Portrayal of Gender in Chutti Television Targeting Tamil Children

Young children tend to select toys based on gender. The boys tend to play with cars and machines and the girls tend to play with dolls. Gender differences are not biologically based. Young children think about gender in the same way they think about species of animals. They believe, for example, that a boy's preference for football is innate, as is a girl's preference for dolls, just as a cat's behaviour is innately different from that of a dog. Children choose social goals and strategies based on the influence of information from their social environment. In this context questions do arise, indicating television's significant role in accepting the gender factor among children. Though many criticisms are piled on TV, this factor of gender portrayal in children channels do have a greater impact. This is a gender study on Chutti TV, launched on April 29, 2007. Although the series telecast are foreign productions, they are dubbed in the native language to attract the Tamil audience which mainly consists of children. The language does have an influence of its own kind in delivering the messages clear and straight.