The 2001 film Spy Kids is about two children Carmen and Juni Cortez who must save their parents who are spies captured by a children’s television star by the name of Floop. Carmen and Juni are often at odds with each other with their contrasting personalities. Carmen is an independent and confident older sister while Juni is the scared and younger brother who makes frequent mistakes. Compared to the analyzes of children’s books done by Lenore Weitzman in her journal Sex-Role Socialization in Picture Books for Preschool Children and the release of Spy Kids it is apparent that great progress has been made over the years in the dynamics of gender roles shown in the media.
Spy Kids heavily emphasizes family from the beginning of the film. Carmen and Juni share a bedroom, much to Carmen’s dismay. Gregorio, Carmen and Juni’s father, is of Latin descent and puts a lot of emphasis on family, likely because of his Latin heritage. “Remember, you are a Cortez” is something Gregorio tells Juni, which is a way to use the family name to give Juni strength. After
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Weitzman states in her journal that there are differences between men and women in children’s books which reflect these traditional values of the 20th century. Women, typically mothers are often depicted as “nagging” while men, often the fathers are the ones who take their children to the “circus, park and zoo” (Weitzman, 1143). Very little holds true in Spy Kids, where Ingrid, the mother and Gregorio, the father display very little of these traits. The most “nagging” Ingrid gets is when she tells her children to go to brush their teeth and get ready for bed in the beginning of the story. And on the other side, Gregorio does not truly get a chance to take his children to the “circus, park and zoo” as he is separated from his children very early in the