Aggression and Prosocial Behavior in Dora the Explorer

For this assignment, I chose to watch "Dora the Explorer" which of course we have all seen at some point in our lives. As children, we do not notice all the gender specific qualities Dora, Boots and Swiper all poses; watching the cartoon now, you can see how each character is carefully created to fit a specific stereotype. Dora, being a female, is portrayed in a pink t-shirt, with having a very sweet and caring personality. She believes everyone is her friend and shows no aggression to anyone, this could be considered prosocial behavior.

The closes she comes to showing aggression is when she tells Swiper, "Swiper, no swiping" which is an attempt to stop an aggressive act from Swiper.

Swiper is a male fox, he is shown wearing a blue mask and gloves and shows aggression towards Boots and Dora by trying to "swipe" something that belongs to Dora and Boots. He is the only character to show any type of aggression in the show, but they also make a point to let it known that he is the "bad guy" of the show.

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There are plenty of other male characters in the show that portray no aggression, but are still dressed on shades of blue showing that the color blue should be associated with males. While females were dressed in shades of pinks and reds, displaying that reds and pinks should be associated with females. The only character that is an acceptation to this is Boots, who is a male but wears red boots.

Yet, this is a show based in a Hispanic culture and can not be held to the same American gender stereotypes we all experience in our culture.

The main character of the show is female, Dora, and she had just as much involvement in the plot as the male characters, if not more. The male and female characters did not really have any gender-stereotyped roles, they all interacted in a friendly, welcoming manner. Over all, the cartoon shows that girls can do anything boys can do and should not be help to any specific standard.