CHILDREN’S PICTURE BOOKS (FEMINISM AND EARLY YEARS CURRICULUM)

Children’s Picture Books (Feminism And Early Years Curriculum)

Children’s picture books are part of the crucial materials that children use to form meanings about the world. Children’s picture books describe the world in a manner that is supposed to explain to children basic aspects of how the world works. This means that these books have the power to define critical elements of the world to children including issues like gender roles and gender perceptions, and inform them about what is perceived as desirable and what is not. However, several children’s picture books do not portray a positive image of a progressive society. For instance, Cinderella is a famous children’s picture book that portrays certain stereotypes about princesses like how they dress, how they look, how they behave, and how they interact with the opposite sex. Children mimic poses and actions they see in the picture books since they interpret these as the ideals of society. This is a critical issue for pedagogy since it shows both a challenge and an opportunity to impact future generations using positive messages in the picture books.

The poststructuralist theory is significantly applicable in this context to understand the issue of feminism and gender during the early years’ curriculum. The theory posits that subjectivity is not fixed, but is always in process, with the subjectivity being comprised and reconstituted through daily discursive practices they all have access to in their lives, which in the case of children includes their picture books or their related films (Davies and Banks, 1992, p.2). The poststructuralist theory is applicable in understanding children’s picture books because it notes that discourse not only has a constitutive force but also accords the subject with the possibility of agency (Davies and Banks, 1992, p.3). This means that from a poststructuralist perspective, subjectivity is gained through discourses and provided pattern and substance via story-line and deployed in social interactions (Davies and Banks, 1992, p.3). For instance, Blaise (2005, p.85) notes that the main discourses in the classroom include make-up, wearing femininity, beauty, body movements, and fashion, all discourses that shape the subjectivity of the children, especially in terms of gender and gender roles.

The poststructuralist perspective is critical in understanding the impact of children’s picture books on the formation of their beliefs about the world since the books assist in the interpellation of the children into the social world. Children’s books establish the basic ideas about the world as children learn how to interact and speak, which the children grow to believe to be their own ideas that result from their choices and desires and hence things that should not be challenged nor bring caution (Davies and Banks, 1992, p.3). This poststructuralist perspective allows us to evaluate how children are turned into gender subjects during their early stages of education, and how the practice can be adjusted against what limits it including the portrayal of gender roles and stereotypes (Davies and Banks, 1992, p.3).

The Social or Political Context of Children’s Picture Books

Teaching is considered both a social and political act, which subsequently suggests that children’s picture books are by inclusion social and political. Feminist practitioners suggest that the early years’ curriculum, including all elements of practice such as lesson plans, teacher-learner interactions, and classroom arrangements, have underlying political influences (De Lair and Erwin, 2000, p.156). The political undertones feminist practitioners refer to are the voices from which people speak and which they have been influenced to do so (De Lair and Erwin, 2000, p.156). The political voice establishes views about society and education, students’ and teachers’ positions and roles in society (De Lair and Erwin, 2000, p.156). These views dictate the pedagogical decisions teachers make including what to teach, what not to teach, and what resources to include in their teaching because they understand their impacts on the learners (De Lair and Erwin, 2000, p.156). This makes the teaching choices political choices since the teacher may decide to either include lessons that identify issues such as gender discrimination or completely avoid the issue in their lessons (De Lair and Erwin, 2000, p.156). Children’s picture books represent a critical part of early curriculum choices since the children are not proficient enough to read and write. The decisions on which picture books to use and which ones not to are underlined by the teacher’s political beliefs. Therefore, teachers have the ability to develop a discourse that either promotes or challenges societal stereotypes about gender and other critical issues.

Children’s books also promote various societal norms or challenge them, which gives them a social and political context. One of the main issues noted in children’s books is the issue of gender binaries, which these books can either promote or disrupt (Whitmore, Angleton, and Zuccaro, 2016, p.16). For instance, the book Frogs and Snails was noted to teach the majority of students that their femaleness or maleness was an incorrigible part of themselves through discursive elements that are framed as either female or male (Davies and Banks, 1992, p.2). When such books establish children’s interactions on the presumption that they are in some ultimate sense either female or male, children learn the discursive methods through which they can mould themselves in the learnt manner (Davies and Banks, 1992, p.2).

These picture books help the children make sense of gender through the character’s bodies, the stories themselves, and the discourse occupied by these picture books (Earles, 2017, p.369). For instance, the Cinderella picture book informs children about the way women ideally look while also establishing narratives such as the way the princess dresses and behaves. This prompts children to make sense of gender based on the depiction of these characters, hence promoting various social norms or challenging them.

Children’s picture books provide the children with opportunities and mirrors to see reflections of themselves, to learn about others who are not the same as them and have their identities or that of their loved ones validated (Crawley, 2017, p.28). These are both social and political elements since the picture books represent the accepted normative gender ideas through the characters and the stories (Crawley, 2017, p.28). The books selected by teachers in class also determine what students will perceive as normal and socially acceptable in the context of gender. Social stereotypes about gender and gender roles are introduced and articulated to children through various picture books, which children respond to in writing and discourse, hence interpellating the children into the beliefs of the social world (Earles, 2017, p.369). Therefore, children’s picture books have been understood over time as critical drivers of the perceptions of children about gender and gender roles.

Multiple studies have highlighted that children’s literature, including picture books and books read to or by children, plays a crucial role in children’s socialisation (Netz and Kuzar, 2020, p.387). While gender construction occurs over one’s life and not in one stage alone, researchers argue that sex-typing is especially formative during the early education age when picture books are read to and read by children (Netz and Kuzar, 2020, p.387). It is during this stage that children develop ideas and mindsets about the gender appropriateness of activities, toys, and even occupational roles (Netz and Kuzar, 2020, p.387). This means that there are possible detrimental results that may arise from exposure to stereotypical gender perspectives during this stage, hence limiting the children’s abilities, choices, and interests (Netz and Kuzar, 2020, p.387).

For instance, if children are exposed to books that depict women as distressed damsels who await their princes to save them, then children will understand these as gender-appropriate roles. If picture books portray women as the homemakers and men as the ones who go out to work, then children may perceive these as the established gender roles in society. Picture books have a didactic result from the impressions that are fostered in the children through how people in the books are represented (Mendoza and Reese, 2001, p.5). These representations could have negative effects that limit children from developing a foundational mindset that acknowledges and encourages gender fluidity. However, if the representation of gender is fluid enough and inclusive, children develop fluid mindsets about gender that do not rely on stereotypes and misrepresentations of facts.

Several studies have highlighted that children’s picture books have been wrongly promoting gender stereotypes and misleading children with traditional gender roles and representations (Whitmore, Angleton, and Zuccaro, 2016, p.15). Post-structuralist feminist theorists perceive heterosexuality as a type of social regulation and sexism based on the idea that each culture believes there is a morally dominant type of sexuality and gender that is appropriate for men and women (Blaise, 2005, p.86). According to post-structuralist feminists, emphasized femininity and hegemonic masculinity are promoted by discourses concerning stereotypical gendered expectations and norms that are perceived as appropriate for females and males, including heterosexuality (Blaise, 2005, p.86). This perception of gendered norms and expectations has been criticised in various studies that highlight that some children’s picture books stereotype girls as being domestic, passive, and reliant on masculine help to get out of various messes (Clark and Fink, 2004, p.103). However, this is not the only continuing discourse regarding the portrayal of gender in children’s picture books.

Studies highlight that picture books have significantly evolved from the sexist and gendered books used in the past to become more fluid in their representation of gender (Netz and Kuzar, 2020, p.387). Post-structuralist theorists have engaged in discourse addressing the critical impact of children’s literature in constructing their identities and socialisation, which has resulted in multiple studies criticising negatively or stereotypically founded children’s books (Netz and Kuzar, 2020, p.387). Subsequently, children’s picture book publishers have adjusted their messages and images to portray non-sexist and anti-sexist messages, while also including modern gender definitions such as transgender and queer persons (Poynter 2020; Putland, 2020). The reaction has been a result of the increased sensitivity towards gender issues as well as the prominence of children’s literature in their formation of gender mindsets (Netz and Kuzar, 2020, p.387).

Post-structuralist studies note that children are not spectators in gender construction, but are active participants who either promote gender norms or challenge them through discourse that impacts their subjectivity in the context of gender (Netz and Kuzar, 2020, p.387). The increased sensitivity has heightened the number of non-sexist children’s picture books, which portray women as more liberated and men as more emotional and less aggressive as compared to picture books before gender sensitivity (Netz and Kuzar, 2020, p.388). These books promote a more gender-fluid ideal that allows children more agency when developing their gender mindsets and identities in the process.

However, studies note that while non-sexist picture books promote a more fluid message about gender, women are still portrayed as more emotional, nurturing, and less physically active than men (Netz and Kuzar, 2020, p.388). These studies suggest that non-sexist books at best portrayed a narrow version of gender equality, and more often than not succumb to the downfalls of gender stereotypes (Netz and Kuzar, 2020, p.388). The explanation for the authors’ inability to avoid the downfalls of gender stereotypes is argued to be the fact that the various discourses about femininity and masculinity cannot be merely constructed from the blues and have to rely on the existing discourse on the same topic. Therefore, it would be impossible for there to lack traces of gender stereotypes even in non-sexist children’s picture books.

Children’s picture books have recently taken a new perspective that includes LGBTQ characters, a trend that has been increasing over the years (Crawley, 2017, p.28). This has been a significant step for gender sensitivity because it allows children from LGBTQ backgrounds to see reflections of themselves in picture books while also having the identities of their loved ones validated (Crawley, 2017, p.28). Additionally, such inclusivity in children’s picture books allows them to learn about other people who are different from them, hence fostering a positive and open mindset about gender (Crawley, 2017, p.28). This inclusivity has been suggested to manifest in the classroom through increasingly accepting and supportive environments for all gender identities (Ryan, Patraw, and Bednar, 2013, p.100). However, research notes that there is still some inequality in the LGBTQ representations, with 75% of characters in inclusive children’s literature having cisgender characters whose gender identities aligned with their biological sex (Lo, 2011; Crawley, 2017, p.28). Characters who identify as transgender only made up 4% of the characters, which suggests a need to increase the diversity of gender identities reflected in children’s picture books (Lo, 2014; Crawley, 2017, p.28). While children’s picture books have come a long way from explicitly sexist gender reflections to more fluid and inclusive characters and stories, they still have a long way to go to become anti-sexist.

Specific Instances of Feminism and Children’s Picture Books

Feminism and children’s picture books have interacted to create a critical discourse that seeks gender sensitivity and equality in all aspects of society including pedagogy. Feminist theories have highlighted the challenges with sexist gender portrayals such as in the Sams, Bangs, and Moonshine picture book where the book had very few female characters who were portrayed as domestic and passive (Clark and Fink, 2004, p.103). The female characters were also portrayed as dependent on the male characters to save them in the few times they did appear in the book (Clark and Fink, 2004, p.103). Feminists have highlighted that such portrayal of women may result in the formation of mindsets that women are not important in society and are dependent on men (Filipović, 2018, p.311). Other famous books portray a similar ideal, such as Cinderella, which suggests to children that princesses can only find happiness in marriage after being rescued by princes. Such stereotypes negatively affect both boys and girls by constraining their perception of acceptable behaviours and roles, while additionally enabling and sustaining gender inequality (Filipović, 2018, p.311). The invisibility and helplessness of women in these stereotypic books reinforce the gender system, with some studies finding that children as young as four years old already relate males characters with independence and supremacy while relating female characters with reliance (Filipović, 2018, p.311). Not only are the gender roles defined here, but the gender identities are also impacted such that boys and girls get to understand what it means to behave like a member of their respective gender (Whitmore, Angleton, and Zuccaro, 2016, p.15). Since these binary gender perspectives are also present in the media, children accept them as acceptable norms which form a core part of their identities (Whitmore, Angleton, and Zuccaro, 2016, p.15). Continuous exposure to such gender stereotypes leaves children normalising gender inequalities and limiting their choices to what is perceived as acceptable behaviours and roles for their gender (Filipović, 2018, p.311). However, not all is wrong in the children’s picture books’ context and gender sensitivity.

Anti-sexist picture books have resulted from the discourse inspired by feminist activists concerning gender inequalities and stereotypes depicted in the children’s picture books. It is important to note that anti-sexist books are not similar to non-sexist books because they target correcting gender inequalities while non-sexist books try not to be gender insensitive but still have traces of gender stereotypes (Netz and Kuzar, 2020, p.388). Anti-sexist books on the other hand are characterised by having at least one major female character and explicitly address a gender issue that is prominent in the narrative (Netz and Kuzar, 2020, p.391). Examples of such books include Two Cinderellas by Einat Weizman, Princess in Training, My name is not Isabella, Levi’at, The Princess Knight, and Olivia and the Fairy Princess (Netz and Kuzar, 2020, p.391). These books introduce a gender stereotype that is critical to the story, position the issue in the story, and resolve the issue using feminist agency (Netz and Kuzar, 2020, p.393). This provokes gender sensitivity and equality in the children’s mindsets, hence preparing them for a more inclusive and fluid gender construction. Additionally, children’s picture books have increased their use of LGBTQ characters to increase gender sensitivity, awareness, fluidity, and acceptance among children (Crawley, 2017, p.31).

Reflection: How Feminist Theories Have Made Me Understand This Issue Differently

Feminist theories have significantly impacted my comprehension of children’s picture books. The main features of the issue are the portrayal of gender inequalities in children’s books, the impact of this portrayal on children’s formation of gender identities, and the role teachers play in either promoting or challenging gender stereotypes. Initially, I did not fully comprehend the impact of the way characters are portrayed and the themes of the stories themselves on the formation of gender mindsets in children.

Feminist theories have impacted my perception such that I now understand that things as minor as the images used to portray female and male characters significantly impact what children perceive as appropriate gender behaviour. When female characters are represented as coy and seductive through their fashion and pose, children interpret these as the appropriate gender behaviours for girls (Whitmore, Angleton, and Zuccaro, 2016, p.15). For instance, one study found Cinderella influenced certain perceptions about how girls dressed and behaved, including perceptions that they were helpless and needed saving from male characters (Whitmore, Angleton, and Zuccaro, 2016, p.15). My reflection on this issue has impacted my perceptions of the trivial nature of children’s picture books. Initially, I did not recognize the significant formation of gender mindsets that occurs during early education, which I now realise is a critical stage in gender construction. The formation of the child’s agency and their subjectivity is significantly impacted by the books they are exposed to and the messages they contain. The importance of sex-typing during childhood impacted my perception of the role of the teacher in ensuring that the books children are exposed to are appropriate and encourage inclusivity and adequate room to form gender mindsets without influences from stereotypes.

I learnt that teachers are responsible for selecting books that benefit the children despite their personal political ideas about gender. Since teaching is a political act, teachers should ensure that their ideals and the sources of their ideals do not negatively impact sex-typing for children during their initial learning ages (Netz and Kuzar, 2020, p.387). Teachers have the responsibility of choosing books that offer children a fluid perspective and expression of gender such that their gender construction process is fluid enough to allow them to become who they want. Teachers can begin by selecting books that promote gender equality in the appearance of their characters, the activities the characters involve themselves in, and the way the characters are portrayed in relation to other characters (Whitmore & Angleton, 2017, p.58). Teachers can also identify picture books that include contemporary gender identities such as the LGBTQ communities to increase inclusivity and allow children from these backgrounds to validate the identities of their loved ones and adopt mindsets that are fluid and accepting of others (Crawley, 2017, p.28).

Ideas for Change

Efforts made towards gender inclusivity and sensitivity have been plausible, with feminist theories and theorists taking the lead role in the discourse. These efforts resulted in the creation of more appropriate books and the shunning of sexist ones that promote outdated gender stereotypes. Teachers need to develop a strategy to ensure that the picture books their students interact with are appropriate and contain appropriate messages that allow them to form their gender identities positively (Iorio and Visweswaraiah, 2011, p.72). To achieve this, Whitmore, Angleton, and Zuccaro (2016) suggest four dimensions that teachers can consider when evaluating children’s picture books to use in class; gender binaries, intersectionality, discourses of childhood innocence, and heteronormativity.

Teachers should seek books that disrupt identity limits promoted by gender binaries including books that do not constrain children from developing their identities based on being either female or male (Whitmore, Angleton, and Zuccaro, 2016, p.16). Discourses about the innocence of children should also be considered such that the books are used to create opportunities for children to engage in discourse about sensitive topics including non-conforming gender identities (Ritchie, 2017, p.61). Books should also lack intersectionality such that they do not focus on one aspect of identity. An example of a book without intersectionality is The Paper Bag Princess. Finally, teachers should refrain from books that only promote heterosexual activity as the normative pairings and families, and include LGBTQ communities through books such as A Tale of Two Mommies that disrupt heteronormativity (Whitmore, Angleton, and Zuccaro, 2016, p.15; Van Horne, 2015; Robinson, 2016, p.12). In conclusion, it is evident that there have been significant efforts to correct the damaging gender stereotypes promoted by children’s picture books. The efforts are commendable and have promoted gender sensitivity but there is still more that can be done. Teachers can use the identified criteria to enable change by introducing appropriate books to their students and allowing a more fluid gender construction.

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References

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