ABSTRACT
A variant of a critical approach to scholarship is offered by the extension of feminist theories to the study of children and media. This chapter argues that feminist theory can offer the field of children and media significant and original perspectives, in the following four domains: A mapping of gender segregation of children's leisure culture and explanation of the mechanism driving this segregation; a theoretical understanding of gender as a form of social construction rather than limited biological assumptions; a particular view on the form and role of methodology in the study of children and media; and a model of engaged scholarship attempting to advance progressive social change. In countering common critiques of this approach, I argue that feminist theorists could be considered ideological, but only in the sense that they stress human equality and the right of every child (regardless of gender, race, geographical location, disability, or any other determinants of human conditions) to realize their full potential.
