Where am I?
A case for equal representation in content for children
I am a Product Development Manager at Key Education Foundation — a not for profit NGO that works for Early Childhood Education (ECE). A major part of my work consists of conceptualizing and creating content for parents, teachers and caregivers of children in the age group 3–8 years to create awareness on topics related to growth and development, nutrition, and safety of children in the early years. As expected, I spend a long time researching material or collaborating with experts in the field so that the end product that gets created is scientifically accurate as well as contextual for our beneficiaries.
The internet, being the treasure trove that it is, supplies me with plenty of resources to ensure the accuracy of the content that we create. Context, however, continues to be a problem. And the driving factor behind this article.
Before I explain further, I’d like to describe the stages of our content creation at a high level.
As a team, the types of product that we create includes pre-primary curriculum books and related lesson plans, training material for teachers and parents, activity worksheets, and videos to name a few. We start with the objectives that we want the children, teachers or parents to learn; then we identify the mode of disseminating that knowledge (image, story, activity, video etc) and finally go on to designing and creating the same. We rely more on images and narration than text considering that our beneficiaries are primarily either children in kindergarten, or parents from low income communities who, in many cases, may not have had a formal education themselves. Throughout this process, we keep a watchful eye on how the product is developing so that its accuracy and relevance are not compromised.
Images are powerful tools, particularly for young children — not only do they build our vocabulary as a learner, they also shape our aspirations. The images that we see literally define our vision — for ourselves and for others. What we see, we can strive for. Conversely what we don’t see, we can’t acknowledge. Hence, my problem with the images (and lack thereof).
The first thing that strikes me when I look at illustrations in children’s textbooks and storybooks is a gender stereotype. With the exception of teachers and nurses, almost every vocation is represented by a male. Be it doctors, firefighters (usually written fire-men), police officers (again, policemen), pilots, engineers, athletes or the blue collared jobs like mechanics, sweepers, security guards, drivers, shopkeepers — the books are filled with images of men in positions of control, authority, decision-making or shown as serving the community. Unfortunately, things aren’t much different when we look for images on the internet for our books and videos. When we look for images of professions, we see most of the images that come up in the search results depicting the same stereotypes.
Another more disconcerting problem is a subtle (and sometimes not that subtle) sexualization of girls in these images whether it is girls at school or at home, or women as mothers, teachers or in corporate roles such as managers or bosses. At school — the girl is turned into a doll — fair complexion, rosy cheeks, not a hair out of place, wearing a short skirt — sometimes raising her hands or explaining something alongside a teacher, but rarely in a sports field, or on a stage or a podium. (As an educator, I have another bone to pick with the images for a playground or a sports field — they go from a kindergarten playground to images of a formal sports field with mostly boys playing. It feels like a betrayal to children that people don’t see the need to show both girls and boys engaging in free outdoor play at least for the purpose of physical exercise if not a more holistic growth.) At home — the woman is the multitasker — taking care of cooking, cleaning, laundry, and bringing up children. The images of women taking a break are often caricatures, suggesting a deviation from her normal or expected role. When it comes to a work environment, the woman is portrayed as stubborn or aggressive for having agency, or as an object of desire; with greater focus on her looks, clothes, body and style than on her skill, abilities, ambitions or the contribution that she makes to the home or to her workplace.
As a result, the dilemma that gets thrust upon us, and with other organizations like ours who work with limited finances to create content for children, is whether to use images that promote gender stereotypes or those which promote objectification of girls and women.
While making a video on Child Safety in Public Places, we wanted to recreate a grocery shopping scene at a supermarket, and started to search for clipart images related to “shopping”. The search results that came up perfectly explain the stereotypes that I am referring to. For one — the results showed more women than men. Furthermore, while men were shown shopping with a purpose, the women in the images had an unmistakable tone of extravagance and indulgence.
Apart from these gender stereotypes, there’s another major problem related to representation that we frequently face while looking for images with a creative commons license. This arises from the fact that the images resemble the people who have made them, who invariably belong to a majority class. So when we, working in the development sector, look for contextual images for our beneficiaries, we are often left short-changed; because our beneficiaries can neither relate to nor aspire to become the people they see in those images. It simply serves to reinforce the idea that to be recognized and respected, one has to look a certain way or dress a certain way; one has to belong to a certain gender, caste and religion, or even ethnicity. Such unnatural representations only further stereotypes and add to existing biases. In an attempt to re-visualize the future of young learners and build a different word-view, we often find that the tools that are best suited to do so promote the same handicap that we are trying to overcome.
What this lack of representation through images does is block sources of inspiration for children. A child belonging to the economically weaker section remains unable to picture themselves uplifted from that state. A child from an socio-economically advantaged group stays in a bubble that alienates all others who don’t look, dress or talk like them. In addition, when victories of people from marginalized communities are glorified in TV and print media, it makes well-deserving success seem like an unattainable goal only possible through toil and sacrifice, or worse — luck. It cements the belief that to be born in a situation means to have to live through it without any chance to change it. It makes the blooming of a flower amidst concrete a spectacle to celebrate, instead of digging up the concrete to allow a natural, equitable ground to grow.
So what does it mean for me? From the lens of a content creator, it means I have to include specific adjectives while searching for images — “Indian” and “woman” being the most common. And even then, I have to filter out the images that disrespect the strength and dignity of women, and make conscious searches for including images of minority communities like Muslims and differently abled.
But I feel more concerned for the children from the lower income communities who are building their knowledge of the world through books. If I were a bespectacled, brown skinned, South Indian girl, or a plump, dark skinned Muslim boy, or a scrawny girl in a wheelchair, would I be able to find inspirations for my role in the society from the images that I saw in books, newspapers and on television? Or would I look at myself and resent my complexion, gender, religion or any other essential features of my identity? If someone asked me what do you want to do when you grow up, what references would I use to visualize myself as a working professional? Would I have anything to aspire to outside of what I see in my family or my community? And when I did see adults with similar physical traits in real life achieving the kind of professional success that I hadn’t been able to imagine for myself, would I be able to give them the respect they deserved? Or would I simply look at it as a matter of chance and dismiss the possibility of ever achieving that goal myself?
The one source which we have come to rely on considerably is Storyweaver. The platform is a rich repository of thousands of simple, contextual, and beautifully illustrated stories that are available in multiple Indian and foreign languages and open source for users to read, download, share, and even use to create their own content. Platforms like these go a long way in ensuring that the world is represented the way it is — diverse.
Children, irrespective of which section of society they belong to, are impressionable, young people. As parents, educators, writers, publishers, artists, athletes, or any other profession having even a tangential connection with children, it is up to us to present a healthy and balanced worldview in which each child can imagine playing a meaningful role when they grow up. What we need are resources — images, stories in print and videos that are enriched with examples that strengthen this perspective — of children of all genders, colours, races, sizes and abilities having agency; of men sharing housework and child rearing responsibilities; of women of all ages, races, and body types working in various professional roles and being recognized for their skill rather than their appearances; and of people being kind to themselves and compassionate to all others. Let us fill the internet with images that represent and uphold the diversity of the world. Let us make sure that every growing child who is listening to stories, reading books, or engaging in digital content, and thinking about the relevance of the content with their lives, and asking themselves — “Where am I in this scene?”, can find the representation that makes them want to engage with it and allows them to dream a future that is more hopeful for them, their community and the world.
