Abstract

BALISCEI, João  and  VAGLIATI, Ana Carla. Visual culture, gender and packaging science games: (How) girls play science?. Sér.-Estud. [online]. 2021, vol.26, n.57, pp.185-208.  Epub Oct 18, 2021. ISSN 2318-1982.  https://doi.org/10.20435/serie-estudos.v26i57.1505.

The representations of adults about what is considered feminine and masculine reinforce gender stereotypes and, therefore, toys, games, and other artifacts of visual culture tend to characterize boys and girls in different ways. How are the gender identities of girls and boys represented in children’s science games? Do the girls appear on the packaging of these games? When do they appear, how they are presented? To answer these questions, in this documentary and analytical article, we aim to problematize the representations of science and femininity in children’s games packaging. For this purpose, we investigated 38 packs of children’s science games sold in 2017. During the analysis, we divided this amount of packs into five groups, which were investigated based on Gender Studies and Visual Culture Studies. We evaluated that the packaging of scientific games analyzed suggests a female “non-protagonism” in science games. We found, in these artifacts, the absence of visual routers that invite girls to play/do science, unless the activities involve taking care of the body, doing housework, and acting as assistants.

Keywords : education; childhood; visualities.

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