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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.
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.
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.
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.
Call#: Biomedical Library Reserve Oversize RJ245 .W46 2005
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>