Cartoons, Calories, and Character Stereotypes: Unpacking the Harmful Body and Food Messages in Children's Media
29/10/2024
Written by Dr Stephanie Damiano, Manager of Butterfly Body Bright, Butterfly Foundation
Children’s media—whether it’s movies, TV shows, apps, or books—often blends the magic of make-believe with everyday life. While this mix of fantasy and reality can be entertaining and even educational, it can also share potentially harmful messages about bodies, appearance, and food. So, it’s not surprising that research shows that media exposure can begin shaping children’s attitudes and behaviours around bodies and weight at an early age (1). And that’s before we even touch on the impact of social media, which deserves its own spotlight (at a later time).
But what exactly are these harmful messages, and how do they slip into the media our children consume?
Stereotypes in children’s media
One of the most obvious examples is the way heroes and villains are depicted. The classic hero is often portrayed as strong, brave, attractive—and for male characters, this almost always includes big muscles and a chiselled physique. Female leads tend to be kind, smart, nurturing, and—unsurprisingly—thin and flawlessly pretty. Villains, on the other hand, are often shown with visible differences, scars, or in larger bodies, suggesting that being unattractive equates to being “bad”. And let’s not forget the goofy, often glutenous sidekicks who exist for comic relief but carry damaging stereotypes about body size.
These appearance-based stereotypes have been around for a long time (2), but recent evidence suggests that they’re becoming even more problematic. There’s increasing emphasis on male muscularity, exercise for weight control, and overall negative portrayals and assumptions of being higher weight (3). Research shows that children can be deeply affected by these representations, comparing their own bodies and feeling pressure to change to look like those on screen, which can contribute to body dissatisfaction and poor self-esteem (4, 5).
A growing concern
What’s becoming more noticeable, though, is the casual normalisation of body concerns and diet chat in children’s media.
There are often representations of parents or adult figures who share their own struggles with appearance, bodies, or food. Content where a parent expresses dissatisfaction with their body/appearance and engages in body checking – an all-too-common narrative for many adults – can be harmful when absorbed by young, impressionable minds. Children who witness these moments may begin to internalise similar concerns about their own bodies, leading to unhealthy relationships with their body, food, and physical activity.
But it’s not just movies and TV! Even some classroom books and home readers are guilty of pushing outdated or harmful ideas about food and bodies, for example portraying mums on a diet, or glorifying being thin. Certain foods are labelled as healthy/unhealthy or good/bad, which reinforces unhelpful dichotomous thinking around eating. In many popular stories, characters’ body sizes change through gluttony, magic potions, or tricks—implying that being fat is an undesired outcome or a punishment for bad behaviour.
Why is this normalised?
Despite the decades of research and anecdotal evidence, from those with lived experience of body dissatisfaction and/or eating disorders, telling us that the language and behaviours about bodies, food and movement that adults use around children is potentially harmful for children’s body image and eating, these messages remain commonplace in children’s media. Why?
One reason is that disordered eating behaviours have become so embedded in our society that they’ve seeped into children’s content, often overlooked as relatable or humorous. Fitness and wellness trends that emphasise weight loss, cutting food groups, or adopting extreme diets are widely accepted as normal—even aspirational. So, this content makes its way into children’s media as it’s often presented as ‘light-hearted’ and is relatable to the adults enjoying the media with children (a clever tactic!). But normalising these attitudes and behaviours is not helpful for our children’s developing relationships with their body, eating, and physical activity.
So, what can we do to help?
Now, more than ever, children need our help to be resilient to the many harmful media messages they encounter every day. Here’s what we can do:
Encourage children to value who they are, not how they look. Shift the focus from appearance to character, skills, and talents.
Be mindful of the language used around bodies, food, and exercise. Avoid negative body talk and moral judgements about food (e.g., good/bad, healthy/unhealthy, clean/toxic, “junk”).
Choose media carefully. Make sure that the media children consume at home and in the classroom is age-appropriate and promote positive messages about bodies and food.
Celebrate diversity in appearance. Expose children to stories and media that respect and celebrate a range of body shapes, sizes, and appearances.
Teach critical thinking skills. Encourage children to question the messages they see in media. Ask questions like: “What is the purpose of this message?” or “Do you think this is true for everyone in real life?”
Challenge harmful stereotypes. When watching a movie or reading a book that includes harmful body or food messages, discuss them with children. Ask questions like, “Why do you think that character is shown as a hero/villain?” or “Is it true that people in real life look like this?”
Remove unhelpful materials from classrooms. Avoid texts or media that promote dieting, calorie counting, focus on weight as a measure of worth, or calculate BMI.
Ultimately, the goal is not to shield children from media entirely but to equip them with the tools they need to critically engage with it. As adults, we have the power to help shape the way children view themselves and the world around them. By being mindful of the media they consume and promoting media literacy, we can help to foster a generation that values diversity in appearance, celebrates being unique, and cultivates a healthy relationship with food and physical activity.
Butterfly Body Bright is here to help!
Primary schools
Register for the Butterfly Body Bright program to access online staff training on supporting media literacy and positive body image in your classroom and lessons you can use with students from Foundation to Year 6, PLUS a Body Bright school pack and MORE!
Or check out Butterfly’s programs and services for schools and youth professionals.
Families
Families of children aged 5-12, find out more about what you can do at home with Body Bright Families FREE resources (including a tip sheet specifically on being RESILIENT to unhelpful media messages). Also available in 5 languages.
Families of teens, access the Body Kind Families resources.
References:
1. Rodgers et al. (2017). Media exposure in very young girls: Prospective and cross-sectional relationships with BMIz, self-esteem and body size stereotypes. Developmental Psychology. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/dev0000407
2. Herbozo et al. (2004). Beauty and thinness messages in children’s media: A content analysis. Eating disorders. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10640260490267742
3. Harriger et al. (2018). Appearance-related themes in children’s animated movies released between 2004 and 2016: A content analysis. Body Image. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bodyim.2018.06.004
4. De Coen et al. (2024). Body dissatisfaction and low self-esteem in elementary school-aged children: The role of media pressure and trust in parent-child relationships. Frontiers in Psychology. https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1228860/full
5. Rousseau et al. (2020). A biopsychosocial model for understanding media internalization and appearance dissatisfaction among preadolescent boys and girls. Communication Research. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0093650217739996