It is a known fact that we learn a lot of our habits from our parents. I had to do a study last year in one of my communications classes and we actually used children's books to back up our hypothesis. We predicted that these books would greatly portray gender roles; a boy being masculine, liking mud and sports while girls they portrayed as emotional and good in the kitchen and excellent mothers. We read two specific books one titled "World's Greatest Dad" and one titled "World's Greatest Mom". The mom of course was always busy, cleaning, cooking, and juggling carpool and kids. While the dad was a business man who came home to play games and sports with the kids and sometimes would grill meat. So it makes you wonder, are these books what shape our gender roles, our ideas and beliefs about femininity and masculinity. With the lines between the two being crossed so much lately you wonder if these books are designed specifically for the purpose of helping children identify with who they are, and teach them the code of being a boy or girl.
Book 6: World's Greatest Mom (series)
Author: Kath Smith
Picture Book?: Yes
Posting Date: March 19, 2008
No comments:
Post a Comment