Hey Arnold

In the beloved Nickelodeon series, Hey Arnold, there are several example of gender norm concepts. There are also some great examples how Hey Arnold writer's breaks those gender norms. Hey Arnold shows the stereotypical idea of an elementary mind set of how girls should act and how boys should act. Also how the certain characters break those norms 

Arnold, Gerald, Harold, and Stinky always go out to the empty lot and play baseball. Which is the typical gender norm of being a boy and playing sports and being competitive. But the example of how Hey Arnold writers broke that norm was through Helga, who is the bully in the neighborhood. Which the stereotypical idea of a bully is a boy, but Helga  is represented as the tough shell and no one is welcome in; except Arnold but she still picks on him. But since she has that "boy mindset" she is able to join the boys when they play baseball.

Also with the other characters we have on Hey Arnold is Phoebe who breaks the gender norms because she is the smart one of the group.  In today’s society it is becoming normal for women to show of their intelligence, but in the 90’s that was still a hot topic on women can actually have beauty and brains! Hey Arnold writer’s also had a Harold who was tough on the outside, but on the inside he was a soft and would cry to his “mommy.” Since Harold was a boy, him crying to his mommy should that he was weak. But if Harold was a girl would be more socially acceptable because the society labels women more emotional and sensitive to their feelings. 

Another norm which is more cognitive is how the artists idea on creating the characters. This idea is something we discussed in class. Arnold’s outfit is dominantly blue, which is associated with boys and masculine.  And even though Helga is mean, and a bully she still wears a pink dress to seem more “feminine.”This color concept is something I remember very clearly talking about in class and without having that discussion I would have never realized the dress code because its so normal for girls to be associated to pink and boys to blue.