Female Characters In Children’s Pictorial Books

Identification is an unconscious maturation and protection mechanism which continues during all life of human beings. The peak period of identification is preschool period when development is the fastest. The purpose of the study is to determine which female images illustrated children’s books include and what effects these images have in the development of the child and the shaping of his behavior during this period in which visual learning is preponderantly the case. With this purpose, by resorting to expert view, eight publishing companies and the illustrations in the thirty books these have published in 2009 were studied. When analyzing the illustrations, A. J. Greimas’ semiological method has been utilized, while the discourse plane concerning the analysis of the illustrations was realized at the indications phase. The notions of social gender, identification, clothing the importance of pictures on children products was primarily given in the study, then clothing forms of heroines in preschool children’s books are examined and lastly the clothing styles of heroines was discussed and suggestions given. In the books illustrations which were examined, one sees that the most frequent female image is the “mother” and the widespread accessory of the female image is the apron. Female characters are illustrated inside or near the house, within domains related to motherhood or housewife and preponderantly displayed with actions related to housekeeping and motherhood. Indications of social gender discrimination have been found in the illustration of thirteen out of thirty children’s books which were analyzed. It has been determined that trousers were only worn by male characters in the books, while pink colors, smaller proportions compared to men, clothing elements such as lace and ribbons, skirts and dresses were used in the illustration of female figures. One sees that some characters were formed in line with a certain belief and way of thinking.