Child detective stories and genus. A study about gender stereotypes in child detective stories from the year 2006

The aim of this master’s thesis is to examine how male and female stereotypes are used to describe the characters in modern detective stories for children. We have analyzed six books in the aforementioned genre written for children between the ages of 9 and 12. This essay examines which inner qualities, appearances, activities and professions are used to describe the persons’ character in the analyzed books and if these stereotypes agree with the person’s biological sex. In this essay we use the gender definition of Professor Yvonne Hirdman. Hirdman defines a person’s gender as a socially created structure, and sex as a person’s biological sex. The method used in this essay is a qualitative text analysis. In order to identify the stereotypes occurring in the examined books, we have created our own schedule for the analysis. This schedule consists of stereotypes that different theorists, such as Nikolajeva, Svaleryd, Connell and Murphy, say are stereotypes. Our conclusion is that modern detective stories written for children contain more male than female stereotypes. Overall the characters in the detective stories are not described in a stereotyped way. The girls and the women in the books are mostly described with male stereotypes, in some cases even more so than the boys/men. The adult men are mostly described with male stereotypes although the boys were described with many of the female stereotypes; in some cases the boys had almost no male stereotypes. Society is changing and many men these days are involved in housework and spend more time with their children, a change that is visible in the modern detective stories for children