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Feb 15

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“Eagle Dad”

Four year old Duoduo

    On February 9, 2012, CNN posted an article about a Chinese family that sparked controversy from the U.S. to Beijing about Chinese parenting techniques.  In the article, the father of a four year old little boy posted a video where he demonstrates his parental philosophies by showing his son with hardly any clothes on running in the snow crying for his parents to pick him up.  The father says he and his wife made their son run and lay in the snow, wearing only shoes and his underpants, to toughen him up.  I personally believe that parents should be able to raise their children as long as they are not seen as unfit.  I would never require that my own child do as the four year old was depicted in the CNN article, however, I would also not support anyone telling a parent how to raise their children.  I personally believe that rearing a child with a belt is a great way to teach a child a lesson when others may call the slightest infliction of pain “child abuse.”

So, what I have noticed when children are the root of a social dispute is that there is a very fine line between what is best for a child and what is harmful to that child.  In her book “From Useful to Useless,” Viviana A. Zelizer tells how social disputes concerning child labor laws emerged at the turn of the 20th century.  By the age of six, children were starting to help out their families by entering into the work force.  Those who opposed children working this early might have referred to child labor as “child slavery” just as Indiana Senator Albert Beveridge did. (36)  Christians felt that “A man who defends the child labor that violates the personalities of children is not a Christian…” (37)  Would making your child run around half naked in freezing cold weather violate the personality of that child?  The Chinese father says that his parenting doesn’t go against his son’s will.  His method could be argue as “greedy and brutal tyrants” just as Employers of young children were depicted as in Zelizer’s writings. (37)

What if the Chinese father was also raised the same way he chooses to raise his son?  Could he associate his upbringing with his success?  Many people who argued for child labor felt just as such.  People who grew up on their families farm working hard thought it helped instill honor, virtue, and a greater work ethic.  They believed children who weren’t required to work would be weaker than the hard working population.  This is very similar to the Chinese dad believing that his parental technique would strengthen his son both mentally and physically in the long run.  In Ross F. Collins’, “Boy Scouts: A Battle for Martial Values,” there was a similar dispute over our young generation being taught to be militant.  Those who believed in this type of traing felt that “modern life was sapping the American boy of his strength.” (104)  So, how far is too far?

Well, with great disputes comes mass media.  What helped the labor reformers according to Zelizer, was the rising popularity of the issue. (36)  Seeing that this father’s video of his parenting technique made a guest appearance on CNN, we may experience a rise in awareness that could trigger a reform in Chinese parenting laws.

Feb 15

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Caramel Delight

In a recent news article about Girls Scouts selling cookies

Girl Scout cookies, theothermccain.com/

, the organization claims to build the girl’s business and entrepreneurial skills through the selling of these cookies. The article points out five main elements of selling cookies that facilitates better business skills. These elements include:

  1. You should work with already existing customers to boost your sales, rather than going out and trying to find new consumers.
  2. You do not have to particularly like what you’re selling in order to be the best person selling it.
  3. Dialing random numbers (referred to here as cold calling) is not necessarily a terrible way to boost your sales.
  4. Sales targets work by giving you a sales goal to reach.
  5. Customers like buying directly from the Girl Scout.

This article relates back to two class discussions we have had in the recent weeks. One of the discussions, and readings, was particularly related to the rough rode Girls Scouts had before becoming recognized as boy scout equivalent and equal counterpart. However, even though the image presented by the selling of cookies does not give girls the feeling of being a part of physical labor, or a war, they do learn to put themselves in a masculine position. Corporate America has long been dominated by male America and by teaching young girls the ins and outs of how to be a great business woman, even on a small scale, they better prepare these girls to be a in a male dominated industry.

Today in class, we also touched on how a platform directed toward a specific consumer audience helps people buy into that idea. Girl Scouts are specifically made to empower girls and by creating this platform, people who put their children in this organization are buying into this particular platform. Thus, it does give the Girl Scouts organization a moral obligation to live up to their mission.

 

 

Feb 15

Dance Moms Controversy

Recently, reality television has evolved to include children as entertainment to American viewers. Popular shows like “Toddlers and Tiaras,” and “Dance Moms” have received much criticism for the way children, mostly young girls, are being exploited. As Sarah Porter mentions in her blog about “Toddlers and Tiaras,” the amount of preparation for pageants is a lot of work and pressure for young girls. This is also seen in “Dance Moms,” which follows a group of girls ages 6-13 in the Abbey Lee Dance Company. The show highlights all of the hard work and pressures that it takes to be a successful dancer. The young girls in the show spend hours everyday at the dance studio practicing, and on the weekends compete in dance competitions all over the country. In recent controversy, actress Katherine Heigl, slammed the show “Dance Moms” for how it exploits young girls. Heigl mentions in her blog, “girls as young as seven were encouraged to dress provocatively and shimmy around stage doing a dance performance that could just as easily been a burlesque routine. I kept thinking all these girls were missing is a pole!” Heigl goes on to rant more about how Abbey Lee, the dance instructor for the young girls is too harsh with them and yells at them instead of encouraging them. Heigl insists that shows like “Dance Moms” encourage children to think that acting sexy is the best way to succeed, when instead children could be performing with age appropriate routines.

When reading Kasson’s article, “Behind Shirley Temple’s Smile,” I immediately thought of the girls on “Dance Moms.” Like Shirley Temple, the girls on “Dance Moms” are expected to always be at their best in performances and put in many hours to succeed. Also, they have in common the aspect of flirtatiousness in their performances. While people loved Shirley Temple long ago, it seems we are still entertained by the same themes today.

Below is a video of the Abbey Lee Dance Company performance, ‘Electricity’

 

Feb 15

Mulan

My childhood was largely centered around Disney movies. My parents loved (the majority) of these films because they felt Disney often had a moral or teaching hidden within the story line. I loved them because my parents allowed my sisters and I to watch them religiously. When I was young, I would go through phases where I just watched a movie on repeat; Mulan was one of these.

The movie Mulan is centered around Fa Mulan, a young women and only child of the Fa Family, who has failed to fulfill the traditional Chinese duty of becoming a desirable bride. However, when the Huns begin to invade, the empire calls one man from every family to arms. Because the only male in the Fa Family is Mulan’s father, who is elderly and cannot walk properly, Mulan disguises herself and takes her father’s spot in battle against the Huns, sacrificing her life if she is to be caught. Mulan was produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and released on June 19, 1998, by Walt Disney Pictures. The film grossed over $304 million and received Academy Award and Golden Globe nominations.

Mulan is an interesting character because, unlike other Disney princesses, her actions are centered around bettering her family to where other Disney princesses focus their actions around winning over their Prince Charming. This relates to our multiple class discussions on gender roles. Often, the women (especially princesses) in Disney movies focus around winning over a guy by whatever means necessary. For example, Ariel in The Little Mermaid sacrifices her voice. However, many Disney movies centered around men do not focus on the male making major sacrifices for love. Therefore, Mulan is a special and unique Disney character because she sacrificed her life in order to save her family rather than to fulfill her own selfish desires of finding love.


Official Mulan Trailer, youtube.com

 

 

Feb 15

Disturbing Baby Burlesks

The “Baby Burklesk” video, “Polly Tix in Washington” is the perfect example of what John Kasson is speaking about when he says that Shirley Temple’s early roles were, “perched ambiguously on the cusp between innocence and flirtatiousness.” (Kasson, 131) In the satire Shirley plays an expensive call girl hired to seduce a new congressman into voting for a new bill on Castor Oil.  She is shown prancing around in a lace bra and expensive jewelry, and offering the baby congressman cake to persuade him. However, she winds up falling in love and almost getting herself killed until the baby congressman fights for her honor.

The video definitely makes a mockery of the children and their innocence.  In the final scene, Shirley tells the only black child featured in the film, that prosperity is just around the corner, and the film concludes with him running around the corners of the street searching for it.  It is also mildly disturbing that at an age where boys and girls typically think each other to have “cooties” they are playing prostitutes and fighting for love.

In class we spoke of contemporary examples of videos such as these, that use children to play roles they do not fully understand or ones pushed upon them by adults.  One example we spoke of was “Pearl the Landlord,” and I was immediately reminded of the parodies done by children who reenact episodes of The Hills, Jersey Shore, and The Real Housewives of New Jersey.  After watching these recent mockeries acted out by children, the ones Shirley Temple played in seemed slightly less disturbing.

 

Kids Act out “The Hills”

Kids Act out “Jersey Shore”

Kids Act out “Real Housewives of New Jersey”

Feb 15

“But I’m Expensive”

The Baby Burlesks series of shorts includes a 1933 lampoon of the national government entitled Polly Tix in Washington. The short depicts an “anti-castor oil” lobby using seedy methods to persuade a Western senator (characterized by his ten gallon hat and pistol belt) to join their cause. One of their methods is to enlist the help of Miss Polly Tix, portrayed by Shirley Temple, to seduce the senator. The short, to my knowledge, does not reference a specific film from the era, but instead plays upon popular opinion of the United States government during the Depression, depicting politicians as crooked or inept.

The main part of the short that supports Kasson’s arguments is the way that Shirley Temple and her character are portrayed. Polly Tix is essentionally a prostitute, with the character going as far as exclaiming that “[she’s] expensive.” She is also scantily clad throughout the short, and adorned with copious amounts of jewelry that she recieved for “being good.” This character fits what Kasson describes as “a surrogate for an adult – and frequently, a seductive – woman.” (131). Although these characters and situations are meant to be light-hearted and comedic, their use of children in such adult situations is slightly unnerving to a modern audience.

Despite confirming Kasson’s assertions toward child “flirtatiousness,” the end of Polly Tix in Washington doesn’t manipulate the joy of children to reaffirm the spirits of the viewers, but instead makes fun of American politicians by depicting a bumbling congressman searching aimlessly for “prosperity just around the corner.” This part of the short seemed slightly cynical compared to Kasson’s claims of childhood joy.

Feb 15

The Proud Family

Picture Credited to epguides.com

A favorite cartoon of mine at the age of 10 was The Proud Family on Disney Channel. It started airing in 2001, and depicted positive family life in  African American culture. As far as I knew, this was the only cartoon of this kind on television, although there were a few live action sitcoms on before and after The Proud Family aired.  The show was centered around a smart, respectable, 14 year old girl named Penny Proud. She lived in a house with both parents, and her grandmother. They lived in a nice neighborhood in which they were not the only minorities, and Penny’s cast of friends were very diverse.  This cartoon came as a model that African Americans did not have to live the way they were generalized.  At the time it was one of very few shows on Disney that featured a majority minority cast.  High profile black entertainers, such as Tommy Davidson and Kyla Pratt and  others found here, were able to become part of a television show that was a model for the black community. My family growing up was very much like the family depicted on The Proud Family.  To me, this show was a depiction of a life to which I could relate. It was a show, along with Family Matters, That’s So Raven, and Kenan and Kel, that black people had to be proud to allow their children to watch. It was relevant to issues that black families faced, and was a correct depiction of the unity and cohesion within the black family in a very positive sense.

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