Bluey is a Girl?!: Examining Gender Representation in America’s No. 1 TV Show for Children

Quindelda “Q.” McElroy (Ph.D. Student), “Bluey is a Girl?!: Examining Gender Representation in America’s No. 1 TV Show for Children” has been accepted for presentation at the 108th annual AEJMC Conference in San Francisco August 7th-10th.

Abstract: ​The animated children’s series Bluey is now the No. 1 most-watched show in America. Hailing from Australia, the series is centered around an anthropomorphized 6-year-old cattle dog and her family and consistently draws millions of views across the globe. While the award-winning TV series is targeted toward preschool children, it is an undeniable hit with older kids and adults as well. Yet, some people are shocked to learn that Bluey’s eponymous character is a girl. The confusion is credited partly to the Australian program’s limited use of long-held gendered conventions often seen in U.S. media, including stereotypical clothing, accessories, hairstyles, and colors. The most perplexing signal for some is that the character Bluey looks just like her dad and is visualized by the color blue, which typically symbolizes the male gender. The show’s massive popularity has led scholars to examine its impact on children’s education, digital media globalization, and adult fandoms, but little has been said about its broader cultural impacts. This study seeks to fill that gap by engaging reception theory and gender theory to examine whether Bluey subverts conventional U.S. social norms and explore the resulting sociocultural implications for American audiences.