ABSTRACT
This chapter presents an analysis of challenging male gender identities as represented by the protagonists of three children’s picture books in English. The theoretical model applied combines systemic functional grammar (Halliday 1978, Language as Social Semiotic: The Social Interpretation of Language and Meaning. London: Edward Arnold; 2004, Introduction to Functional Grammar. Third edition. Revised by Christian M.I.M. Matthiessen. London: Arnold), Kress and van Leeuwen’s (2006, Reading Images: The Grammar of Visual Design. Second edition. London: Routledge) model of visual social semiotics, and Painter, Martin and Unsworth’s (2013, Reading Visual Narratives: Image Analysis of Children’s Picture Books. London: Equinox) model of picture book analysis. The analysis focuses on the ideational visual and verbal resources employed to portray the identities of the protagonists. Their characterisations are also explored in reference to the relations of comparison or contrast they have with the characters who represent male gender stereotyping. In this way, the (explicit or implicit) construal of values and attributes of expected gender-role behaviour is also revealed. Ultimately, an insight is provided into how stereotypes are challenged in the picture books sampled.
