Cinderella ate my daughter-the princess complex

While preparing my application assignment I was talking to Professor Ide and recommended a book to me called “Cinderella ate my daughter”.  I didn’t have time to read it, but I looked through a couple different book reviews about it, and thought it raised some very interesting themes.  Most importantly was the author, Peggy Orenstein’s views on the princess complex that controls almost every American girl from ages 2 to 6.

Orenstein believes that Disney and princess themed merchandise and apparel set young girls up for failure because of unrealistic expectations.  For example the idea of waiting for your “knight in shining armor” or “prince charming” to come take you away to live happily ever after is damaging because it instills the idea the women are judge on their beauty. 

The next phase for little girls is the “tween” at which time to break away from the princess she moves on to the less girlie and sexier Bratz dolls, and so begins beauty and sexy being the most important attributes.  In general the author blames Disney for all the stereotypes and stages little girls go through.  Specifically Orenstein blames the Disney starlets who play the innocent virgin angle on Disney for a couple years and then end up drunk and disorderly or slutty and sending nude pictures (ex: Lindsay Lohan and Selena Gomez)

Orenstein sees little girls as being set down the path of princess turned whore regardless of how well they excel at other important aspects of their lives.  She feels like the culture encourages this behavior from girls that it’s almost a rite of passage for girl to constantly be proving physically they are feminine.

The advice she offers to parents is to say ‘no’ more.

Al's Book Club for Kids

http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/18179145/

In 2007, Al Roker, the weatherman from the Today show, dedicated a monthly segment over the summer to help kids engage in reading while they weren't in school. During this series there were four books chosen, one each month, and the author from the book would come in to read a portion of his book, take questions and sign autographs. A select few children from the area were invited for the reading and to ask questions but children from across America can send in questions that can be selected for the author to answer. The children (and parents) are also able to continue their discussion on the book via the website where they had several different resources such as a reading log, questions, and resources. Notably, Al was partnered with Scholastic and has now been such a booming success that it now runs all through the year.

Last January I was watching the today show and saw a segment on children's books. This day they were taking the "kid's pick" which was a book called A Whole Nother Story by Dr. Cuthbert Soup. The author was HILARIOUS, and I couldn't wait to read the book after hearing his interview with these kids. The kids really seemed to be invested in the book and love the characters and Dr. Soup was extremely charismatic so I figured the book must be great. Truthfully though is this just like Oprah's book club but for kids? A bunch of fluff for kids to read? Or are they providing quality examples of literature?

The mere fact that Al partnered with Scholastic to do this makes me wonder if they are presenting a wide enough spectrum of books. It also seems as though the website and maybe even the program has changed since they began four years ago. Now, when you go to the website I don't see any place where you can send in questions or chat about the book. I don't see reading logs or discussions boards of any kind. They seem to have many more suggestions for books and even have audio books available for preview but there is not much interaction going on. They do offer some resources such as the American Library Association, and Scholastic's website which tells how to teach with the books. These things, however, do not provide any kind of venue for kids to discuss the books with each other which I think would help to establish not only a healthy appreciation for book discussions but also a beneficial way for children to become accustomed to proper use of the internet.

I can't help but wonder if some one other than Scholastic was running this show it may be a better influence for the children and adults getting the suggestions. For instance, one of the books they have listed up on the website now in the article titled "Afghanistan through the eyes of a child" is not even written by a person from Afghanistan, but actually by an American soldier. Is this a good example of multicultural literature? I don't think so! How could this American soldier possibly know what it is like to be an little Afghan girl with a cleft palate?

At any rate, I think that this is a good thing because it gets kids reading but I don't know if it should be something that is relied on by educators. I also think some of these books would not be a worthy choice because they can create false views of the world, such as the example I presented. What are your thoughts?

Oprah's Book Club?

I’m really confused about the whole Oprah’s Book Club thing. I started reading the book Middlesex recently and it had an Oprah’s Book Club sticker on it. I was reading it up north and all of my family friends commented on it, saying it was a really good book. I looked up reviews online and got looking into Oprah’s Book club but I just can’t seem to find an explanation for how she chooses the books on her list.

I guess one time Oprah chose a book by an author, Jonathon Franzen, who chose to decline the request because he thought it was going against his beliefs and he didn’t want to get involved in that kind of cheap success. I used to think the same way, that Oprah influenced a ton of people to go out and buy these books but who says they are good books? Even though I still don’t know how Oprah chooses her books and whether they are actually worthy of being bestsellers, I did read a few articles in her favor. I read that some people compared Oprah to a teacher and said that it was positive that at least she is getting lots of people to read. This is kind of like how we were talking in class about joke books that get boys reading but don’t really advance their reading much. Is it worth it to get people reading? From an education standpoint I would think it might be something you have to assess from looking at your classroom. Like by asking yourself how far are your kids from motivation to read and am I desperate enough to introduce fluffy books. So what do you think about Oprah’s Book Club?