<p>A B S T R A C T</p><p>P U R P O S E / A I M : The main objective of this essay is to investigate the difference of visual representation between girls and boys in two mail order catalogues - Ellos and La Redoute. I want to examine how girls and boys interact in the pictures of the catalogues and what kind of activities are going on. Do these activities differentiate between the girls and the boys? Does the representation differ if the children are in a group or by themselves? A second objective is to compare these representations between the two catalogues.</p><p>M A T E R I A L / M E T H O D : Two mail order catalogues are used, Ellos (Swedish) and La Redoute (originally French). The material consists of 345 pictures of children. I looked for two main phenomena in the pictures; facial expressions and activities. These were counted and compared in different aspects. Three main categories were compared: group size, age and sex. The quantitative empirical results are analysed within the theoretical framework of Yvonne Hirdman.</p><p>M A I N R E S U L T S : There are differences between girls and boys in mail order catalogues. The boys are represented as more active and more “manly”: they do more sports and they never touch each other. The girls are portrayed as more stereotypic female; they are picking flowers, holding hands and are playing in comparison to the boys who seem to take things more seriously. These differences are more characteristic of La Redoute, the French catalogue.</p><p>K E Y W O R D S : Genus, barn, postorderkataloger, kön, könsroller, homosocialitet, könssocialisation, medier, identitet, stereotyper.</p>

A B S T R A C T P U R P O S E / A I M : The main objective of this essay is to investigate the difference of visual representation between girls and boys in two mail order catalogues - Ellos and La Redoute. I want to examine how girls and boys interact in the pictures of the catalogues and what kind of activities are going on. Do these activities differentiate between the girls and the boys? Does the representation differ if the children are in a group or by themselves? A second objective is to compare these representations between the two catalogues. M A T E R I A L / M E T H O D : Two mail order catalogues are used, Ellos (Swedish) and La Redoute (originally French). The material consists of 345 pictures of children. I looked for two main phenomena in the pictures; facial expressions and activities. These were counted and compared in different aspects. Three main categories were compared: group size, age and sex. The quantitative empirical results are analysed within the theoretical framework of Yvonne Hirdman. M A I N R E S U L T S : There are differences between girls and boys in mail order catalogues. The boys are represented as more active and more “manly”: they do more sports and they never touch each other. The girls are portrayed as more stereotypic female; they are picking flowers, holding hands and are playing in comparison to the boys who seem to take things more seriously. These differences are more characteristic of La Redoute, the French catalogue. K E Y W O R D S : Genus, barn, postorderkataloger, kön, könsroller, homosocialitet, könssocialisation, medier, identitet, stereotyper.