Gender representation in Malaysian television animation / Catherina Ugap

Local scholars rarely debate the position of gender in animated media. Significantly,
each gender image displayed has its own ideology, either in the form of animated works,
or those influenced by the doctrine of hegemony and status quo. This study therefore,
analyses gender representation in Malaysian television animation. The purpose of this
study is to identify the types of gender representation evident in Malaysian television
animation and to analyse the relationship between gender images portrayed and its
formation influenced by social constructs. The research applies a text analysis approach
that uses content analysis through data collection from video selection and video
retrieval to obtain information and data from the selected samples. There are five
animated samples, of four episodes each that have been selected based on the popularity
of animation on Malaysian television. The study reveals gender patterns evident in the
television animation that mostly use the characters of five to twelve year old boys as
the main characters. In addition, the construction of the male and female genders are
divided based on their characteristics and roles. In terms of animated storytelling theme,
the background or setting of the animations are in the village but of modern urban
residentials. The animations also maintain the concept of multi-racial and plural
societies in the narrative of the storytelling. It is hoped that this study can be used as a
benchmark to produce future animation that is diversified in its representation of
characters whilst empowering female characters as its protagonist.