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Moms do badly, but grandmas do worse: The nexus of sexism and ageism in children's classics
Abstract
While the origins of the absent or dead mother in literary classics have been explored at length, less attention has been paid to the role grandmother figures play once the impact of the mother has been minimized or eliminated. In many of the most influential tales our children read, female elders, unlike the mothers, are granted the right to live but are cast in hopelessly stereotypical terms. The result is a handful of characters with a handful of attributes that perpetuate themselves throughout literary history, crowding out more diverse and multi-dimensional portrayals. Doing away with important female characters reveals a deeply entrenched sexism which is then compounded by a hefty dose ageism when female elders are permitted to appear only to be diminished. Women in children’s classics fare badly, but old women do even worse.
... As one gets older, it is almost inevitable for him or her to be marginalized and subjected to ageist stereotypes and discrimination (Calasanti et al., 2006;Nemmers, 2005;Ng et al., 2015;Palmore, 1990;Williamson, 1997). Furthermore, the attitudes toward aging are influenced by the interplay between age and gender so that men's and women's experiences in old age differ (Barker et al., 1998;Bergman, 2017;Freixas et al., 2012;Henneberg, 2010;Hollis-Sawyer & Cuevas, 2013;Hooyman et al., 2002;Krekula, 2007;Lemish & Muhlbauer, 2012;Paz et al., 2018;Rovner-Lev & Elias, 2020;Twigg, 2004;Woodward, 1999;WHO, 2002;Zurcher & Robinson, 2018). ...
... It is also reported that ageist stereotypes are observed along with sexist stereotypes. While sexist stereotypes are commonly observed in the depiction of female child and adult characters in print media sources for children (Fitzpatrick & McPherson, 2010;Hamilton et al., 2006;Koss, 2015;Martínez-Bello & Hill, 2020;Weitzman et al., 1972), it is seen that ageist stereotypes are added to sexist stereotypes in the depictions of older females (Ansello, 1977;Bergman, 2017;Danowski & Robinson, 2012;Fenwick & Morrison, 2001;Henneberg, 2010;Hollis-Sawyer & Cuevas, 2013;Janelli, 1988Janelli, , 1994Janelli & Sorge, 2002). ...
... Comparable to the results of studies investigating gender and aging stereotypical portrayals in the media (Henneberg, 2010;Robinson et al., 2007;Zurcher & Robinson, 2018), our analysis showed that older females were more likely to be depicted with absent teeth and saggy cheeks and breasts. These images of older women reflect a cultural judgment concerning the female body. ...
... As one gets older, it is almost inevitable for him or her to be marginalized and subjected to ageist stereotypes and discrimination (Calasanti et al., 2006;Nemmers, 2005;Ng et al., 2015;Palmore, 1990;Williamson, 1997). Furthermore, the attitudes toward aging are influenced by the interplay between age and gender so that men's and women's experiences in old age differ (Barker et al., 1998;Bergman, 2017;Freixas et al., 2012;Henneberg, 2010;Hollis-Sawyer & Cuevas, 2013;Hooyman et al., 2002;Krekula, 2007;Lemish & Muhlbauer, 2012;Paz et al., 2018;Rovner-Lev & Elias, 2020;Twigg, 2004;Woodward, 1999;WHO, 2002;Zurcher & Robinson, 2018). ...
... It is also reported that ageist stereotypes are observed along with sexist stereotypes. While sexist stereotypes are commonly observed in the depiction of female child and adult characters in print media sources for children (Fitzpatrick & McPherson, 2010;Hamilton et al., 2006;Koss, 2015;Martínez-Bello & Hill, 2020;Weitzman et al., 1972), it is seen that ageist stereotypes are added to sexist stereotypes in the depictions of older females (Ansello, 1977;Bergman, 2017;Danowski & Robinson, 2012;Fenwick & Morrison, 2001;Henneberg, 2010;Hollis-Sawyer & Cuevas, 2013;Janelli, 1988Janelli, , 1994Janelli & Sorge, 2002). ...
... Comparable to the results of studies investigating gender and aging stereotypical portrayals in the media (Henneberg, 2010;Robinson et al., 2007;Zurcher & Robinson, 2018), our analysis showed that older females were more likely to be depicted with absent teeth and saggy cheeks and breasts. These images of older women reflect a cultural judgment concerning the female body. ...
In response to population aging observed globally, the active aging model has been proposed to preserve the well-being of more individuals in old age. Since raising awareness about a comprehensive life course perspective of aging, the importance of a sense of well-being in old age, and resources needed to age well early on carries great importance, this exploratory study investigated children's picture storybooks as a source for active aging. The recognized determinants of active aging, as well as ageist stereotypes associated with older characters by gender and family affiliation were examined in a sample of 41 books published between 2008 and 2018 in Turkey for three- to eight-year-olds children. Findings show that there is limited information given implicitly about the factors that determine active aging in the books. They also indicate that ageist and sexist stereotypes, which are considered as obstacles to active aging, are used explicitly, especially while describing older women and older characters outside the family. In addition, the variety in physical characteristics, roles and experiences of older adults in real life is not reflected in the picture books. The discussion of these findings draws attention to some major concerns about how these representaions could affect children's understanding of aging and old age.
... Women have traditionally been doubly struck by aging. With the onset of menopause women lose their primary function in patriarchal society, that of birthing children [24] Then, passing middle age, the authority of the "proper adult" is lost, too [49] Examining the roles available for old women in children's classics, Sylvia Henneberg [34] argues that there are but three. Old women tend to be portrayed as 1) weak and incapable, 2) as overly concerned with the safety and well-being of their families to the detriment of their own good, 3) or as evil crones. ...
... Even though the old women are presented largely in stereotypical ways both in terms of looks and the settings they initially inhabit, their actions decry stereotypes of old age. Most importantly, contrary to the limited roles available to old women discussed by Henneberg [34], none of these women are helpless or accept victimization. Super Granny, for instance, does not appear dismayed at all to find herself shrunk to insect size. ...
... She just goodnaturedly sets out to locate and rescue her cats. Importantly, this mission is not one of self-sacrifice [34]. The same is true for Granny Smith, who chases after her apples due to a similar intrinsically motivated devotion. ...
Digital games have become a mainstream medium used by players of all ages and genders. Yet, aging adults are still relatively seldom featured in digital games as game-controlled or player-controlled characters. The representation of old women featured as player-characters in four casual digital games is here analyzed through a close playing. In their portrayal of the four player-characters, the games reinforce existing understandings of old women as unimportant, homebound, lonelyand child-like. Yet, the player-characters are simultaneously portrayed as highly capable and resisting victimization. During play, it is in fact the player who may be left wanting, while the old women contain all the potential for progression. This ambiguity can be understood in several ways. Firstly, it may serve to position the old women of the games as Others who must contain both the hope and fears for old age. Secondly, the games can be read as parodic texts; humorous comments on both previous digital games, in particular hyper-masculinity and militarized settings, as well as on notions of active aging.
... We have grown so accustomed to modern interpretations of these tales that it is hard to remember that virtually all such stories are the product of a multitude of versions, created and recreated throughout history. In fact, Henneberg (2010), in her discussion of "Cinderella," calls this process the "Cinderella Cycle" and notes that the theme of this particular story has at least fifteen hundred earlier versions. In this regard, it is important to note that the main protagonists of such stories are usually not the older adult. ...
... While very few stories deal with the disappearance of the father or the importance of an older male figure, the theme of an absent mother (either dead or minimally present) who is replaced by an older woman is quite common. This substitution, however, carries severe restric- tions; According to Henneberg (2010), once the grandmother becomes a prominent feature in the story, she usually falls into one of three catego- ries: the wicked old witch, the demented hag, or the selfless godmother. It seems quite clear how the first two prototypes of the older women express negative attitudes, but this is also true for the character of the kind-hearted fairy godmother. ...
... This is important because children's picture books have a potent role in the socialization process (Brugeilles et al., 2002). Given the prevalence of stereotyped older figures in educational materials, redress would help children to prepare for their own futures and also contribute to improved intergenerational relations (Henneberg, 2010). Obviously, then, rooting out and reducing ageist stereotypes in educational materials is important. ...
Ageism in mass media is of great concern with older individuals often being stereotyped or simply rendered invisible. Yet research is largely silent on ageism in English language teaching (ELT) materials. Given the power of English education, the impact of visual media, and the tendency for English teaching materials to include visual depictions of people, such research is warranted. In response, a content analysis of 7350 visuals of people from Japanese ELT resources was conducted in the study described here. The goal was to understand four issues. First, how visible were the elderly overall? Second, given intergenerational friction as one outgrowth of ageism, did these materials normalize intergenerational interactions including the elderly? Third, to what extent did these materials exhibit ageism of women since ‘gendered ageism’ is an especially important issue? Fourth, to what extent did these materials either reproduce or subvert stereotypes of the elderly? Findings indicated that the amount of representation was biased against the elderly, that intergenerational interactions involving the elderly were scant, and that older women were especially underrepresented. While some of the elderly depictions were stereotypical, others did portray elderly people positively, as socially-involved and vigorous. These findings demonstrate the need for greater sensitivity to an ageist hidden curriculum in ELT.
... Stories everywhere subject protagonists to tragic distress. A common trope is to make the protagonist an orphan (Henneberg, 2010). In a sample of 124 award-winning American children's novels, 18% featured orphan protagonists; 37% featured protagonists who were removed from their parents in any way (Mattix, 2012). ...
The sympathetic plot-featuring a goal-directed protagonist who confronts obstacles, overcomes them, and wins rewards-is ubiquitous. Here, I propose that it recurs because it entertains, engaging two sets of psychological mechanisms. First, it triggers mechanisms for learning about obstacles and how to overcome them. It builds interest by confronting a protagonist with a problem and induces satisfaction when the problem is solved. Second, it evokes sympathetic joy. It establishes the protagonist as an ideal cooperative partner pursuing a goal, appealing to mechanisms for helping. When the protagonist succeeds, they receive rewards, and audiences feel sympathetic joy, an emotion normally triggered when beneficiaries triumph. The capacities underlying the sympathetic plot evolved for learning and cooperation before being co-opted for entertainment.
... Diskursen om den osynliga tanten har tidigare diskuterats av den amerikanska litteraturforskaren Sylvia Henneberg som problematiserar att tanten som litterär karaktär har en tendens att gestaltas genom vad hon kallar för en "omvänd ålderism" (reverse ageism), det vill säga en slags positiv stereotyp. Den omvända ålderismen gör tanten god och klok genom att hon finns till för andra och tycks sakna egna behov (se Henneberg, 2006Henneberg, , 2010Joosen, 2015). Genom att finnas till i första hand för andra, hamnar tanten i bakgrunden och blir osynlig. ...
Title: "I have all ages within me!" The significance of age in cultural activities for children, adolescents and senior citizens Author: Natalie Davet Language: Swedish with an English summary This study investigates the production of age in three state-funded intergenerational projects, intended to increase age integration between young and old citizens. The main aim of the study is to contribute to the production of knowledge about age as a social category and power system. The study is a small scale one year project which focuses on municipal intergenerational culture activities in one of Sweden's larger cities. Three intergenerational projects within the fine arts (theater, literature and photography), were selected for the present study. The research questions are: How is age conditioned by the organization of the activity? How is age constructed through interactions within the participant group, and are there any circumstances in which age loses significance through the participants' interactions?, Which age norms become prominent through the activity? The study takes a social constructionist approach due to Vivien Burr. The theoretical framework is based on the theories of Michel Foucault, but also Judith Butler's ideas about position to analyze how age is constructed. The theoretical discussion relates to the emerging research field of critical age studies, connecting childhood and youth studies with the research field of social gerontology. The results show that age is made significant in different ways. The organized encounters and everyday interactions between young and old participants are regulated through the idea of age difference between young and old. The study shows that the participants are given different conditions and obligations based on both gender and age-related norms concerning freedom, control, technical knowledge, vulnerability, care needs, responsibility, agility and adaptability. The intergenerational activities appear to be organized in a tradition where adulthood becomes the dominant age norm that seems to lack any need for integration. The activities therefore put adulthood in a vague but at the same time superior position in relation to other age groups. On an age-related level, it is apparent that the ages of children, adolescents and the elderly are marked in relation to adulthood.
... Starije žene u Disneyevim dugometražnim animiranim filmovima u pravilu nalazimo u ulogama antagonista ili pomagača/ darivaoca. U tom smislu možemo govoriti o dva osnovna tipa starijega ženskog lika: (zloj) vještici i dobroj vili, što djelomično odgovara tipologiji kakvu je na temelju analize dječje književnosti ponudila Sylvia Henneberg (2010). Ova vrsta polarizacije likova ne čudi imamo li na umu činjenicu da je studio Disney najpoznatiji upravo po adaptacijama bajki, žanra koji je (barem kad je riječ o tzv. ...
The paper proposes to explore the frequency and types of representation of older women in feature-length animated films produced by Walt Disney Animation Studio. Drawing on previous research on ageism and ageist stereotypes in the media (television, film, advertising media) for a theoretical and methodological framework, the paper provides an analysis of a total of 43 feature-length animated Disney films. The analysis will focus on the frequency, appearance, characteristics, marital and family status, as well as the roles, functions and types of elderly female characters. In addition, the paper will provide a basic typology of elderly female characters in Disney animated feature films.
Key words: ageism, animated film, Disney, media, sexism, stereotypes
... Whilst Disney, is not of course, entirely to blame for this phenomenon, this study aims to explore the damage caused to real-life females through continued representation of the threat they pose to each other. To further examine the history and impact of this fictional pair, I will be referring to fairy tale critics such as Bruno Bettelheim (1976), Marina Warner (1994), Jack Zipes (2001), Maria Tatar (2009), Sylvia Henneberg (2010), and Rebbecca-Anne C. Do Rozario with Deb Waterhouse-Watson (2014). ...
In this essay, I explore the dichotomy drawn between the good youthful princess, and the
wicked mature woman in modern day live-action films such as Snow White and the
Huntsman (2012), Cinderella (2015), and Maleficent (2014) that contribute to the
perpetuation of this feminine juxtaposition within a broader social picture, and a female fear
of ageing.
... Still other scholars focus on embodiment in children's animated filmpaying particular attention to how goodness becomes equated with thinness, youth and ability. For instance, Henneberg (2010) and Parsons (2007) examine the ways in which older, powerful women are often vilified in this genre. And, more broadly, Robinson et al. (2007) argue that children internalize ageist messages that older people are grouchy, senile and a burden to those around them. ...
The year 2014 has been dubbed the ‘trans tipping point’, a new era of acceptance towards trans and gender-nonconforming identities. In addition, in recent years, children’s animated film has seen an influx of characters and storylines that appear to celebrate gender diversity. Using inductive and deductive thematic analysis, we examine the gendered messages in top-grossing children’s animated films from 2012 to 2015. Drawing from our analysis, we argue that such alleged gender diversity applies only to a narrow subset of characters in children’s animated film – and these same characters also often function to reinforce oppressive ideas about gender, race and sexuality. Ultimately, despite the visibility of gender diverse characters in and outside children’s film, we caution against premature celebrations that would regard such visibility as progress.
... But the conceit of the aberration only works through contrast with a presumed 'normal' , whether this is the Walliams/Ross caricature of the frumpy smelly old woman, or Newman/ Cook's 'frightful bore': negative stereotypes of elderly females, albeit disavowed within the narratives. The entertainment value of aberrant and subversive grandmothers therefore has to be considered against a back- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 drop of widespread concern about ageist as well as sexist stereotyping in children's literature and its prejudicial effect on the young: a concern expressed in a substantial body of work by educationalists, psychologists, sociologists, gerontologists and others over the last 40 or so years (see for example studies by Ansello 1977;Storey 1977;Hurst 1981;Beland and Mills 2001;Henneberg 2010;Hollis Sawyer and Cuevas 2013;and Iversen 2015 with respect to digital games). ...
In everyday life it is now common to find our actions linked to sound, especially using technology, such as when we use mobile devices, or operate more recently manufactured cars, technology in the workplace or simply in an elevator. While we may attend little to these noises, like any semiotic resource, they can communicate very specific meanings and carry ideologies. In this paper, using multimodal critical discourse analysis, we analyse the sounds and music in two proto-games that are played on mobile devices: Genie Palace Divine and Dragon Island Race. While visually the two games are highly gendered, we show that an investigation of the sounds players can make during gameplay reveals very specific insights into the ways that sound positions players in the world. In each game we ask: what is foregrounded and what backgrounded as regards sound? Sound can be used to signal the personal and impersonal and specific kinds of social relations which, we show, is highly gendered. It can also signal priorities, ideas and values, which in both cases, we show, relate to a world where there is simply no time to stop and think.
... In addition to sexist stereotypes and prejudice, older women must also contend with ageism (Palmore, 1997). For example, a study of children's literature revealed that women, not men, tended to be presented in stereotypical terms, and when an older woman was depicted in a story, she was invariably without power, agency, and was diminished on a number of dimensions (Henneberg, 2010). This pattern of perception of women, and older women is even found among those whose job it is to help others. ...
This article discusses how research on ageism has gained more attention, especially as the baby boomers have started retiring, shepherding in an era that some call “the graying of America.” As the population of the country aged 65 and over is projected to double by 2030, it is especially important to study and help reduce age prejudice, so that the lives of older people can be improved. The papers presented in this issue represent some of the best empirical and theoretical work on the influence of ageism on the workplace environment and on healthcare for the older adult. These papers are summarized, and their recommendations for change in policy, law, and education are further highlighted.
... As Butler described it, ageism is an embodied "deep seated uneasiness on the part of the young and middle aged-a personal revulsion to and distaste for growing old…" (Butler, 1969, p. 243). Consistent with our nation's stealth ageism, negative portrayals of older adults and aging often appear in illustrations of children's books and movies (cf., Henneberg, 2010;Robinson, Callister, Magoffin, & Moore, 2007), and children establish a distinctive visual representation of both "old people" and aging at very early stages in development (Gilbert & Ricketts, 2008). However, by the time they are in middle school, preteenagers begin to develop more nuanced thinking about what it means to be "old" (Lichtenstein et al., 2005), probably as a result of more diverse intergenerational contact than solely with grandparents and their developmental move from "concrete" toward more "abstract" thinking (Fair & Delaplane, 2015;Kuhn, 2009;Montepare & Zebrowitz, 2002). ...
On the face of the shrinking opportunities for children and older adults to routinely interact with one another-sometimes the result of adolescent geographies, age-segregated and gated communities, families' geographical mobility-many communities have introduced intergenerational programs within the school curriculum. For more than a decade one Massachusetts community has maintained an intergenerational program that brings fourth grade students together with older adults. The question is, does students' involvement in an intergenerational program lessened ageist beliefs 5-9 years later.
A quasi-experimental research design examined the "images of aging" held by 944 students who grew up in neighboring towns and attend a regional high school. Participants completed brief questionnaire.
Separate regression analyses of positive and negative images of aging-controlling for students' frequency and self-reported quality of interaction with older adults, ethnicity, age, and gender-reveal a town difference in students' positive, but not negative, images of aging.
What is certain is that the high school students from one community with ongoing intergenerational programming hold a more positive image of older adults. Further research is needed to parse out exactly how short- and long-term legacy effects arise when young students have an opportunity to interact closely with older adults who are not their grandparents or neighbors.
© The Author 2015. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Gerontological Society of America. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.
... Becoming a grandmother can arouse complex emotions, being at once a source of happiness and fulfillment but also a marker of getting older with its potential loss of status and capacity/functional ability (Ben Shlomo, Taubman-Ben-Ari, Findler, & Sivan, Dolizki, 2010). Stories and legends are replete with stereotypes of grandmothers as aged and ineffectual (Henneberg, 2010). When a woman is described as 'grandmotherly' it is tantamount to describing her as 'kindly, frail, harmless, keeper of the family antimacassars, and operationally past tense' (Angier, 2002). ...
Objectives:
We investigated grandmothers' personal growth, their engagement with grandchildren, their satisfaction with this role and how personal growth was related to engagement and satisfaction.
Method:
One thousand two hundred and five grandmothers completed a survey containing questions about: personal resources (age, education, whether partnered or not, health); engagement with grandchildren (number of grandchildren, hours spent per week, frequency of activities, satisfaction with being a grandmother); and personal growth (life satisfaction, generativity).
Results:
Participants had a positive sense of living productive and worthwhile lives with most reporting high scores on life satisfaction and generativity. Most were actively engaged with their grandchildren, participating in a wide range of activities. Active engagement was positively related to grandmother satisfaction. Hierarchical regressions showed that both life satisfaction and generativity were significantly predicted by grandmother resources and grandmother engagement.
Conclusion:
This group of grandmothers did not fit ageist stereotypes of disengagement and loss of function. Our study shows that grandmothering is a rewarding role, and women who engage with it have a positive sense of personal growth.
When gender is brought into concerns about older people, the emphasis often lies on stereotypes connected to older women, and few comparative studies have been conducted pertaining to the representation of the intersection between older age and gender in fiction. This article argues that not only children’s literature, traditionally considered to be a carrier of ideology, plays a large part in the target readership’s age socialization, but so do young adult and adult fiction. In a large corpus of 41 Dutch books written for different ages, the representation of older men and women is studied through the verbs, grammatical possessions and adjectives associated with the relevant fictional characters, which were extracted from the texts through the computational method of dependency parsing. Older adult characters featured most frequently in fiction for adults, where, more so than in the books for younger readers, they are depicted as being prone to illness, experiencing the effects of a deteriorating body and having a limited social network. In the books for children, little to no association between older adulthood and mortality was found in the data. Ageist stereotypes pertaining to both genders were found throughout the corpus. In terms of characterization, male older adults are associated more with physicality, including matters of illness and mobility, while character traits and emotions show up in a more varied manner in connection to female older characters.
Unlabelled:
As they typically have limited direct contact, children's attitudes towards older adults have more opportunity to be shaped by other social influences such as their parents and children's literature. Children's books have been noted for their tendency to portray older adults in stereotypical ways and their tendencies to underrepresent older adults. We investigated how the portrayal of older adults as major versus supporting characters, as well as parents' age-related expectations were related to parental preference for children's books. We designed 24 children's book covers that depicted an older adult as a main character, a younger adult as a main character, or only children. One-hundred-seventy-five parents of children ages 0-12 rated their preference for the covers, their age-related expectations for the books' stories, and their personal aging expectations. Parents preferred covers featuring only children, and this preference was stronger for parents with more positive personal aging expectations. Cover preference was further predicted by age-related story expectations. When parents expected a book to conform to older-age stereotypes, they liked that particular cover less. Controlling for parents' age-related story expectations for each book resulted in near equal levels of preference for all types of book covers. Carefully designed children's books could provide an opportunity to increased vicarious intergenerational contact. These finding suggests that parents' interest in selecting these books for their children will be higher when they do not perceive the books to align with older-age stereotypes.
Supplementary information:
The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s12144-023-04298-6.
This research extends understandings of women's lived experiences of menopause at work, as embodied complex gendered aging. Menopause as a type of “dirty” femininity and femme performance is theorized to elucidate both the stigmatizing effects of menopause at work and the opportunity to reclaim femininity in‐and‐for itself. This theory is illustrated through the accounts of women experiencing menopause at work. Menopause at work is problematized, pathologized, and “dirty” as an embodied experience that is physically, emotionally, morally, and socially tainted. As “dirty” femininity, menopause represents both material “dirt” (leaky bodies) and symbolic “dirt” (no longer leaky and no longer fertile), thereby eroding women's ability to perform patriarchal hegemonic femininity. Small pockets of resistance are also observed as some of these women engage in femme performances in defiance of hegemonic masculinity. The article offers avenues for future research in shame, taint management, women in leadership, and intersectionality to extend the conceptual and empirical contributions on menopause at work.
Recent scholarship on intergenerational female relationships in “Little Red Riding Hood” often stresses conflict. Examining such relationships from the perspective of adolescent daughtering through Julia Kristeva’s idea of the feminine in three contemporary versions of the story, Angela Carter’s “The Werewolf”, Kiki Smith’s “Bedlam”, and Gillian Cross’s Wolf, this study demonstrates that some friction is necessary for recreating the protagonists’ grandmaternal relationship, which positively highlights female bonding and enhances the protagonists’ maturity and feminine development to embrace new beginnings with an environmental twist.
Diverging definitions and uses of concepts such as “ageism,” “aetonormativity,” “adultism,” and “childism” point at the relative separateness of the fields of childhood studies, age studies, and children’s literature studies, while also highlighting their shared interest in questions of age, prejudice, and agency. This article uses John Wall’s concept of “childism” to highlight the potential of bringing these fields into conversation to explore intergenerational relationships. Using Anne Fine’s The Granny Book (1983) as a case study, it shows, moreover, that children’s books themselves can help foster the paradigm shift that Wall envisages with childism. Fine’s novel about four children’s resistance to their parents’ plans to move their grandmother out of their home thematises processes of othering, ageist prejudices, human rights, and intergenerational dialogue and care. While provocative scenes and gaps in the story may pose hurdles to children’s engagement and even risk reinforcing ageist stereotypes, the novel testifies to a belief in young readers’ agency and the potential for intergenerational understanding that Wall puts central in his concept of childism.
Age norms are the social norms that, within a specific socio-cultural environment, operate as the expectations about the appearance and behaviour of members of various age groups (Radl 758). In addition, age is ‘relational’ (Pickard 203), meaning that age groups are defined in relation to other age groups. In that context, children are often described as ‘innocent and inexperienced’ (Nodelman 157) and adults as wise (Woodward 187). However, scholars have also criticised childhood innocence and adult wisdom as problematic generalisations (Kitzinger 79; Woodward 206).
In this article I discuss how child and adult readers of children’s literature use innocence and wisdom as age norms to reflect both on their own age and the age of characters. Data was gathered through fifty-seven one-on-one interviews and four focus-group conversations with readers aged nine to seventy-five, based on two Dutch language children’s books: Iep! (1996), written by Joke van Leeuwen, and Voor altijd samen, amen (1999), written by Guus Kuijer.
Young readers demonstrated an awareness of adult discourse surrounding child innocence, which some adopted without criticism, while others admitted to ‘performing’ innocence to escape adult ire. Furthermore, these same young readers also used innocence to ‘age’ young characters. For late adolescent and early adult readers, both young and old characters were sometimes deemed innocent. In contrast, older readers emphasised their own wisdom and reflected on the age of characters through that lens. Wisdom therefore emerged as a key age norm older readers used not only to praise older characters, but also to give positive meaning to their own experience of older adulthood. Notably, some characters that were perceived as especially wise by older readers were thought of as naïve and innocent by younger readers. Thus, the complexity of the readers’ responses challenged straightforward age-bound generalisations of wisdom and innocence.
This chapter examines the concept of ageism, which represents prejudice, stereotypes, and discrimination towards people because of their age, against the cognitive concept of views of aging, which represents thoughts regarding older people and the aging process. As this chapter is contextualized within the larger context of views of aging, the focus is mainly on the cognitive aspects, the stereotypes of ageism, as they are manifested in relation to our own age-based self-perceptions and others’ perceptions of age and aging, called here, self- and other- directed ageism. Both self- and other-directed ageism can broadly represent views of aging. The chapter starts by outlining major theories that account for the relation between self- and other-directed ageism. It then moves to demonstrating how ageism is manifested in various spheres both in relation to oneself and in relation to others. The chapter concludes with a discussion of the challenges and future directions of the field. The chapter stresses the need for conceptual clarity and psychometrically sound measures to advance the field forward.
This article examines Roald Dahl's adult short story ‘The Landlady’ through the lens of age studies and the horror genre. It explores how different symbolic and gothic textual elements contribute to the narrative of decline and the negative notion of later life. Special attention is given to female aging and dementia, which is presented as a horrifying ‘silent killer’ embodied in the figure of a witch. In the story, older age is portrayed as a source of horror and evokes a fear of aging that is linked to gradual bodily, mental, and social decline. Although Dahl's tale provides some hints that aging can be empowering and liberating for older women, the portrayal of the landlady proves that older age is enshrined in negative and even grotesque perceptions of later life. The use of horror helps further expose the individual and societal fears of growing older and the challenges of aging. The sardonic and twisted ending of the story also reveals the complexities of both growing up and growing older. Shedding light on Dahl's dark narrative from the perspective of age studies offers new vantage points from which to review the author's literary legacy and rethink the representations of aging in popular literature. Ultimately, the article adds to interdisciplinary approaches to older age and shows how humanities-based perspectives can contribute to expanding research into aging and later life.
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As with other twenty-first-century rewritings of fairytales, Cinderella is Dead by Kalynn Bayron complicates the classic ‘Cinderella’ fairytale narrative popularized by Charles Perrault and the Brothers Grimm for new audiences, queering and race-bending the tale in its decidedly feminist revision of the story. However, as we argue here, the novel also provides an interesting intervention in the construction of age as related to gender for its female protagonists. Drawing on Sylvia Henneberg’s examination of ageist stereotypes in fairytale classics and Susan Pickard’s construction of the figure of the hag, we explore the dialogic between the fairytale revision, traditional fairytale age ideology and the intersection of age and gender in this reinvention of the classic narrative. By focusing on constructions of age, particularly senescence, we demonstrate how complex constructions of older characters might aid in overall depictions of intergenerational relationships, and how these intergenerational relationships in turn reflect historical and cultural impetuses of retelling fairytale narratives.
The antagonism that exists between girls/women in fairy tales has been the subject of much discussion over recent decades. Significantly less attention, however, has been paid to the absence of collaborative female relationships in both traditional fairy tales and their retellings. This paper argues that the cognitive sciences, and schema theories in particular, may offer insights as to why these types of relationships receive such scant representation in contemporary re-visioned fairy tales, which commonly continue to replicate the common narrative dynamic of female acrimony. Following a brief overview of schemas and their operation, the paper examines how story schemas and person schemas might intersect in the unconscious of the creative writer to influence the intuitions that accompany story creation and development. Finally, it is suggested that the adoption of new frameworks through which to critically and reflexively interrogate our tacit storytelling knowledge can result in real cognitive change and subsequent advancements in our creative practice. A case study of the writing of ‘Burnt sugar’, a novelette the author produced as part of her ongoing PhD research, is presented as an ‘in practice’ demonstration of the possible effects of schemas upon narrative creation.
Feminist perspectives have strongly influenced the fairy-tale rewritings of the past decades, but the intersection of gender with other identity markers deserves more attention. This article applies the conclusions of Sylvia Henneberg’s critical examination of age and gender in fairy tales to Gillian Cross’s Wolf (1990), an award-winning rewriting of “Red Riding Hood.” While Wolf presents Nan, the counterpart of Red Riding Hood’s grandmother, as a determined and cunning older woman at first, in the course of the novel, the narrative lapses into the ageist stereotypes of the ineffectual crone and the wise old mentor.
This chapter offers an analysis of old age and its relationship with childhood in three recent Dutch children’s books, written by Marjolijn Hof, Ted van Lieshout and Bette Westera. They extended the range of topics linked to old age that has been introduced to young readers, addressing among others euthanasia, the gradual abandonment of old people by their loved ones, sexual needs in senescence and gay marriage at old age. The authors thus continue the Dutch tradition of progressive children’s books. All three texts display a remarkably similar ambivalence with regard to ageist stereotypes, reproducing them in such a way that they also invite criticism. One of these stereotypes that the three books play with is the metaphor that “old people are like children.” Sometimes the connection between old and young age is rooted in weakness, but the books discussed in this chapter also show that positive change, play and growth are possible at any age and thus make an important contribution to the progress narrative that age critics find so rare in contemporary Western society, yet so important.
The increasing ratio of the elderly in populations worldwide gives age studies new urgency, as such work can mitigate the proliferation of ageist discourses in society. Children’s books, which play an important role in their socialization, are a rich source for exploring how age norms are taught to the young. This article, drawing on children’s literature studies and age studies for its analysis, presents Michelle Magorian’s popular children’s book Goodnight Mister Tom (1981) as a case study. Central to the novel is the relationship between eight-year-old Will, who is evacuated from London on the eve of the Second World War, and Mister Tom, an elderly man who acts as a substitute parent. Thanks to the old mentor, the abused boy can thrive, and he in turn acts as a redeemer to the old widower, who has grown estranged from his feelings and community. To understand the book’s implicit age ideology, one must consider its generic features and extend the focus of age studies from old age to all ages. While Magorian’s novel deviates from certain ageist stereotypes, such as the decline narrative, close analysis reveals that other age and class-related prejudices are reinforced as the novel draws on sentimentalism and melodrama for its picture of old age.
For over a century, scholars have compared stories and proposed universal narrative patterns. Despite their diversity, nearly all of these projects converged on a common structure: the sympathetic plot. The sympathetic plot describes how a goal-directed protagonist confronts obstacles, overcomes them, and wins rewards. Stories with these features frequently exhibit other common elements, including an adventure and an orphaned main character. Here, I identify and aim to explain the sympathetic plot. I argue that the sympathetic plot is a technology for entertainment that works by engaging two sets of psychological mechanisms. First, it triggers mechanisms for learning about obstacles and how to overcome them. It builds interest by confronting a protagonist with a problem and induces satisfaction when the problem is solved. Second, it evokes sympathetic joy. It establishes the protagonist as an ideal cooperative partner pursuing a justifiable goal, convincing audiences that they should assist the character. When the protagonist succeeds, they receive rewards, and audiences feel sympathetic joy, an emotion normally triggered when cooperative partners triumph. The psychological capacities underlying the sympathetic plot are not story-specific adaptations. Instead, they evolved for purposes like learning and cooperation before being co-opted for entertainment by storytellers and cultural evolution.
This article focuses on the figure of an aging and powerful witch pitted against younger women in three contemporary fairy tale movie adaptations: Snow White and the Huntsman (Rupert Sanders, 2012), Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters (Tommy Wirkola, 2013), and Maleficent (Robert Stromberg, 2014). Each film transforms the aging witch from stock villain to a more nuanced character. This revision is intriguing for its concern with power and gender and for a reflection of contemporary debates about age and power within so-called wave feminism. The article uses two frames. The first is feminism and ageism, focusing on wave feminism and aging, and the second is the trope of witch, drawing from fairy tale studies, social history, and social anthropology. The article reads conflict between an aging witch and a young woman as a clash of feminist waves, and the witch's "monstrosity" as her refusal to be sidelined in a world obsessed with youth.
Identities related to age, language (ESL), religion, and region are explored in order to demonstrate how to see the whole person who is complex with multiple identities that are interwoven, interdependent, and sociocultural context bound.
The 2016 U.S. Presidential Election provided a unique opportunity to examine how ageism and sexism may impact attitudes (perceived presidential qualities and endorsement of positive and negative age stereotypes) toward Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. Community participants (N = 875) indicated their attitudes and voting intentions 3 weeks before the election. Endorsement of positive and negative age stereotypes and perceived presidential qualities for Clinton and Trump varied based on participants’ attitudes toward women, political stance (conservative/liberal), and demographic characteristics (racial/ethnic identification, education, gender identification). Individuals who perceived sexism to be more prevalent and perceived women as more competent in general had more positive attitudes toward Clinton, in contrast, only perceptions of lower prevalence of sexism (and not competence of women) predicted attitudes toward Trump. Individuals who perceived sexism as less prevalent viewed Clinton as less presidential and endorsed stronger negative age stereotypes for Clinton, while they viewed Trump as more presidential and endorsed stronger positive and weaker negative age stereotypes for Trump. Our findings suggest that both ageism and sexism present barriers for qualified women when pursuing positions of power. Implications for future research are discussed.
The paper explores the role of gender and precariousness in shaping views on aging and preparations for old age in middle-aged women and men. Based on study results from a larger research project on resources for positive aging conducted by the author, it argues that gender plays a less important part than precariousness in shaping views on aging and aging preparations. Data examined in this paper were collected with semi-structured interviews conducted with five women and five men with precarious work conditions and were analyzed with thematic coding. Gender differences were found concerning aging fears. Women emphasized loss of good looks while men focused on loss of autonomy and social roles. Women with insecure pension plans displayed the most negative views on aging. Precarious women and men displayed similar aging preparatory actions. Implications for practice and policy to promote gender equity regarding active aging are discussed.
In children’s fantasy, anything can happen. Castles can rasp and amble across the countryside, houses can float from balloons, a good night’s sleep can kill, and an old person can be the hero of their own story. This chapter examines a range of children’s fantasy texts in which the elderly are visible. These are texts that particularly centralise elderly embodiment, reimagining the relationship between growing up/ageing and agency, offering alternative ways to imagine femininity and masculinity. S anna Lehtonen takes the position that ‘[fjantasy fiction offers writers a field where they can reimagine societal structures, norms and conventions related to gender.’1 While this potential is not always explored, children’s and family-orientated fantasy, especially inspired by fairy tale, provides a particularly imaginative space for negotiating age and its gendered implications, since such fantasy is defined and promoted by age appropriateness. The profusion of witches and older men in addition to youthful heroes and heroines enables explorations of power, agency and marginalisation. It might be expected that representations of ageing in children’s fantasy have progressed in recent years, but we show that problematic trends have appeared, particularly regarding ageing women. Older fairy tales prominently feature old women’s voices, but although film and television make women’s bodies visible, these media often render them marginal, disempowered or pathologised. Nevertheless, representations of old age need not be ageist, and creaking bones and stooped walks can render the ageing body both present and active. By analysing a selection of children’s fantasy in film and television, particularly in animation, this chapter highlights the key trends in depicting old bodies, both female and male.
This article takes as its starting point the paradoxical representation of mothers in popular culture. On the one hand the mother is constructed as central to the physical and emotional development of the child; on the other, she is routinely rejected or elided, questioned, and vilified. One expression of this ambivalent attitude is the re-circulation of the trope of the dead mother. The trope, which ostensibly is employed to create sympathy for a character, or simply to drive the plot, often also privileges fathers, suggesting that children are better off without mothers. After a brief genre overview of the use of the trope of the dead mother on film and television, the article analyses how the BBC serial Single Father, with its repeated depictions of the mother's violent death, develops the trope, by not only privileging the father and vilifying the dead mother, but also reducing her death to a plot point, a backdrop for romance.
This article examines portrayals of grandmothers in a selection of post-1989 Polish initiation novels whose narrators recollect
their childhood and adolescence in late Communist Poland. Because of the exceptional political and economic situation in Poland
in the 1970s and 1980s, grandmothers did not experience the social and economic displacement that retired elders often feel,
and they remained integral and vital players in family dynamics. Seen through the eyes of their already adult grandchildren,
the fictional grandmothers are first and foremost nurturers and caregivers, providers of emotional and psychological comfort,
transmitters of the Catholic faith and religious values, guardians of traditional morality, and repositories of knowledge
about national and family history. Furthermore, they serve as a buffer in the moral clashes between parents and children and,
more importantly, as catalysts in their grandchildren's rejection of a forced collectivist identity, whether patriarchal or
Communist, and in the emergence of their individualist selves.
Representations of older women in the media are defined by the double marginalization of age and gender. The analysis presented here illustrates four major stages in the development of such images: invisibility of older women, stereotypization, ghettoization, and integration. All of these forms continue to circulate simultaneously in popular media at the current time. The feminist critique of these representations suggests that they might be playing a significant role in how women interpret and experience aging. Thus, the authors argue that the complex dialogue between media representations of older women and the lived realities of these women may have meaningful implications for feminist therapy.
Children's books have the potential to affect cultural norms and attitudes about older adults in many ways. The purpose of this study was to investigate the portrayal of grandparents in children's literature. Sixty-four children's books published since 1985 were randomly selected and content analyzed. In general, there was an overwhelming positive portrayal of grandparents in these books. Positive grandparent characteristics such as independence and happiness were depicted in a majority of the books the authors examined. Other characteristics such as wisdom and understanding were portrayed in slightly less than a majority of the stories. Although some of the stories depicted grandparents with various disabilities, physical impairment did not detract from the positive depiction of the grandparent. Future research might investigate the variance in the portrayal of grandparents along racial/ethnic and gender lines. For example, how are grandparents from various demographic groups portrayed in terms of status, wisdom, functional abilities, or equity?
Inequalities between men and women are underpinned by gender representations that are "internalized" by individuals and, like all social models, are slow to change. The goal of the present study is to analyze the construction of representations designed for children through illustrated books for 0 to 9 year-olds. The originality of the approach lies in the application of a quantitative method to subjects that had previously been studied from a qualitative angle. The text and the pictures of illustrated books are thus considered as "respondents" answering a survey questionnaire. The analysis of all new illustrated children's books published in 1994 by means of a modular observation frame covering all the characters made it possible to show, beyond the stereotypes, the combinations of factors influencing the development of the representations: sex, age, role (main, secondary, background character), type of character (human, clothed animal, real animal), parental function and occupation of the characters, as well as the intended readership and the sex of the writers and illustrators.
Old people of all kinds are to be found in children's literature as they are in literature shared by children and adults and in adult literature. Unfortunately, the stereotypical old people prevail in all stories, as perhaps they do in life: the silly and addlepated, the obsessed, the pitiful, the overly genteel, the old notable mainly for their pathetic imitations of the young, the old and corrupt. Positive images of old people whose long experience has given them special wisdom are in the minority. But it is essential for the young to read books about these wise old. They provide role models at a time when people are living longer, and they suggest that the young should not lump all the old in a negative category but judge them individually as any group of individuals should be judged.
Some of the enduring classics, in children's versions, provide a noble picture of the old. Through them, children can become acquainted with the wise old counselor, Nestor, who appears in the Iliad, and can be touched by the devotion of Ulysses' old and faithful dog, who recognizes his master when he returns in disguise from his long voyages.
In the 1920s, many teenagers who took four years of Latin in high school (as I did in Elyria High School [Ohio] in 1926-29), translated Cicero's De Senectute (essay on old age), still one of the best statements of the problem. Later some educators came along and banished the classics and in doing so, deprived developing minds of considerable wisdom. Cicero observed that every period of life is wretched for those who have no inner resources; that old age is regarded as bad because people are no longer on active duty, because they are physically weaker, because certain pleasures are curtailed, and because the old are nearer death. To each of these Cicero had a rebuttal: Less occupied with detail, the old have more time for deep thought. "Sophocles," he wrote, "composed tragedies until he was extremely old" and the best Greek philosophers, including Plato, were active all their long lives. New pleasures can be substituted for old, such as learning a language, or learning to play a musical instrument. "I learned Greek in my old age," he said.
As for being physically weaker, Cicero, who was in his eightyfourth year when he wrote that essay, asked "Would you rather have the strength of Milo the Croton, who could run a course with a live bullock on his shoulders, or the intellectual power of Pythagorus?" Cicero observed that he has "Never agreed to that old proverb that advises you to become old early if you wish to be old long." So much for early retirement.
He had no respect for "dull, indolent, sleepy old age." Such types, who were dull even when they were young, and who now belong to the bingo set, are the figures most often described in children's books. No wonder youth looks down on them. They have the cuteness and cuddliness of pets rather than the dignity of human beings. They are the kind who display those license plates that read: RETIRED. NO MONEY. NO PHONE. They could add: NO BRAINS. Cicero approved of the young who had something old in them and of the old who had something young in them. As for pleasures, he pointed out that there are pleasures other than bodily pleasures such as the pleasures of companionship, a quiet dinner, and good conversation. He found these pursuits delightful, and coupled them with the mild exercise of tending a fragrant garden. Greater than the pleasures of early manhood (which include over-indulgence and satiation), he found seemingly trivial and commonplace things more enjoyable, such as being greeted, made room for, escorted home, consulted. "Not every wine is soured by age."
As for death, he wrote:
I will either be free from misery or happy after death, so why should I fear it? So let me enjoy the fruits of old age, both material things and memories. Socrates, perhaps the wisest of all men, argued on the last day of his life for the immortality of spirits, proved to some extent because...
An exhaustive survey of children's first literature (juvenile picture books and easy readers) determined the extent of age stereotyping--ageism--in roles, behaviors, and descriptions of older characters. Some 656 children's books in active circulation were subjected to content analysis. The findings are placed in etiological perspective. (Author)
ABSTRACTSThis essay seeks to broaden theoretical paradigms commonly used in the social sciences to analyze representations of gender, especially girlhood, in children's literature. In particular, this project seeks to add to liberal feminist frameworks for conceptualizing textual representations of gender and sexuality in literacy studies. Liberal feminisms theorize gender through the lens of sex-role theory, a paradigm in which social roles are allocated to men and to women on the basis of biological sex. The author acknowledges this important theoretical tradition, which brings attention to sex-role stereotypes in children's literature, and approaches the topic of gender representation from another perspective. Drawing on feminist and literary theories informed by poststructuralism, the author analyzes how discourses of femininity produce the contested subjectivity of the “girl.” Through a textual analysis of four variants of “Little Red Riding Hood,” the author illustrates how poststructural feminist literary theory allows for a reading of the girl as less a natural category than as the product of evolving, culturally situated, and contradictory discourses. In this wayanother possible direction for analyzing gender in children's literature is offered.
Focusing on two books key to the cultural history of aging in America in the twentieth century—G. Stanley Hall's Senescence: The Last Half of Life [Hall, G. S. (1922, rpt. 1972). Senescence: the last half of life. New York: Arno Press] and Betty Friedan's The Fountain of Age [Friedan, B. (1993). The fountain of age. New York: Simon and Schuster], this essay explores: (1) the cultural reflex of invoking wisdom as the special strength of the old and (2) the strategy of using anger to call attention to ageism. “Against Wisdom” argues that it is difficult, if not virtually impossible, to envision a productive future for the elderly through the joint cultural building blocks of wisdom and anger. A manifesto of sorts, the essay calls for a moratorium on wisdom and suggests that stories of a vitalizing anger at being marginalized because old be told and circulated, and concludes with a story from Barbara Macdonald's Look Me in the Eye: Old Women, Aging, and Ageism.
Terminologický slovník 3000 výt. Pro studenty angličtiny
Orphan heroes and heroines are familiar characters in children's literature, particularly in the fiction of the nineteenth and early twentieth century. This type of protagonist has its roots in folktales. An analysis of fifty folktales from different cultures reveals that, while the details of orphan stories vary, there are some universal elements. A comparison of these patterns to a literary orphan story, The Secret Garden, demonstrates how the patterns found in orphan folktales were adapted and applied in children's fiction.
Adrienne Rich (Baltimore, 1929), autora y feminista norteamericana, se gradua del Radcliffe College y recibe el Yale Series of Younger Poets Prize, que implica la publicación de A Change of World, el primero de sus varios libros de poesía, en 1951. Alcanza el reconocimiento público a escala nacional con Snapshots of a Daughter-in-Law: Poems, 1954-1962 (1963), debido tanto a sus cualidades líricas como al tratamiento de temas relacionados con el feminismo, y es galardonada por Diving into the Wreck: Poems, 1971-1972 (1973), culminación de una búsqueda denodada de figuras y metáforas de lo cotidiano tomadas del subconsciente, con el National Book Award de 1974. Asume su identidad como lesbiana en 1976, mismo año que publica su trabajo más conocido entre los lectores de lengua española: el ensayo Nacida de mujer, cuyo título completo en una traducción posterior (Nacemos de mujer: la maternidad como experiencia e institución) refleja de un modo más claro la relevancia de esta contribución para el análisis feminista de la maternidad. El folleto Twenty-One Love Poems (1977), incluido un año más tarde en Dream of a Common Language: Poems, 1974-1977, demarca el primer tratamiento explícito de la sexualidad lésbica en su obra poética, que ha reunido en volúmenes sucesivos como Poems: Selected and New, 1950-1974 (1974), The Fact of a Doorframe: Poems Selected and New, 1950-1984 (1984) y Collected Early Poems, 1950-1970 (1993). La poesía de Rich ha sido accesible en lengua española a través de la Antología poética, 1951-1981 (1986) y una Antología poética (2003), ambas seleccionadas y traducidas por Myriam Díaz-Diocaretz, y del volumen bautizado como Poemas, 1963-2000 (2002), en tanto en su obra en prosa pueden encontrarse –además de Nacida de mujer- Sobre mentiras, secretos y silencios (1979), Sangre, pan y poesía: prosa escogida, 1979-1985 (2001) y Artes de lo posible (2001).
Sherry Turkle is rapidly becoming the sociologist of the Internet, and that's beginning to seem like a good thing. While her first outing, The Second Self: Computers and the Human Spirit, made groundless assertions and seemed to be carried along more by her affection for certain theories than by a careful look at our current situation, Life on the Screen is a balanced and nuanced look at some of the ways that cyberculture helps us comment upon real life (what the cybercrowd sometimes calls RL). Instead of giving in to any one theory on construction of identity, Turkle looks at the way various netizens have used the Internet, and especially MUDs (Multi-User Dimensions), to learn more about the possibilities available in apprehending the world. One of the most interesting sections deals with gender, a topic prone to rash and partisan pronouncements. Taking as her motto William James's maxim "Philosophy is the art of imagining alternatives," Turkle shows how playing with gender in cyberspace can shape a person's real-life understanding of gender. Especially telling are the examples of the man who finds it easier to be assertive when playing a woman, because he believes male assertiveness is now frowned upon while female assertiveness is considered hip, and the woman who has the opposite response, believing that it is easier to be aggressive when she plays a male, because as a woman she would be considered "bitchy." Without taking sides, Turkle points out how both have expanded their emotional range. Other topics, such as artificial life, receive an equally calm and sage response, and the first-person accounts from many Internet users provide compelling reading and good source material for readers to draw their own conclusions.
The Lion King. USA: Walt Disney Video. (Original date of release
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Charlotte's Web. (G. Williams, Illus.)
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Mother love in children's literature. Literary mama: A literary magazine for the maternally inclined Aged by culture
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Nancy Drew: The Secret of the Old Clock
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The young learn about the old: Aging and children's literature. Lion and the Unicorn Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. (M. GrandPré, Illus.)
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The Princess and the Goblin.Middlesex (England: Puffin Books (Original work published 1872)
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Transformations. The complete poems
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A Series of Unfortunate Events: A Bad Beginning. (B. Helquist, Illus.)
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The Coming of Age (Patrick O'Brian, Trans.)
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Positive portrayal of grandparents in current children's literature The Uses of Enchantment: The meaning and importance of fairy tales Clifford at the Circus Clifford Visits the Hospital
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The Emperor's New Groove. USA: Walt Disney Home Entertainment
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Directors) A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving. USA: Paramount Studios. (Original date of release
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The Care Bears Big Wish Movie. USA: Lions Gate
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Histoires ou contes du temps passé, avec des moralités: Contes de ma mère l'Oye Contmania The Tales of Mother Goose.: Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
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Perrault, C. (1697). Histoires ou contes du temps passé, avec des moralités: Contes de ma mère l'Oye Contmania. Retrieved January 25, 2007, from http://www.contemania.com/ Perrault, C. (2005). The Tales of Mother Goose.: Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation Retrieved January 25, 2007, from http://www. gutenberg.org/etext/17208. (Original work published 1697).
Jungle Book: The Mowgli Stories (J. Pinkney, Illus.)
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Kipling, R. (1995). Jungle Book: The Mowgli Stories (J. Pinkney, Illus.).New York: William Morrow (Original work published 1894).
The Lilith Summer. Old Westbury
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Irwin, H. (1979). The Lilith Summer. Old Westbury: The Feminist Press.
Where the wild things are The Cat in the Hat
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Against wisdom: The social politics of anger and aging The trials and tribulations of Little Red Riding Hood
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Woodward, K. (2003). Against wisdom: The social politics of anger and aging. Journal of Aging Studies, 17, 55−67. Zipes, J. (1993). The trials and tribulations of Little Red Riding Hood. New York: Routledge.
Miss Rumphius Bigmama's
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Cooney, B. (1982). Miss Rumphius. New York: Puffin Books. Crews, Donald (1991). Bigmama's. New York: Greenwillow Books.
Elizabeth Gaskell and the Dead Mother Plot. New essays on the maternal voice in the nineteenth century (pp. 31−50). Dallas: Contemporary Research Press. The Devil and his Grandmother
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Thaden, B. (1995). Elizabeth Gaskell and the Dead Mother Plot. New essays on the maternal voice in the nineteenth century (pp. 31−50). Dallas: Contemporary Research Press. The Devil and his Grandmother (1988). In Grimm (Vol. 2, pp. 82–85).
Figuring age: Women, bodies, generations Bloomington
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Woodward, K. (Ed.). (1999). Figuring age: Women, bodies, generations Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
The 101 Dalmatians. New York: Penguin Young Readers Group
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Schulz and Peanuts: A biography
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Michaelis, David (2007). Schulz and Peanuts: A biography. New York: HarperCollins.
Sleeping Beauty. USA: Walt Disney Video. (Original date of release 1959)
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Introduction to Cinderella: Three hundred and forty-five variants of Cinderella, catskin, and cap o'rushes, abstracted and tabulated, with a discussion of medieval analogues, and notes
- A Lang
Lang, A. (1893). Introduction to Cinderella: Three hundred and forty-five variants of Cinderella, catskin, and cap o'rushes, abstracted and tabulated, with a discussion of medieval analogues, and notes, by M. R. Cox. London: The Folk-Lore Society.
Orphans in literature empower women.USA Today Retrieved/www.usatoday.com/life/books/2003-07-02-bchat_x The Cinderella Project Retrieved Little Red Riding Hood: A Newfangled Tale
- D Donahue
Donahue, D. (2003, July 2). Orphans in literature empower women.USA Today Retrieved May 16, 2006, from http://www.usatoday.com/life/books/2003-07-02-bchat_x.htm Dougherty, L. (2006). The Cinderella Project Retrieved July 28, 2006, from http://wneo.org/WebQuests/TeacherWebQuests/Cinderella/ The_Cinderella_Project.htm Ernst, L. C. (1998). Little Red Riding Hood: A Newfangled Tale.New York: Aladdin Picture Books (Original work published 1995).
Director) Mary Poppins. USA: Walt Disney Video. (Original date of release
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Directors) The Little Mermaid. USA: Walt Disney Home Entertainment
- R Clements
- J Musker
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