Not all ‘children content’ is good for children: especially fairy tales
Nigerian author and feminist Chimamanda Ngozi has spoken and written a lot about how gender stereotypes begin from the way girl children are raised, compared to boys. One of her arguments is why girl children - unlike boys - are raised to aspire to marriage as if it was the end-goal in life … to believe that marriage is a big achievement that a woman must aspire for. And as a result, unmarried women, no matter how successful, are seen as lacking … ‘successful; but…!’
As a parent to a girl-child myself, I am cognizant of the gender stereotypes that my child may pick as she goes through her daily life. Recently, I was troubled while reading her a story book. She loves the character “Cinderella”. While at the mall one day, she saw a Cinderella book - and wanted it.
Both I and my daughter were excited; first for having a new bedtime story for that night, and secondly, for me, I was going to learn about the Cinderella story for the first time. Well, I suppose it is still debatable whether being born and raised in a village without the luxury of reading such books as Cinderella is an advantage or a disadvantage.
So, I read the story for my daughter that night, and I did not like it. In fact, I had a hard time reading some parts of the story to her. What I got from the story was that there was a girl named Cinderella’s, and her end goal in life was to marry a prince.
And to win this ‘big achievement’ of marrying a prince, it was battle between her and her stepsisters, orchestrated by her stepmother. I am yet to read a children’s book about a group of brothers competing under the leadership of their father, to win the affection of a girl!
These stories may seem trivial, harmless … but these are at the core of the women empowerment agenda the whole world advocates for today. The questions I asked myself after reading the story was what did my daughter actually learn from it? She may have learnt that there is some prince out there in the world, and she is going to be very lucky, indeed must work hard to get married to. But in today’s world, where we strive to have relationships based on equality rather than the man supplying and the woman receiving, is this really what we want to instil in our girl children?
The “prince” character can be considered a figure of speech representing a man who is wealthy, established, coming from a wealthy family, basically able to supply all the needs of a woman, and the woman can choose whether to work for her own earnings or not.
Children literature, including fantasy fairy tales like Cinderella, come with ideologies about gender, race, and class. In fact, a 2017 study named “Gender Stereotypes in Fantasy Fairy Tales: Cinderella” revealed that the literature children consume may negatively contribute in the creation of their values and attitudes and impact their viewpoints of the real life. The researchers found that in such fairy tales, the main emphasis is on the importance of beauty and attractiveness, as they are usually rewarded.
And this beauty is mainly ‘as perceived by a male character’. Also, beauty in such stories is portrayed a certain way: tall, white, long hair, etc. But is this the definition of beauty that matches our children’s realities? What about values such as kindness, hard work, and honesty?
In summary, parents and caretakers must play an active role in filtering the information consumed by children.
Digital media has put mechanisms such as parental control to prevent children from consuming adult content; but it goes beyond that – not all children content is good for children. We must be aware of the values and beliefs that the material instils in children, and be selective accordingly.
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Ms Kimaro writes about careers, leadership, personal development, and issues affecting youth and women
