I Guess I Can Empower You: Exploring Implicit Gender Biases Within a Feminist Children’s Story Draft
Disciplines
Arts and Humanities | Children's and Young Adult Literature | Creative Writing | Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies
Abstract (300 words maximum)
Research across many academic fields has supported the importance of bias-free language/inclusive authorial tones in writing. Despite the widespread scholarly attempts to establish the necessity of linguistic inclusivity within various written genres, however, few studies explore the existence of gender-based biases within proclaimed feminist literatures—literatures that often do, after all, hope to bring about solutions to implicit biases. The purpose of this study is to highlight the internalized nature of gender-based biases and stereotypes as they surface even within mindful and informed feminist writing. Specifically, this research examines the diction and tone of the author’s initial children’s book draft of Norah and Noah: The Music Within—a story that is itself grounded in research and that originally sought to empower young girls to pursue their interests and to encourage young boys to advocate for their female friends and family members. Even considering these goals, the draft became unintentionally focused on the male perspective. Feminine empowerment, then, unwittingly became a secondary element of the story; female characters were rendered partially voiceless. The individual contradictions and issues of this children’s book draft, along with appropriate revisions of each of these issues, will be analyzed and examined in this study through the lens of feminist rhetorical theories. The results of this study’s theoretically-backed examination of the children’s book draft will illustrate the pervading presence of gender-based biases as they exist even within writings that are otherwise focused on combating perceptions of gender inequality. This study’s findings will also be used to craft a truly empowering final draft of Norah and Noah that is free of feminine stereotyping and notions of female powerlessness; the children’s book will be published with funding from an Undergraduate Research and Creative Activities grant.
Academic department under which the project should be listed
RCHSS - English
Primary Investigator (PI) Name
Nina Morgan
Location
Changed presenter last name
I Guess I Can Empower You: Exploring Implicit Gender Biases Within a Feminist Children’s Story Draft
Changed presenter last name
Research across many academic fields has supported the importance of bias-free language/inclusive authorial tones in writing. Despite the widespread scholarly attempts to establish the necessity of linguistic inclusivity within various written genres, however, few studies explore the existence of gender-based biases within proclaimed feminist literatures—literatures that often do, after all, hope to bring about solutions to implicit biases. The purpose of this study is to highlight the internalized nature of gender-based biases and stereotypes as they surface even within mindful and informed feminist writing. Specifically, this research examines the diction and tone of the author’s initial children’s book draft of Norah and Noah: The Music Within—a story that is itself grounded in research and that originally sought to empower young girls to pursue their interests and to encourage young boys to advocate for their female friends and family members. Even considering these goals, the draft became unintentionally focused on the male perspective. Feminine empowerment, then, unwittingly became a secondary element of the story; female characters were rendered partially voiceless. The individual contradictions and issues of this children’s book draft, along with appropriate revisions of each of these issues, will be analyzed and examined in this study through the lens of feminist rhetorical theories. The results of this study’s theoretically-backed examination of the children’s book draft will illustrate the pervading presence of gender-based biases as they exist even within writings that are otherwise focused on combating perceptions of gender inequality. This study’s findings will also be used to craft a truly empowering final draft of Norah and Noah that is free of feminine stereotyping and notions of female powerlessness; the children’s book will be published with funding from an Undergraduate Research and Creative Activities grant.