across program, with certain programs depicting gender stereotypes as frequently as adult prime-time TV programs. Across programs, the most common theme was boys objectifying and valuing girls solely for their appearance and girls engaging in self-objectification and ego-stroking of boys. Programs with leads who are boys were more likely to enact these stereotypes, especially in the presence of other-gender peers, indicating that this script is linked to expectations within heterosexual relationships.