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The topic that I want to look at is Walt Disney's Cinderella's influence on children's perceptions about love and romance.
tagged children cinderella romance disney by bauercm ...on 10-APR-08

Haddock, Shelley A., Lori K. Lund, Litsa Renee Tanner & Toni Schindler Zimmerman. “Images of Couples and Families in Disney Feature-Length Animated Films.”  American Periodical of Family Therapy 31.5 (2003): 355-374.  EBSCO MegaFILE.  University of Pennsylvania Library, Philadelphia.  7 April 2008.  <http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=tfh&AN=10833476&site=ehost-live>

This article is based on a study that identifies themes about families and couples in a number of Disney feature-length animated films.  It states that a main way in which children are socially educated is through the media, and especially through animated Disney films, since these films are often passed from one generation to another.  The study claims that its findings will be useful in helping parents and family therapists understand what children are learning through these films.  Included in the results is the finding that a majority of the 26 films analyzed evoked the notion that being married and/or having children was the normal route for couples to follow.  This idea is emphasized by the fact that characters are depicted as being married just after meeting.  Remarriage may be seen as bad, because in the films in which remarriage is illustrated, stepmothers are depicted as evil, such as in Cinderella.  All of the couples in the films analyzed were heterosexual couples, and the majority of them experienced “love at first sight,” which thus emphasizes the importance of physical appearance.  And, in the majority of these movies, one does not find out how relationships are maintained; rather, most couples just “lived happily ever after.” 

One of the films analyzed in this study is Cinderella.  The study helps convey the notion that Cinderella is a film that presents us with romantic ideals – it contains the idea of “love at first sight,” that marriage is normal yet also an immense dream to have in life, and that happily ever after is attainable.  It can teach children about social aspects of life, especially concerning couple relationships.  This article can help to provide further evidence that Cinderella creates within children ideas about what love is like.  According to the study, love is depicted as happening immediately and without effort, and marriage is seen as the ultimate goal.  Thus, Disney films such as Cinderella create an unrealistic ideal about romance and love.

belongs to Cinderella project
tagged children cinderella couples marriage disney by bauercm ...on 10-APR-08
Adachi-Mejia, Anna M., Michael L. Beach, Madeline A. Dalton, Meghan R. Longacre & Linda Titus-Ernstoff.  “Longitudinal Study of Viewing Smoking in Movies and Initiation of Smoking by Children.”  Pediatrics 121.1 (2008): 15-21.  EBSCO MegaFILE.  University of Pennsylvania Library, Philadelphia.  8 April 2008.  <http://search.ebscohost.com> 
This is a longitudinal research study, the purpose of which was to see if children’s exposure to smoking in films could influence smoking initiation in these children.  The fact that the study is a longitudinal study means that it is a study that takes place over time; in this case the reason for the study taking place over an extended period was to see if over time, children’s exposure to smoking in films influenced their smoking initiation.  The study demonstrated that children’s exposure to movie smoking significantly predicted smoking initiation.  It showed that there was not only an association between movie smoking exposure and increased risk of smoking initiation, but also that early childhood movie smoking exposure was just as influential as exposure that occurs nearer to the time of initiation.  This study is useful in looking at how Cinderella may influence children’s beliefs and notions about romance and love.  Though smoking and love are certainly not the same things, both are social behaviors.  In this study, children were exposed to a particular social behavior through film, which later had an influence on their real-life behaviors.  This research thus helps to show that there may be a great influence between what films present to children, and what, in turn, children learn about the social world.  In the study, children’s movie smoking exposure had a strong influence on initiation; likewise, then, it is possible that children who view Cinderella will be greatly influenced by its messages about love and romance.  In addition, since early childhood movie smoking exposure was just as important as exposure that happened closer to initiation, then it is possible that what children learn about love, romance, and relationships through Cinderella may stay with them, even as other sources of influence begin to shape their views about the subject matter.  In other words, what children learn about love and romance through early childhood viewing of films such as Cinderella may be just as important in influencing their thoughts and behaviors about love than what they learn about love as they get older and are exposed to more sources of information on these themes and issues.
belongs to Cinderella project
tagged children media_influence by bauercm ...on 10-APR-08

  Baker-Sperry, Lori.  “The Production of Meaning through Peer Interaction: Children and Walt Disney’s Cinderella.”  Sex Roles 56 (2007): 717-727.  SpringerLink.  University Of Pennsylvania Library, Philadelphia.  8 April 2008.  <http://www.springerlink.com/home/main.mpx>

 

 

 

 This article is about a study in which researchers looked at children’s interpretations of the fairytale Cinderella.  The study was done using the book version of Walt Disney’s Cinderella, and was conducted in groups of elementary school peers.  The researchers wanted to see how the children reacted to gender-related messages, especially in a group of peers.  The study found that gender roles were reinforced in the various peer groups as a result of reading the fairytale. 

This article is useful in looking at the film Cinderella and its influence on children’s perceptions and ideals on romance, love, and marriage.  Though the study does look at the text-version of Disney’s Cinderella, the story and characters are the same, and the book provides pictures similar to what one would see on screen in the film version.  In the study, researchers found that children combined the fantasies they heard about in Cinderella with their real life experiences, and the two often mixed together to form views about the film, and the girls often cited how they fancied getting married as Cinderella did, hoping to meet and marry a prince at a ball.  Researchers also claim that many of the girls seemed to be envious of Cinderella, and after reading the film, talked about their futures and related the film in terms of what they would like their lives to be like.  They believed that what happened in the story could happen to them.  All of these notions coincide with the fundamental idea that I am looking at – that children are influenced by Disney’s film Cinderella in that they learn about romantic ideals.

belongs to Cinderella project
tagged children cinderella by bauercm ...on 10-APR-08
Junn, Ellen N.  Media Portrayals of Love, Marriage & Sexuality for Child Audiences: A Select Content Analysis of Walt Disney Animated Family Films.”  Biennial Meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development.  Washington, D.C.  4 April 1997.
This paper presents a content analysis that looks at the portrayals of love, sex, and marriage in several romantic and nonromantic Disney animated films, including both older and newer romantic films.  Results found that male and female characters engage in “typical” gender roles – that is, male characters engage in more active love-related roles, while female characters are more passive when it comes to love.  Over time, references to marriage and weddings in the films have remained relatively stable, though they slightly decrease in more recent films.  Females were not featured as much in the films as were males, except in romantic stories.  Both male and female characters engage in stereotypical conduct – females exhibit passive behaviors such as giggling and coy posing in order to attract male attention, while males exhibit more outward behavior, such as kissing the hand of a lady, fighting for the love interest, and other assorted chivalrous actions.     
          
This analysis is useful for examining the topic that children may be influenced a great deal by the film Cinderella in terms of ideas about love and marriage.  In fact, one of the older romantic films analyzed is Cinderella.  Though this does not measure children’s responses to these images and themes, it is useful to think about the sorts of messages about love and marriage that children are receiving in Disney films such as Cinderella.  Through these movies, children may have the capacity to learn about various social behaviors, including engaging in romantic relationships, since as the study points out, parents often do not discuss love and romantic related issues with their children until adolescence.  As a result, it is very possible that they learn about love and relationships via the media, and as the study points out, Disney films are so ubiquitous that they may have a great effect on children’s perceived notions about love and romance.  Thus, this study points out the many types of romance-related behaviors that a child may pick up from watching a Disney film, including Cinderella.    
belongs to Cinderella project
tagged children disney marriage romance love by bauercm ...on 10-APR-08
Orenstein, Peggy.  “What’s Wrong with Cinderella?”  New York Times Magazine 24 Dec. 2006.  8 April 2008. <http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/24/magazine/24princess.t.htmlpagewanted=1&ei=5088&en=8e5a1ac1332a802c&ex=1324616400&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss>

 

 

                This article talks about how the Disney “Princess” brand is becoming ubiquitous to the point that girls do not have any option but to embrace the brand.  The column is interspersed with personal anecdotes of the author’s experience with her little girl, who innocently wonders why her mother does not like the Disney Princesses.  The author talks about how products related to the Disney Princesses are everywhere, and discusses how the idea to create a brand that connected the Disney Princesses was formulated in 2000.  It was the first time that Disney characters were marketed separately from a film’s release.  Since then, the Princess brand has earned billions of dollars; it is the fastest-growing brand ever created by Disney, and may become the largest girls’ franchise in the world.

                This piece’s discussion on the Disney “Princess” brand is relevant to the topic of Cinderella’s influence on children.  If Cinderella has the capacity to be so influential in a child’s formulation of ideas on romance, then a discussion on the Disney “Princess” brand, which includes the character of Cinderella, is applicable to discussing how a film can have such a profound impact on a child’s social education.  Since the brand is so ubiquitous, and young girls receive constant reinforcement that this brand is essential to their upbringing, then surely it may be that they pay close attention to the ideals put forth in the film.  They may be reminded of these ideals each and every time they see a Disney Princess product in the store, and their beliefs may be continually reinforced, as young girls all claim that they want to be princesses.  

 

 

belongs to Cinderella project
tagged children cinderella princesses disney by bauercm ...on 10-APR-08
readers corner


tagged children traister by vallhonr ...on 22-JAN-08
tagged children elementary_school schools by vtisbvg ...on 17-NOV-07
Boldt,GM . Love's return: Psychoanalytic essays on childhood, teaching, and learning. [0-415-95205-0]
tagged children love psychoanalysis by walther ...on 08-MAR-07
The Ross Products Division of Abbott Laboratories has been collecting information on infant
feeding and breastfeeding in the United States since 1955.1-8 Current survey design permits an
examination of infant feeding patterns during the first 12 months of life. Ryan described increases in the
hospital initiation and duration of breastfeeding between 1985 and 1995,8 and later for the 1996 to 20019
time frame. This update complements the published data and provides current breastfeeding information
through 2003.
tagged breastfeeding stats health children by laallen ...on 17-JAN-07
lists data sources for breastfeeding information
tagged breastfeeding stats children by laallen ...on 17-JAN-07
Child and Adolescent Mental Health page from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. (SAMHSA)
Wong's essentials of pediatric nursing / [editor-in-chief] Marilyn J. Hockenberry ; section editors, David Wilson, Marilyn L. Winkelstein. [0323025935 ] St. Louis, Mo. : Elsevier Mosby, c2005.
Call#: Biomedical Library Reserve Oversize RJ245 .W46 2005


tagged Book Child Children Infant Pediatrics Pediatric Nursing Infancy Text by semorgan ...on 15-AUG-06

Although Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid is just one film on the long list of successful movies Paul Newman has starred in over his acting career, his time as Butch Cassidy has held a special place in his heart across many years.  This fact became evident to the public upon his founding of the Hole in the Wall Gang Camp for Seriously Ill Children in the Summer of 1988.  The link above takes you to the New York Times article written by Daniel Hatch reporting on the camp’s preparation for opening.

The first Hole in the Wall Gang Camp opened in Ashford Connecticut, but since them, several other camp locations have opened across the country.  According to Jeffery Glick, the first executive director of the camp, the camp was founded to give ill children a chance to experience camp-life like other kids their age.  Children accepted to the Hole in the Wall Gang Camp are frequently kids who have “only left home to go to the hospital.”  At the Hole in the Wall Gang Camp, children will be able to get the medical attention they need from an “infirmary that is set back and unobtrusive” while being able to participate in activities like “swimming, boating and leatherwork.”

Though reluctant to take credit for coming up with the idea on his own, when Paul Newman decided to create this type of camp, it was his goal to create an environment in which “these children can enjoy life and make life worth fighting for.”  The funding for the camp comes partly from private donations, but primarily from the profits of Newman’s Own line of food products also initiated by Paul Newman.  As the primary financial supporter of the camp, Newman pushed the “Hole in the Wall Gang” as the name for his camp as well as its central theme.  The results of this desire are apparent to anyone observing the “turn-of-the-century lumber camp” that has been carefully constructed for the children.  For his campers, Newman wanted to “avoid a sense of institution” – a feeling they knew all to well – by making sure the entire campground felt organic and real.  In this way, Newman succeeded in capturing the love of wilderness and freedom enjoyed by the members of the Hole in the Wall Gang depicted in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.  The opening of his camp turned out to be a huge success and has been growing ever since.

< To learn more about the nature of this camp or how you can help to keep it running, visit http://www.holeinthewallgang.org>

Provides a brief history of violent video games and discusses potential negative effects of violent video games.  Also provides models and theories relating to the effects of Media Violence.
report on internet activities of kids in the UK...and their skill sets
tagged children media report technology web youth by jarson ...on 04-NOV-05
This web site offers easy access to statistics and reports on children and families, including: population and family characteristics, economic security, health, behavior and social environment, and education.
tagged children stats by laallen ...on 03-NOV-05