Wednesday, February 2, 2011
What message are children really getting?
A discussion in class the other day sparked an idea in my mind. This rose when we were discussing the chapter called "Feminist Education for Critical Consciousness" in Bell Hooks' book "Feminism is for Everybody." Hooks has stated that "Children's literature is one of the most crucial sites for feminist education for critical consciousness precisely because beliefs and identities are still being formed." I definitely agree with this statement. There are not many children's books which have moms are the ones going to the office making a lot of money and the fathers are staying home and cooking breakfast. But we could talk about all of the stereotypes that women face in children's literature forever, but instead I wanted to mention a specific character that we all know and love, Rabbit from Winnie the Pooh. I always thought that because rabbit was a male, becuase she didn't have a high pitched "feminine voice" and because she was much more "strong," "confident," "confrontational," and possessed other "non-feminine" or non-stereotypically female traits. Then I saw an episode of the show where she took in a childlike figure and the characters were referring to her as a girl and it was then that I realized that there are female figures out there who are different from the stereotype. Although it took her having a "child" for me to realize she was female, it was so strange to me that she was so different because I was so young. I was wondering if anyone else could think of similar experiences that challenged gender/sexuality from their childhood like I did.
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I remember watching Winnie The Pooh as a kid, but I don't know if I ever realized that Rabbit was a female. A character that comes to mind is Helga from Hey Arnold. Even though on one hand, she made a shrine to her beloved football headed classmate, she was unlike the other girls in the class because she was kind of a bully and in some episodes refused to be "girly". I always liked Helga because she went against the grain.
ReplyDeleteWait, I think Rabbit IS a male...and Kanga, the mom, was the only female...or did they change the gender after I was a kid?
ReplyDeleteI had no idea Rabbit was a female. Is she? I just remember Kanga being female, but that was because of Roo.
ReplyDeleteAlthough, I still had a similar experience with Blue's Clue's. I used to think that Blue was a boy and Magenta was a girl; color differences for one thing, but I was also led to believe that Blue was a boy because she was the smart, loud, main character. Now, this shouldn't mean anything because I am the loud-mouth in all of my classes and being intelligent is my highest priority. However, as a little girl I was absolutely sure that Blue was a boy, until I realized Joe said "Where is SHE going?" or something along those lines... Now that I look back, I realize how much color plays into a child's perception of characters. I don't know whether or not it is such a big deal that Blue is a girl, but I'm definitely mixed. Blue was a girl, yet she had "male" attributes. Did the writers do this because they wanted to show girls were just as strong/smart as boys? Or were they saying that girls have to be just LIKE boys with their attributes? But it is a children's cartoon so maybe it was just the use of bright colors rather than symbolism?
I just read Sarah Perry's post about Disney movies and portraying women in children's movies/books. These movies/books are written to show women (the disney princesses) finding who they are and the strength in their lives. BUT, they also send out the message that your life will turn around and you will be happy if you are beautiful and are able to find the man of society's dreams. Why can't there be children's literature or movies with a heroine who is doing what she wants in her life without having to be gorgeous and falling in love? Is that all life's about? No.
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