Squidward: Gender, Social And Cultural Issues

When I watched children animated show SpongeBob I noticed a lot of things about gender that I did not catch when I was a child watching it myself. In the Episode “Rock-a-Bye Bivalve” SpongeBob and Patrick adopt a baby scallop and we see the traditional gender roles come into play. SpongeBob takes on more of a female or mother/wife role in the relationship. He has hair curlers, night gown and we see him staying at home cleaning, ironing, and taking care of the scallop. He ends up complaining about how he has no help and is emotional, he is stressing about all the stuff that he has to do by himself. Patrick takes on more of the stereotypical male or husband/father role. He has on his suit and tie with a briefcase, he is seen as overall put together. He goes to work all day to make the money for the household and he doesn’t do anything to help with the baby scallop or the housework. This episode shows the typical stereotypes of men and women in the society, where you have a stay at home mother and father who works all the time and is disconnected from his family. In other episodes that I have watched I noticed that SpongeBob can be seen as more of a “feminine” type. He is physically and emotionally weak, he cries a lot and we can see that when he does try to “work out” or “fight” he can’t he is too weak to do anything, or he can barely do it. He is also a bad driver he has had to repeat and continue to go to boat school with Miss Puff because he is a terrible driver, which is what is the stereotypical thing for people to say about women. He has the high pitched voice rather than the deeper and more masculine voice that we are used to. He can also be seen as very nurturing and caring, he cares deeply about his friends, family and pet snail Gary. His nurturing attitude towards his friends or in a situation in which something is wrong can be seen as more feminine by some people.

Males and females are put into different roles and stereotypes that they are expected to “follow” by society. In SpongeBob they break these roles and stereotypes in a way. Mr. Krabs is the single father of an adopted child, that is not what society would say that is common for the male stereotype. We can also see this with the character Sandy, she is the smart innovator who builds and come up with new things and ideas, in a stereotypical society that would be the male’s job and not a female like Sandy, but with Sandy as she is the smart innovator she is also has the feminine appearance to her with the bikinis and flowers. This Character goes against what the normal societal female stereotype that is put on women she is smart and works, but also keeps her female appearance and “qualities”. We see Squidward be really into his music, dance and art, he paints, plays the clarinet and dances. Squidward’s hobbies can be seen as not normal for a male to do by society, it goes against what the male stereotype and male gender role is. The music and art are or can be seen as more feminine, so for Squidward to do these things he is going against that male stereotype. Gender identity is a person’s perception of having a certain gender, that gender may not match with their sex. In SpongeBob we see this concept of gender identity come into play, for example, when Patrick had the alter ego of a woman named Patricia and in his alter ego state he dressed and played the role of a female. We see this concept of gender identity come into play again when SpongeBob undergoes the alter ego of the wife/mother when he and Patrick adopt the baby scallop, he is taking a whole new identity that is different than his sex. In that situation both he and Patrick follow the typical gender stereotypes/roles for male and females. The gender development is very evident when you take a step back and actually focus on the details of the characters and the characters’ activities. We can see the gender development throughout the show and with multiple different characters, whether if it is the main character in SpongeBob or the reoccurring character like Patrick, Squidward, Sandy and Mr. Krabs. (Kail & Cavanaugh, 2014)

In the Show SpongeBob was good at spreading gender development and was really socially and culturally advanced at that point in time. They showed the typical gender stereotypes and roles that society expects and not many children’s tv shows even came close to doing anything like that. The only problem with that is that in certain scenes it showed that the typical job for males was to be the provider and for the females it was to serve those men and stay at home. The network and tv producers could easily change the way that females were seen. For example, they could have changed SpongeBob’s character when she went into his alter ego and played the wife/mother role. They could have had SpongeBob still go to his job at the Krusty Krab and not take on all of the roles at the house and taking care of the baby scallop. They could have had Patrick not be the only one providing for the family and helping out with the baby scallop and the household roles. Another example of typical gender stereotype/role was with Mr. Krabs they painted him out to be this workaholic, money hungry boss man, which fits right into the male stereotype. That could paint a bad picture in a child’s mind that the only thing a man is good for is money. They could change it without changing Mr. Krabs character completely. They could lesser his banter about “loving money” and “loving making money” and make him less aggressive and assertive. These children’s shows have and can create such an impact and young child’s life. They see this stuff playing out in front of them on television they think that this is the way that is supposed to be like. Television in today’s society is so important in a child’s development they listen and follow majority of things that they see on the TV especially if that theme is being repeated over and over again, it sticks with that child up until teen years and adulthood. So it is extremely important if these concepts of gender development are shown in a correct light, so that children don’t follow that stereotype that women can’t do anything outside of the house and that men only care about money and work.