The first Saturday of every May is Free Comic Day - Were you able to head to your favorite comic book store and support such a wonderful event? Many happy faces were leaving the stores once they could get inside! But the long lines are worth it for the experience =)!
I hope everyone had an awesome Star Wars Day! May the Fourth be with you and also the Fifth! I supported the day by wearing my Yoda shirt. A few children I saw around the city had Princess Leia hairstyles, Star Wars character shirts or lightsabers. The Disney Store had an event at noon with a giveaways and fun for all ages. Yay!
George Lucas and Disney Characters in their Star Wars roles.
One topic that appeared Fall and Spring semester in my field notes was the children looking at characters and not knowing really knowing their gender. Children could tell with ease the gender of characters from stories like Star Wars. They told me it was based on their clothing. Yet, My Little Pony (MLP) brought up major debates in the classroom. Is Rainbow Dash a boy or girl?? Most of the ponies have a clearly masculine or feminine look. Yet, Rainbow Dash's look is gender neutral. Her body color is blue, her hair type is multi-colored with a messy style compared to the other female MLPs with neatly combed hair. A few of the three year olds, both boys and girls, believed Rainbow Dash was a boy because, "He do what he wants!" and "He is wild!" When I asked what does being wild mean to them, most of the three year olds paused and could not respond. Another three year old tried to explain it to me with many "Um.. Um.. Um.. Um...well...I don't know! He ....just is!" I was really curious about this answer. When watching MLP, I can see why a child would interpret Rainbow Dash's actions as wild or as some of the three year old girls say to other girls when playing boys or daddys, "You have to act like a boy!" Rainbow Dash is not as feminine as the other female ponies. She is very adventurous and very impulsive, traits children typically associate with boys in the classroom. When I told the Pre -K boys and girls about what the three year olds felt, they thought it was silly they mistook her for a boy. But, they did agree that Rainbow Dash was wild! One boy described jumped up with both hands up describing Rainbow Dash as free! He liked her because he wanted to be like her and make his own rules. He always mentions hating nap time because he never wants to sleep. Girls that participated in the conversation felt that Rainbow Dash was "really cool" and "funny silly" because she got into trouble but was still a good friend.
Dr Whooves
Rainbow Dash
Rainbow Dash
Rainbow Dash is the pony pulling the others to safety.
The boys and girls mentioned Twilight Sparkle and Rainbow Dash as their top favorite ponies. You can check out their personalities in the clips below.
Fall semester, one Pre K class was so involved in MLP, their large class of 26 had daily Bronies and Princess Pony sessions. While I tried to capture all of the dialogue by hand, it became nearly impossible when six groups of Dr. Hooves, Princess Celestia and Rainbow Dashes were stampeding through the room! These teachers were aware of their classroom's popular culture power play and let the play continue as long as they galloped and without running. The girls often fought over who would be Princess Celestia but there were two girls who were always Rainbow Dash and Twilight Sparkle because those ponies were "bffs" on the show and the girls grew up together after meeting at school when they were in the Toddler room. The most interesting dialogue between the boys and girls was exchanged when they assumed their pony personalities. The girls and boys playing Fluttershy and was really accurate. So much so, their teachers mistakenly thought the children were scared by sudden lights, darkness and voices/sounds in the room. It was also quite the event when the children continued their pony personas during snack. Rainbow Dash was scolded by Princess Celestia for having her hooves on the table as well as eating her yogurt and graham crackers too quickly. Twilight Sparkle was told to be a better princess by sitting up straight. Dr. Hooves said he would help anyone who had a tummy ache from too much yogurt at his doctor's office and send them to the store for free medicine.
The drawing below is of a "Princess Pony." When I asked her which pony she drew, she asked me to guess. Of course, it is Princess Celestia! When I showed this child's picture to the Pre K children at the school who called Rainbow Dash free and wild, the three year olds could also tell it was Princess Celestia. After examining the photo closer, the majority of the class decided it was not really Princess Celestia and just a Princess Pony because her "cutie mark" was wrong. Some girls protested that it could only be Princess Celestia if the cutie mark was a sun like the Real Princess Celestia. Some of boys and girls felt that it could be whatever she wanted it to be. Through MLP, children
Princess Pony - Princess Celestia
Princess Celestia
Many of the children in my classrooms become aware of gender through their choice of clothing, hairstyle and the personas of their favorite characters. When we sing songs from Disney's Frozen, children from all of my classrooms ask me what the other children are doing. I noticed that many questions are emphasizing gender, "Do the boys sing Frozen too like me?" "Are the boys Elsa or Anna?" "Do the girls play Hans and Kristoff? 'Cuz no one likes Hans. I can be Kristoff and you be Anna!" While there are many boys and girls in my classrooms who love MLP,only the girls wear MLP clothing: hoodies and shirts. One boy did like one of the girl's new MLP sweatshirt. When she entered, I said, "Good Morning Pinkie Pie!" She giggled and pointed to the other two ponies. I continued, "Wow! Its Rainbow Dash and Twilight Sparkle!" One of the boys ran up and hugged her and said, "Now all the best friends are here!" He is huge Rainbow Dash fan! His parents mentioned to me before that they would prefer he plays with MLP's of other children at school rather than buy him MLP toys and he feel embarrassed later. It reminded me of a recent MLP incident at an East Coast elementary school...
The incident caused quite a bit of sadness in my school age classroom when I informed them about a boy who was bullied in his school for being a liking MLP. He was picked on for bringing his MLP lunch box to school. Since the school administrator deemed the lunch box the cause of the bullying rather than discipline the bullies, many of the Pre K and school age children were shocked. They felt very sad for the boy for not being able to bring what he loved with him to school. It alludes to the connections children build with each object from popular culture they accumulate. Each popular culture artifact was chosen by the child because they identify with qualities of the character and place meaningful memories and feelings representing the experience they had when the artifact was bought/given to them.
I assumed with the highly successful and popularity of RuPaul's Drag Race franchise and movies with superheroes of both genders found in Avengers and X-Men that children were growing up with images of gender flexibility promoting gender freedom. There are so many toys marketed for boys and girls to create play free of gender it seems one boundary that not all children or adults will choose to break. It is a step forward that there are so many types of toys, cartoons and pop culture items children can choose to represent themselves just the way they want. It is just such a shame children are suffering to stay brave and show who they are. Individuals who are not accepting of another child's bravery to be themselves and do things differently than other children of the same gender shows there is much to be said for children and their identity building as well as adults' acceptance of children working through multiple traits and qualities children want to incorporate into their identity.
No comments:
Post a Comment