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Posts from the ‘In the News’ Category

Feb 12

Bringing Up Baby

Tom Ashbrook’s show On Point challenges the notion that there are universals in parenting in last Tuesday’s episode, “Bringing Up Baby.” He interviewed Pamela Druckerman, author of Bringing up Bebe: One American Mother Discovers the Wisdom of French Parenting, and developmental psychologist, Jennifer Lansford.

The French focus on a balance between parenting and being adults. According to Druckerman, parents interfere less with their child’s experiences, believing that “kids and adults need space and privacy to cultivate their inner lives.”

Peter Stearns, in the chapter from Anxious Parents entitled “I’m Bored”, explains how much of modern American parenting is a response to children’s boredom and the guilt felt by parents to entertain them.

"It was so easy to think of food as a legitimate reward for being a child when a parent was too busy to offer more elaborate entertainments or felt guilty about not having enough time to spend." (p. 25) (click for source)

Druckerman’s discussion of children’s food made me reflect on my childhood. My poor mom must have had such a hard task pleasing my very picky sister and me. She likes to joke that always if one of us liked a meal, the other wouldn’t. Druckerman says that there are no kids foods in France. Kids inevitably won’t like every food they’re given, so parents just require them to taste the food. The American way, in contrast, is indulgence. Peter Stearns, in his book Anxious Parents, argues, “Tolerance of children’s eating habits… resulted from the real commitment to providing pleasure” (p. 25). In other words, eating is another way to entertain kids.

The perceived frailty of American children is discussed both by Druckerman and Stearn. Druckerman says that French children are more autonomous, and French parents are more comfortable setting boundaries.

Childrearing beliefs are strongly tied to the culture they are found in. I think Stearn’s observation of parents’ obsession with entertaining their children are reflected in our society’s own entertainment consumption habits among adults.

Feb 12

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The Return of the Superhero

With the upcoming 2012 Toy Fair looming in New York City today, children, adults, and toy fanatics alike are anxiously awaiting the release of the year’s newest playthings.  People from all over will flock to New York to have a special look into the newest special action figures, games, and other child playthings making their debut this year. Playthings from the ever-popular Mattel, LEGO, Hasbro and Diamond Select toy-makers will be previewed in at the annual event.  Previews have suggested the return of everyone’s favorite comic book superheroes, most notably Batman and Superman.

Mr. Potato Head as Superman for the 60th Anniversary of Mr. Potato Head products

Superman, a favorite superhero and “Champion of the Oppressed” during the Depression Era (Hajdu 30), returns in new form, this time coming to stores as a Mr. Potato Head. Batman will also be returning in Potato Head form, in the first time DC Comics will be represented as the iconic plaything. Toy-makers are going beyond the Potato Head toy to bring the ever-popular Batman into this year’s newest toys. Mattel and LEGO are joining in on the revived DC Comic superhero fanatics and bringing the comic heroes even more into the spotlight. LEGO is bringing in new sets of the favorite superheros from the DC Comics, formerly known by National Periodicals, of the previous century with Batman, the Hulk, Iron Man and Captain America. (Hadju 31)  Mattel is staying to true to the popular trends of the current century by building and continuing their line of Batman action figures and toy sets.

The 2012 Toy Fair brings toys from all facets of current popular culture  in the New York debut, but continues to hold onto to the favorites created during the early comic era, appealing to children and adults alike.

Feb 12

GOP response to newly proposed child labor regulations

Recently, the Obama administration has proposed several new child labor laws pertaining to agricultural work, and Republican Congressman Danny Rehberg, from Montana, has accused the administration of trying to meddle and not knowing enough about the situation before getting involved. These new laws would target young people working on farms, and would try to limit the sorts of tasks they are allowed to perform in their work. In this article, found in the Huffington Post, Rehberg attacks the new laws and claims that the work they target is perfectly safe for young people. He says, ”You can’t get hurt…It’s impossible. You could have a five-year-old out there running it.” Congressman Rehberg believes that this disconnect comes from people in Washington not truly understanding the work being done on American farms anymore. In his opinion, new technology makes previously unsafe tasks more fit for young laborers, and new safeguards will prevent injuries that previously occurred.

This is a grain auger, one of the types of farm machinery being targeted by the newly proposed child labor regulations.

As my fellow classmate, Daniela Hernandez, wrote in her piece Labor Department proposes new child labor laws, the reaction to the law is similar to the one discussed in Zelizer’s article on useful children. Farming families are attacking the law in a similar way to when Congress proposed child labor regulations in the 1920’s, as an invasion of the rights of parents to use their child’s labor for the benefit of the family (Zelizer, 36). I agree with this connection, in that families who use the labor of their children on family farms still feel that the government has no business meddling in their affairs. They believe that through new innovations in safety technology, the labor is safer than ever and is not a threat to children. Along with this, they also feel that the federal government is overstepping its boundaries in legislating on a topic that should be left to state governments.

Feb 11

Reality World for Comics

There’s a new reality show airing on February 11th.  Comic Book Men will take viewers into the“sacred geek temple” of a retail comic book store. Kevin Smith, comic book writer and film producer, is the brains behind the show. The storyline revolves around the four guys who work in the store and who also model for Smith’s comic book characters.

The show features an all-male cast, which has received criticism because of the lack of females.  Smith acknowledges that both women and African-Americans are both under-represented in comics and sees this as something that needs to change.  He also points out that non-geeks can feel alienated when they enter a retail comic store.  He hopes his new show will make mainstream America more comfortable with the comic industry.

youtube, Mingchen, Jan. 1, 2012

According to a recent survey by DC Comics, males make up 93% of its readers. Blogger Henry Hanks, a contributor on CNN Geek Out!,  confirms that there is an entire culture of geeks out there who thrive on the characters and stories contained in comics. We saw an example of this in the video we watched in class about the geek collector.

Todays’ comic books contain the same stereotypes that readers encounters in the 1940s – females with big boobs, and males with huge muscles. The storylines haven’t changed either – men in capes are still rescuing helpless women. In the book, The Ten-Cent Plague, David Hadju, takes the reader through the history of comics and helps decipher the intense attraction many have towards these books.

The comic industry as a whole is suffering economically and the hope for this show is that it will expose non-geeks to the art of comic collecting and increase readership.

Feb 3

Vulnerability of Children


In an article entitled “A Touch During Recess, and Reaction is Swift” (Scott James, The New York Times) (and also in the YouTube video), the author covers the case of a first grader, only six years old, who was suspended for alleged sexual assault. What really happened is unsure because there were no witnesses besides the two boys involved. However, during a game of tag, the first grader was accused of touching the upper thigh area of another boy. The West Contra Costa Unified School District spokesperson was not allowed to speak about the actual event, but did state that any type of assault is taken very seriously. Many believe this to be due to bullying and recent rises in suicides.

This article can be connected to the debate of how vulnerable or innocent children really are, which is a concept that Peter Stearns addresses in his “Intro” and “Bored” (pgs. 3 and 173) chapters that we read. While Stearns explains the increasing popular support behind the idea of the vulnerable child, particularly in connection with the media, the idea that children are innocent is apparent in this article. This is shown through the statements made by the mother of the accused child, who says that tag is just a game and her son had no evil intentions. Further backing for the idea of innocence in this article is that many people were shocked when “such adult criminal intent was applied to a matter involving young children.” According to the article, in the state of California, matters of sexual intent can only be applied to students in the fourth grade or older. This implies that children up to the age of 9 or 10 are innocent when it comes to sexual matters. Because of this law, the first grade boy was able to get his school records cleared.

I agree that kids are inherently innocent. As one of my classmates mentioned when we discussed this idea, she knows (as do I) kids who can sing along to rap songs with suggestive or violent lyrics, but have no idea what they are talking about. I, myself, used to do this as well, despite the fact that my parents refused to buy me certain cd’s (The Spice Girls). Most people might not entertain the same theories of childhood innocence that I do, instead choosing to believe that children are vulnerable to what they see on television and in movies. I think that there comes a time in every child’s life when he or she begins to understand. I think it’s different for each child, as well as different for each touchy subject. For example, one child might understand violence before they understand sexual matters. I suppose that the real issue here is WHEN children become vulnerable or impressionable, and how adults can really tell when this change occurs.

 

 

Feb 3

No Ruffles!

Girly Lego figure.

When I was eight years old I was the flower girl at my Aunt’s wedding. It was all fun and games through the rehearsal and doing my hair. It was all fun and games until they brought in the dress.

I slumped down to the floor, pulling my favorite move, “no bones”. I kicked my feet, and slammed my fists into anyone who came at me with the giant ruffly puff of fabric.

The wedding was delayed by an hour.

I was an eight year old girl, whose girl friends played with barbies and their mother’s high heels, while I through my barbies into the fan and chose the woods with the boys instead.

Even with all the progress in equality for race, sex and orientation, there are still gender roles that play a big part in raising a child. It is seen everywhere, Disney princesses, Comic Book movies and now even Legos.

With the release of Lego’s new “Lego Friends”, came a backlash of 50,000 petitioners saying enough is enough.

A letter from Callie the ten year old daughter of Melissa Wardy, who started the Pigtail Pals clothing line directed towards breaking the gender role standards, states “There are plenty of smart and creative girls out there eager to play with Legos. Do you want that to be ruined, by giving th

em only a beauty salon to create?” 

As a former tom boy, who still plays with my brother’s Star Wars lego set, the idea of distinguishing a difference between the “boy” and “girl” way to play with what are basically glorified building blocks with endless possibilities is RIDICULOUS.

Feb 3

Christmas Spending

Growing up in my family, the holidays were a huge deal. We would gather around the tree and spend hours opening presents.  It was everyone’s favorite day of the year, but not just because of the receiving of presents, a large part of the enjoyment was spending the day with my whole family which does not happen often and seeing the look on their faces when they would open a present that I put effort into looking for and making sure they would like.

Gary Cross’s view of the American Christmas and it being about the spending of money on presents to show off one’s wealth is I believe a bad way of depicting Christmas.  The act of giving presents to your child at least one day a year is a tradition that should keep going.  I believe the majority of parents give their kids presents with the expectation of making their child happy, and if those gifts somehow boast about the wealth of the parents then that is further down the list of expectations for the parents, at least this is how my parents felt.  According to The NY Times the act of giving gifts is important in the role of interaction and the bonding of a family.  Psychologists also believe that the giver of the gifts often reaps more “psychological benefits” then the recipient.  While it is okay to cut back on spending during the holidays, and not overly spoil your child with outrageous gifts, it is still important to keep the gift giving experience alive because if it were gone then you would be missing out on an important connection with your family.

While Christmas has become bigger and bigger during the last century and the act of gift giving has become more extravagant, I still believe that the main purpose of Christmas is still understood.  Even if the world is made aware of our wealth by our giving that does not mean it is a bad.  In 2006, Americans donated almost $300 billion to charities and without the wealth of our nation these donations never would have been made.  According to Tracy Ryan, an associate professor of advertising research at Virginia Commonwealth, “It [gift-giving] shows that a lot of the pleasure is in the giving, knowing you’ve taken care of someone.”

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