Television and other electronic medium such as computer games, Internet and movies are very powerful socializing agents in the lives of young children. An average child gets exposed to about 3 to 4 hours of electronic media entertainment every day. Since Disney occupies leading spot in Children’s television and it provides a routine dose of gender stereotype, it helps in limiting children in restrictive sex-roles, prunes their ability to explore all possible occupations and constricts their chances for equality of opportunity. It is a common experience for young girls to watch Disney Princess movies and immediately get attached to the idea of wanting to be a princess. Kimball (1986) studied gender-role stereotypes in a small Canadian town that could not receive Television until a transmitter was installed in 1974. Children’s views of personality traits, behaviors, occupations and peer relations were measured before and after TV was introduced. In their more stereotyped views of occupations boys now believed that girls could be teachers and cooks whereas boys could be physicians and judges. Girl’s believed that boasting and swearing were characteristics of boys and sharing and helping were characteristics of girls. Findings like these indicate that TV viewing causes children to adopt many of stereotypes that dominant television programming (Kail, 378).
Children not only get bombarded with the picture of sexy, meek and magical princess but they also get submerged in the Disney commercial products that may help them get the status of a princess. From diapers to bicycles, erasers to backpacks, clothes to bedroom sets, young girls dream of buying the “princess” stuff. On Halloween, malls and streets are full of young girls, dressing up and pretending to be Disney Princesses.
The idea of magically “fixing” their life may have an ever-lasting effect on children’s social development. From an early age, the young girls learn to wait for a magical kiss to change their life. All of them want to look thin, voluptuous and beautiful and they learn to rely on their physical appearance more than on other talents that may demand hard work and perseverance. Is it surprising then that obesity is considered equivalent to eternal damnation in our society? We keep wondering about how society is loosing its moral and ethical base but when we raise our children on values that emphasize cosmetic effect and physical appearance over attributes like honesty, compassion and respect what else can be expected? Following is the link that provides detail analysis of how young girl gets addicted with the idea of being a Disney princess and how it damages their budding knowledge of sex-roles in the society.
Sources :
http://www.asu.edu/clas/english/writingprograms/printersdevil/2006/princess.doc
http://www.sociology.uiowa.edu/capstone/mnbrown/Content_Analysis.doc
Children and their Development, 2nd Ed, Robert V Kail
No comments:
Post a Comment