I’m going to do something a little different today. I’m moving from books to T.V (just for this post). First of all: has anybody ever answered the people who keep asking “Can you tell me how to get to Sesame Street?” and given them correct directions?
Sesame Street (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Sesame Street has been around since 1969, so it’s only natural that it has made some impact in the lives of at least a few people.
Cookie Monster (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
200 px (Photo credit: Wikipedia) I used to have a Tickle me Elmo. It would vibrate when you touched his stomach and it would go “hehehehe hehehehe that tickles!”
It’s taught us how to count. It taught us that cookies are good and that it starts with the letter C. I’ll never forget Ernie and Bert, the two guys living in the same house, doing everything together. No, they weren’t gay (although that probably would be something Sesame Street would do, in the 1970’s, when everyone was still very much prejudiced against the LGBTQ community even to have Bert and Ernie living together was a problem); they were homosocial despite the backlash they received and the stigma that came along with it. Even though Ernie annoyed Bert, they were still friends. Friendship is about appreciation; and being glad to be with the other person. (Even if their jokes don’t make sense.)
We are reminded that Sesame Street is a show- and that like most shows it is on to make money. There are books and toys marketed featuring certain Sesame Street characters: and Elmo even got his own spin off show called Elmo’s World.
My mother says that she remembers Snuffleupagus being a character that only Big Bird could see. She said that it used to make her mad, she would shout at the T.V “He’s RIGHT THERE!” when nobody else would acknowledge him on the screen but Big Bird and herself. They’ve changed it since then; everyone can see him-but I think making him “imaginary” helped kids to see that imagination can seem like reality. It can be really helpful at times to use our imagination, and don’t be afraid to use it simply because people say it’s “not real” because the imagination is where some of the best ideas come from to solve problems.
In 1982, one of the actors on Sesame Street died. Instead of pushing the dirt under the rug and giving no explanation for the arrival of a replacement, Sesame Street did an extraordinary thing. They made an episode about Big Bird finding out about the death of the character and had the human characters explain it to him. Aired on Thanksgiving in 1983 so that adults and children could discuss the topic afterwards, it didn’t dumb down the content or try to ignore it. Death happens, and it needs to be recognized as a natural thing. It’s sad and unexpected sometimes, but it’s okay to be confused and sad, and miss the person.
Recently, Sesame Street has added another interesting twist to their show. Sesame Street does introduce controversial topics, but also firmly shows us that just because things may be controversial to talk about doesn’t make it bad. Being open is the best thing to do with tough topics like death, and incarceration. Sesame Street has always been about community, and I think that it’s been around for a long time because it’s one of the few shows that creates an inclusive environment and isn’t afraid to admit that children don’t live in a plastic bubble and are affected when things happen in a community.
Children are merely extensions of their parents- a study of why Stage Parents push their kids. Using them as validation for their own failures? Interesting article on the topic.
That sounds really interesting. Now I’m wondering if there are any books without adults in them at all? How do you think something like that would be received? Or why do we focus so much on the ages of the characters in books? Do we need to be given a character’s age to gain insight into them? Or is it enough that we can know their personality, their relationships with others, the way they handle the problems they come across? We’re still very much stuck in a place where the character’s age and their maturity or what they are capable of handling are interconnected. Why is age an issue when reading? Another thing to think about: Can you mention a book with no adult figures at all? Much like a Bechdel test, where there is a show that has at least two (named) women talking to each other about something other than a man? Are there any children’s books we can think of featuring no adults, no longing for an adult, or a book where a character’s age is not mentioned? This blogger/author seems to be going towards that- at least with the no parents and no orphan-status characters.
A thread on AbsoluteWrite’s Young Adult forum actually inspired me to write this topic.
We’ve all got writing sins, something we either do a lot because we don’t like it or don’t know how to write around it–or it just might be a common trope. In the case for me, I just don’t like writing parents, and I realize absent parents are a trope. At the same time, my characters aren’t without adult figures, but these adults figures also don’t try to act as replacement parents.
In fantasy and paranormal books, parents can do a lot to slow down the protagonist, especially if said protagonist has powers the parents don’t have, or the protagonist is required to go on some dangerous journey the parents won’t approve of. So I try to axe the parent element altogether, mostly because I don’t want to write about them. I can read them in…
So I reread this, and I do make sense! 😀 This is for a blog for a class, but I incorporated fairy tales into the post, using slave narratives. Anyway, my point now is that fairy tales aren’t always happy princess stories- they can be used as a symbol of hope. The lowest person can become the highest, the poorest can become the richest, the ones with no voice may find that they can make a difference after all.
We’re often told that fairy tales aren’t true, or that they’re idealistic. When we think of fairy tales we usually picture princesses, princes, wicked stepmothers or witches. We think of heros battling dragons, or damsels in distress.
So, my post is going to be a bit of a surprise for some people: The Incidents in the life of a Slave Girl by Harriet Jacobs is a fairytale. This is more than the novel just following Propp’s Functions. This is about the way that the way the characters are presented, and the way that the situations she describes mirror those of a fairy tale. “It has been said that fairy tales derive from the wishful thinking of poor people or those that have been unsuccessful or slighted.” (Luthi, 317) The very reason the slave narrative existed was to further the fight for freedom for those who were enslaved. The novels were sentimental…
Wow. I was going to write about the depiction of indigenous people in Pocahontas, some time in the future; but this blogger has just done it so well. It’s definitely worth a read!
This is followed from my introduction. You might want to read that first. If you have already, read on!
Who are you? Is your name who you are? It’s true that it makes up part of your identity, and those that have been dehumanized are often stripped of their name first. Sometimes when people strive for anonymity, such as in The Perks of Being a Wallflower, they will use an assumed name. The narrator calls himself Charlie, but makes it clear that he is not revealing his real name because “you might figure out who I am, and I really don’t want you to do that. I will call people by different names or generic names because I don’t want you to find me.” (Chbosky, 2) He chooses to remain anonymous- he could be anybody.
Alice, after arriving in Wonderland feels that things aren’t quite right once she begins questioning who she is. “‘If I’m not the same, the next question is ‘Who in the world am I?’ Ah, that’s the great puzzle! And she began thinking over all the children she knew that were of the same age as herself, to see if she could have been changed for any of them. ‘I’m sure I’m not Ada…for her hair goes in such long ringlets and mine doesn’t…; and I’m sure I can’t be Mabel, for I know all sorts of things and she, oh she knows such a very little! Besides. she’s she, and I’m I, and- oh dear, how puzzling it all is!” (Carroll, 10) She sees other’s names as their identities: their physical appearance is what makes them who they are, as well as their intelligence. Her name would no longer suit her if she were to change in her appearance, personality, or intelligence. When she finds that she is unable to recite her lessons, she decides that “I must be Mabel after all, and I shall have to go and live in that poky little house, and have next to no toys to play with, and oh, ever so many lessons to learn! No, I’ve made up my mind about it: If I’m Mabel, I’ll stay down here!” (Carroll, 11) Part of the upsetting experience of being in Wonderland comes from the fact that she no longer feels like herself. She thinks of herself as other people, and is called several different things in Wonderland- such as “Mary Anne”- being the White Rabbit’s servant.
Cordelia from King Lear(Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Anne also imagines being someone else, but it is a positive thing for her. She asks the Cuthberts to “please call me Cordelia?” (Montgomery, 24) and explains that “I would love to be called Cordelia. It’s such a perfectly elegant name…Please do call me Cordelia…Anne is such an unromantic name…I’m not ashamed of it…only I like Cordelia better. I’ve always imagined that my name was Cordelia.” (Montgomery, 24-25) Cordelia is an allusion to the character in King Lear, King Lear’s youngest daughter who is out of favour with her father when she cannot prove her love for him in an exaggerated way as her two sisters do. Nevertheless, she is accepted by the King of France for a bride, despite her disinheritance. “Fairest Cordelia, that art most rich being poor; Most choice forsaken, and most loved, despised, thee and thy virtues here I seize upon, Be it lawful I take up what’s cast away. Gods, gods! ‘Tis strange that from their cold’st neglect my love should kindle to inflamed respect- thy dowerless daughter, King, thrown to my chance, is queen of us, of ours and our fair France. Not all the dukes of waterish Burgundy can buy this unprized precious maid of me.— Bid them farewell, Cordelia, though unkind. Thou losest here, a better where to find.” (Shakespeare, Act 1, Scene 1, Lines 290-303) Cordelia is accepted even though she has no value. Anne wants the same thing; she wants to be accepted by Marilla and Matthew even though she is not a boy- she wants to be a “Cordelia” to Green Gables.
Names are chosen by parents when a child is born. In Bud Not Buddy, Bud remembers his mother telling him “Bud is your name and don’t you let anyone call you anything outside of that either…Especially don’t you ever let anyone call you Buddy…I would’ve added that dy onto the end of your name if I intended for it to be there. I knew what I was doing. Buddy is a dog’s name or a name that someone’s going to use on you if they’re being false-friendly. Your name is Bud, period.” (Curtis, 41) It may be that your name is given to you because it holds some meaning to the family, or maybe the name was the only one that could be agreed upon by the family.
Something that sent me into giggles at my brother’s “grandparents day” thing, aside from the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, was the fact that I had to wear this name tag they made for me. Couldn’t I just introduce myself? And I doubted I would be socializing with anybody there I didn’t know- I decided to keep it anyway, just in case my parents forgot my name after knowing it for twenty years.
However- what does it mean for you? The individual carrying the name? You often have some control over your name, you could ask to be called by a nickname, or your middle name (if you even have one) or go to court to get your name legally changed. This step, the taking control of the name is a move towards independence. The book Becoming Ruby is about this process. While drinking cream soda, the narrator notices that “the clear red drink…looks like a giant ruby. My name-Ruby. I slide the cold bottle down my hot face. Mom didn’t want me to be Ruby, Dad did; it was his grandmother’s name and he liked it. And since Gary’s middle name was given to honour some relation of hers, Mom could hardly argue. Nan Ruby Larkin had lousy rhythm, so I ended up Ruby Nan Larkin. But called Nan.” (Stinson, 26) Ruby not only has no control over her name but it is known that her mother has complete control. So, naturally when Ruby seeks to find her individuality she stands up and tells her mother firmly, “Nan is your little girl, so smart she could read before kindergarten. Nan is the little girl who never complained when you bought her ugly clothes. She drank Orange Crush and wanted to be a teacher because she knew it would make you happy. But it didn’t, and I can tell you now that nothing I ever do will. And… My name is Ruby. Ruby, Mother! Get it? My name is… Ruby.” (Stinson, 161) It is more than a name; it has become a personality of sorts. The first step towards independence for her is the shedding of Nan, (much like a snake sheds its skin) to reveal Ruby, an individual who knows herself.
Screenshot from The Magician (Edison Mfg. Co, 1900) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Names are also supposed to hold meaning. Baby name books are a huge thing for new parents. These books give off the idea that the name a child is given will define them. Baby names added with the meaning of those names given in baby books just put expectations on babies before they’re even born. I looked under my name for example, and it says “fair haired.” I’m anything but fair haired- and to have a “meaning” which is just focussed on physicality is really damaging. The belief that girls are supposed to be focussed on their appearance is introduced from the time they are born.Names have very gender-specific meanings, they can rely heavily on religious references, and as we grow; we may find that the name we were given doesn’t really suit us. Our names do not tell us who we are. Our names are a way of identifying us as a person, but they in no way shape our personality, our behaviour, our thought processes, or anything else. So why do we place so much value on the name of people? Why do these baby books even exist? Why did meaning for names have to be created? It’s problematic that names label people with personalities or physical attributes before they’ve even had a chance to grow or speak. Then again, can you imagine yourself with any other name? Maybe a name is magical, but it’s a bit of a problem when we’re not the magicians.
The Perks of Being a Wallflower Official Trailer #1 (2012)-Emma Watson Movie HD Prod. movieclipsTRAILERS Youtube. Youtube.4 June. 2012 Web. 14 June 2013http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n5rh7O4IDc0
BOOKS:
Carroll, Lewis Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking-Glass. New York: Bantam Dell, 2006
Chbosky, Stephen. The Perks of Being a Wallflower. New York: MTV Pocket Books. 1999.
Curtis, Christopher Paul. Bud Not Buddy. New York: Yearling, 1999
Montgomery, L. M. Anne of Green Gables. [Toronto]: Seal, 1996.
Shakespeare, William. The Tragedy of King Lear. Ed. Barbara A. Mowat and Paul Werstine. New York: Simon & Schuster Paperbacks, 2009. Print.
I’ve got too much to do this week, so in substituting my weekly post- here’s a reblog! I definitely see the problem with how gender divisions happen from a young age. This vision of being violent being what comprises of men being “masculine” is quite disturbing. I applaud the person faced with this for walking away. It’s so entrenched in society, and children pick up on these things- They aren’t blind and they will see things and make judgements for themselves based on how people around them act.
Recently, my friend’s 9-year-old son came home sad and confused. He had gone to the park with some boys he did not know well.
After tearing a wooden fence apart, throwing rocks at a squirrel, and announcing to one of the younger boys that his mother was a slut, the older boys turned on M. They asked him if he “had a slut.” When he asked what this meant, they told him a slut was a “girl to f**k.” He wasn’t totally sure what that meant, and he got scared. As he told his mother later “I got the feeling if I didn’t answer right, they would hurt me.”
Being one of the boys in that moment meant being destructive, suppressing any signs of empathy, selling out women you care about, and characterizing females by their sexual availability. The price for not participating in that masculinity is the threat of…
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (novel) (Photo credit: Wikipedia) Listening to my brother’s school principal in a church talking about cherishing grandparents or reading this lovely treasure? Why not both! Seemed like a good idea at the time… Not so much when your brother is glaring at you.
I hatebeing called “young lady”. It’s the worst thing in the world. It’s the meaning of the word that’s the problem. It usually means I’m in trouble. I’ve either said a “bad word”, haven’t cleaned my room, decided to debate someone I shouldn’t be debating, or I’ve done something that wasn’t acceptable. (Let’s just say that Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and church do not mix.) If you forget, be prepared to hear the words “young lady” and listen to a lecture from your mother telling you how immature you are being.
Now I understand that I should be feeling guilty for laughing during a speech and completely ignoring someone – or as I would rather call it-getting my priorities straight. (He was talking to ‘his students’ the boys at my brother’s school after all- If it was meant for me I would’ve paid attention. But enough of that I’m getting off track) Maybe I should be thanking everyone who glared at me during that service- even when I’m in trouble I’m thinking! Why the words “young lady”? What is it about being “young” followed by the word “lady” that makes it sound like a death sentence? It’s like when people use the word ma’am, do we have to be reduced to a word? Do we not all have names after all?
English: Harriet Jacobs Reward (Photo credit: Wikipedia) She is called a “Girl” twice in this advertisement written by Norcom (the slaveholder) asking for her “delivery” even though she is 21 years of age
I think it’s the notion of being reminded that there is a distinct separation between childhood and adulthood. Adulthood is the space of power, while the youth and child group are very much dependent on adults for their survival. While people are often nostalgic about their childhoods, they forget that children are really not considered citizens in the society. (They don’t vote and they don’t pay taxes. In Canada before the age of twelve, if they commit a crime they can’t even be charged for it- the responsibility falls on the parents to control their child.) The classic idea of subordination/domination has depended on terms used to remind others of their place in society. In slavery this was rampant: “Black men have a long history of being stereotyped as boys, of being called boys. Even those whites who have stressed positive features of boyhood-simplicity, innocence= usually do so condescendingly…Nineteenth and early-twentieth-century social thinkers tended to see some races as more advanced than others, often categorizing blacks… as infantile.” (Clark, 100) In the slave narrative of Harriet Jacobs, she is asked by her owner to “think what is offered…- a home and freedom! Let the past be forgotten. If I have been harsh with you at times, your wilfulness drove me to it. You know I exact obedience from my own children, and I consider you as yet a child.” (Jacobs, 214) In this case, the slaveholder is not using the word ‘child’ in the modern sense, but reminding her that she is subordinate. The slaveholder felt that Harriet portrayed the ideas of childhood at the time- ignorant, innocent, needing ‘protection’ and someone to ‘take care of her’. It has also been noted that “Those of us who are white and middle class continue to use associations with immaturity to disparage or otherwise fail to acknowledge childhood in its own right.” (Clark, 14) It is used as a way to make people seem different or “other”. Jacobs’ age was irrelevant. “In the course of the seventeenth century a change took place by which the old usage was maintained in the more dependent classes of society… The idea of childhood was bound up with the idea of dependence: the words ‘sons’, ‘varlets’ and ‘boys’ were also words in the vocabulary of feudal subordination. One could leave childhood only by leaving the state of dependence, or at least the lower degrees of dependence. That is why the words associated with childhood would endure to indicate in a familiar style, in the spoken language, men of humble rank whose submission to others remained absolute: lackeys, for instance, journeymen and soldiers. A ‘little boy’ (petit garçon) was not necessarily a child but a young servant, just as today an employer or a foreman will say of a worker of twenty to twenty-five: ‘He’s a good lad.’ Thus in 1549, one Baduel, the principal of a college, an educational establishment, wrote to the father of one of his young pupils about his outfit and attendants: ‘A little boy is all that he will need for his personal service.’” (Aries, 26-27) Those of lower class were made to be subordinate through the designation of ‘child’ and its synonyms. (‘lad’, ‘boy’,’son’)- and let’s not forget the female counterparts to the words: (‘lady’, ‘girl’,)
I still think we see this in today’s society. My parents call me their “little girl”, and every time I go to my grandmother’s cottage there’s always one remark about “how big you’ve gotten!” despite the fact that I’m 5″1 and haven’t grown in three years. They’re said in affectionate tones. The child as an innocent being, a figure, an icon- it’s still used as a reminder that the child has no power, but in this case- it’s positive. They don’t need to worry about the stresses of life, they are ignorant and innocent. (This is the general idea behind the “cult of the child”- worshipping children… I really should explain it in a post- get ready to have a post devoted entirely to the Cult of the Child sometime soon.)
The terms child/adult to signify people were rather slippery in the middle ages. There was no word for in between- (teenagers). The word “youth” could be used for a wide span of ages. “Since youth signifies the prime of life, there is no room for adolescence. Until the eighteenth century, adolescence was confused with childhood. In school Latin the word puer and the word adolescens were used indiscriminately…There were no terms in French to distinguish between pueri and adolescentes. There was virtually only one word in use: enfant. At the end of the Middle Ages, the meaning of this word…could be applied to both the putto… and the adolescent, the big lad who was sometimes also a bad lad. The word enfant (‘child’) in the Miracles de Notre Dame was used in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries as a synonym of other words such as valets, valeton, garçon, fils (‘valet’, ‘varlet’, ‘lad’, ‘son’): ‘he was a valeton’ would be translated today as ‘he was a good looking lad’; but the same word could be used of both a young man (‘a handsome valeton’) and a child (‘he was a valeton, so they loved him dearly…’). Only one word has kept this very ancient ambiguity down to our times, and that is the word gars (‘lad’), which has passed straight from Old French into the popular modern idiom in which it is preserved. A strange child, this bad lad who was ‘so perverse and wicked that he would not learn a trade or behave as was fitting in childhood…he kept company with greedy, idle folk who often started brawls in taverns and brothels…’The same is true in the seventeenth century. The report of an episcopal inquiry of 1667 states that in one parish ‘there is un jeune enfans [‘a young child’] aged about fourteen who…has been living in the aforementioned place…’ (Aries, 26-28) The word ‘lad’ has had negative connotations for a long time. It does not describe the age so much any more, but the behaviour of the person it is referred to; as defiant or against the norms of society.
Bronze statue of Peter Pan located in Kensington Gardens, London (Photo credit: Wikipedia) Peter Pan never grew up- He was never under the authority of anyone though- and in the fantasy world of Neverland it was every individual for themselves.
So, my question is: with the usage of the words ‘girl/ child’ as a term of endearment, or a term of reminding people of their place in society; when does one “grow up”? When they have a job? When they can take care of themselves? When the law says they are no longer minors? Or maybe the usage of ‘little/young’ ‘girl/boy/lady/lad’ is always going to be used. It has a very broad usage- from childhood well into adulthood. However the age is not necessary- the terms are used in power relations- age is not a factor in deciding if someone is a young person- their place in their family and their environment is.
I cringe when people use terms like ma’am or ‘young lady’ because they denote signs of power. While we like to believe that “All animals are equal” as George Orwell says in Animal Farm, the truth is, “All Animals are equal, but some are more equal than others.” And that’s why I hate to be called ‘young lady’. (Of course that being said… if I decided to follow social conventions, I’m sure it would stop- but I’m just a little selfish in thinking forget convention- take care of yourself! If you get called out on it, simply talk to the person about how they’re only acting that way because they think they have power, which is socially constructed… In other words, just one last chapter until I finish… then I promise I’ll pay attention to what my brother’s principal is saying.)
Ariès, Philippe. Centuries of Childhood: A Social History of Family Life. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1962. Print.
Clark, Beverly Lyon. Kiddie Lit: The Cultural Construction of Children’s Literature in America. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins UP, 2005. Print.
Douglass, Frederick, and Harriet A. Jacobs. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave & Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. New York: Modern Library, 2000. Print.
LINKS:
JennPower. “Broken Telephone.” Web log post. It’s All Kid’s Stuff. WordPress, 29 March. 2013. Web. 1 June. 2013.
krisbrake. “Don’t Call me Ma’am” Web log post. Kristen Hansen Brakeman. WordPress, 10 April. 2013. Web. 1 June. 2013.