Liberal prof. upset with Winnie the Pooh

[Deleted]

National Interest
Study Suggests That Winnie the Pooh Isn't Gender Equal, But Does it Matter?

By Todd Starnes
Published May 06, 2011
| FoxNews.com

A comprehensive study of traditional children’s book characters has determined that Pooh Corner may be rife with gender inequality.

Dr. Janice McCabe, a sociologist at Florida State University, examined nearly 6,000 children’s books between 1900 and 2000 and determined the stories have a definitive gender bias and a disproportionate representation of genders.

“We found that males are represented more frequently than females in the titles and the central characters in the book,” McCabe told Fox News Radio.

Fifty seven percent of the children’s stories featured male characters, 31 percent featured female characters and the remainder had animal characters of unknown gender identity, according to the study.

Curious George, perhaps?

McCabe said she was surprised that modern-day children’s stories don’t include more female characters.

“I had kind of expected that books would start off in 1900 being unequal and become more equal over time,” she said.

“We were surprised by the historical patterns and by the animals. The fact that the animals were the most unequal and even in the 1990s there were still two male animals to every one female animal.”
McCabe said gender matters in children’s stories because it’s in part how they learn about gender.

“These findings reinforce the belief that female characters are less important, less interesting than male characters which has implications for how both boys and girls feel about themselves and each other in relationships,” she said.

But some parents believe the study is off the mark. “This is crazy,” said Bryan Thrower, the parent of a 17-month-old in Florence, S.C. “Are they upset because Mary had a garden and Old MacDonald had a farm? This is more politically correct nonsense.”

But McCabe said the pattern also exists in other children’s media including cartoons, coloring books, and G-rated films. “A lot of times this is invisible to people,” she said, encouraging parents to pay attention to gender when selecting books and reading material for their children. “I’m not saying they shouldn’t read books about men and boys,” she said. “Instead, just think about the gender of particular books and be aware of it.”

Has anyone called Nancy Drew?



www.foxnews.com/us/2011/05/06/study-suggests-winnie-pooh-isnt-gender-equal-does-matter/?test=latestnews

[Deleted]

www.linkedin.com/pub/janice-mccabe/13/615/7b
Janice McCabe's Summary

I am an Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology at Florida State University. My research explores the meaning of a range of identities and terms including racial identity, friendship, sexuality and feminist self-identification. Currently, I am investigating the relationship between diversity on college campuses, social networks, and young people’s identities.

Specialties
Sociology of Education, Sociology of Gender, Race and Ethnic Inequality, Childhood and Adolescence, Social Psychology, Qualitative and Quantitative Methods, Contemporary Sociological Theory


** yes- she got paid to say Winnie the Pooh is not PC.**

[billisonboard]

This liberal professor is pushing the notion that children are influenced by characteristics of those featured in the books they are exposed to. As all right thinking Americans know, that with the exception of characteristics supporting the homosexual agenda, children are not so influenced.

[Politically_Incorrect12]

Men appear to be more likely to be shown a bumbling fools on TV, with women having to help fix everything they they mess up. Christians are often portrayed as crazy or hypocritical. There are all sorts of biases shown, but strangely it only gets made a big deal out of if it is something such as what this professor is noticing.

[Deleted]

He should read Shel Silverstein's The Giving Tree some time... some time....

I hate that in 'elevating girls' we have failed to recognize that boys still need to be elevated as well... There was yet another 'girls only' math and science camp advertized in the paper yesterday. Not that we don't need to give girls opportunities, but i see boys suffering in the environment we are creating...

... and pooh's boys are not the most, uhh manly boys around are they?

[Politically_Incorrect12]

May 7, 2011 7:27:18 GMT -5 oped said:

He should read Shel Silverstein's The Giving Tree some time... some time....

I hate that in 'elevating girls' we have failed to recognize that boys still need to be elevated as well... There was yet another 'girls only' math and science camp advertised in the paper yesterday. Not that we don't need to give girls opportunities, but i see boys suffering in the environment we are creating...

... and pooh's boys are not the most, uhh manly boys around are they?

Kind of crazy isn't it? When you have a camp like this for boys only, there is an argument that you are sending a message to both boys and girls that girls are somehow inferior and not deserving of having something like this for them. When you have a camp like this for girls only, the argument seems to change and people don't see it as sending the same message to boys.

[Deleted]

bill.

[swamp]

Anyone ever watch Peter Pan? Tinkerbell is depicted as a jealous little snot who is overconcerned about the size of her hips because they wont fit through a key hole. My kids still watch it anyway.

The prof is right, women are often marginalized in old children's stories, but I think they're getting better treatment and roles in current movies. Monsters vs. Aliens, anyone?

[Deleted]

Gee, I wonder if the government funded this study? One could reverse this & say that male characters are used more often because the stereotype is that they think less & get themselves into more trouble (which makes for a more entertaining story) because female characters are more level headed.

I guess that studies like this will always reflect the agenda of the person doing the study. Maybe a more viable study to do would be finding out the agenda's of liberal professors?

[Deleted]

I'm thinking a few things.. bills nailed my first thought----which was Hey, wait a minute.. we have to teach all kids about being gay, etc, for PC reasons, but it will have no impact on their future choices, but....but....but.....little girls can get all future messed up if they see no female characters in Winnie the Pooh??? Okay.... but, hey, little girls may grow up acting like boy animals, right, which would be a great thing because God forbid a girl act like a girl.....but, no.....she said girls may feel lesser, weak... how would that happen, professor sociology??? and what should we show about girls?? Lots of little girls acting like boys, right, because they are women hear them roar, right??? So they would still grow up all manly.. gender neutral, what an interesting concept.. no men, no women, just a bunch of wimpy boys and butch girls..... all the same...goooooooddddd.....men bad, women goooooddd... and here's your little anti everything sign, go right over there, put your fist in the air, and scream something... doesn't really
matter what....
I guess Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Snow white..all those were just beyond her comprehension, so she had to take on animal characters... men bad, women good......white bad, other than white goooooood..........straight bad, other than straight gooood... American bad, other than American gooooood...... Christian bad, other than Christian goooood.......your parents REAL bad...... college profs goooood.............rich people bad, poor people goooood..............Republicans bad, Democrats gooooood...........
BASICALLY, everything you ever knew or thought you knew from birth until public school is WRONG........... your family is WRONG...... YOU are wrong.............the world is WRONG.... your country is WRONG............. you don't need men, and they are bad, and they make babies, and babies are bad for the planet.............
These people are gov't employees, you know. We pay them to teach our children this garbage and turn them in to obnoxious little extremists full of hate capable of nothing except protesting, playing with their comps and other toys in the evil parents basements, and being a drain on society because their heads were messed with , their values were messed with, and it would be dangerous to leave the house except to protest because to see normal people doing normal things would remind them of Winnie the Pooh and apple pie, and the 4th of July, and all of that is very, very BAD.
Flippin' Looney tunes................ which are, of course........... very very violent and will turn you in to a psycho killer............

[ameiko]

Someone actually paid for this study?

Scary.

[fairlycrazy23]

Why does Pigglet always smell so bad?

Because he always plays with Pooh!

[Deleted]

Perhaps Piglet needs a high colonic cleansing??? Perhaps his diet is too high in animal parts and processed foods? Perhaps she will tackle this issue next semester and publish a paper with the results.

[billisonboard]

May 7, 2011 8:09:49 GMT -5 @krickitt said:

... bills nailed my first thought ...

I figured I would with that post.

[ugonow]

From the article---"But Does it Matter?" My feelings exactly,and don't know why Fox thought it was a good story.

[Deleted]

I disagree. People need to know the garbage being force fed their children's minds.

[ugonow]

A while back Fox and Friends had a running segment on lib lies being taught in schools.IMO,most of what they brought up was silly issues and partisan opinion on their part. It was right around the time Texas was pushing to change their text books to have a more conservative slant,so they probably had their reasons to run it.....

[Deleted]

Sometimes, just sometimes, a story is a story & characters are just characters. No hidden agenda, just entertainment. If we look at ANYTHING closely we can always find what we think is a hidden agenda.

And if we are PAID to look closely & find that hidden agenda, not one person in a billion will not find the hidden agenda.

[Savoir Faire-Demogague in NJ]

I never thought of Winnie the Pooh as being either male or female. Which gender is it?

[Deleted]

I would have guessed--- gender neutral?? But I guess I am wrong... must go check my granddaughters toys for gender issues.....

[Tennesseer]

I believe even fewer childrens' books should have strong female characters. We have been teaching our female children for years they can be anything they want to be. We have since learned that was a mistake and young females would best conclude their education with high school. Teach them home economics, child raising and house cleaning. That is all young girls need to know.

P.S. The Powder Puff Girls were actually boys in drag.

[ugonow]

must go check my granddaughters toys for gender issues.....

Please let us know what your response is when she asks what you are doing.....

[ugonow]

P.S. The Powder Puff Girls were actually boys in drag.

Remember the hubbub over Tinky Winky?

[deziloooooo]

May 7, 2011 4:40:58 GMT -5 @toughtimes said:

The woman is completely correct. She is not excoriating Winnie the Pooh. She has simply counted the number of male and female characters in a book and given the percentages of each. That does not change whether you are liberal or conservative. We all have the same number of fingers and count the same way.

As for her conclusions about modern children's books, she has done the same thing. She may be pointing out that it is a bit odd that males are far more likely to be represented in fiction than females even though females are half of the population.

We consciously accept this as normal, but why is it normal and is it desirable? How many women are under-represented in professions because of gender stereotyping? When I was young, a friend offered to teach me to tune a car. I resisted learning because that is something boys do. Every time I had to shell out a couple a hundred dollars to have a simple carbureator adjustment (turn a screw) and replace a couple of spark plugs I rued the day. None of this takes any real muscle.

She also did not deny that female characters exist. I am sure she is familiar with "Nancy Drew" and "National Velvet." Please note however, that "The Hardy Boys" also existed and that "Nancy Drew was created primarily for a girl audience. In terms of mixed gender readers, girls are likely to read stories with boys as heroes, but boys don't return the favor. That is why commercially it makes sense to have literature feature more males.

Good well thought out post tough, a to you, sorry not quite up to Karma ststus, oh hell why not, well written and I think correct and a karma is a nice way to start of the AM.

[deziloooooo]

May 7, 2011 9:08:00 GMT -5 fairlycrazy23 said:

Why does Pigglet always smell so bad?

Because he always plays with Pooh!

[deziloooooo]

May 7, 2011 10:57:20 GMT -5 Tennesseer said:

I believe even fewer childrens' books should have strong female characters. We have been teaching our female children for years they can be anything they want to be. We have since learned that was a mistake and young females would best conclude their education with high school. Teach them home economics, child raising and house cleaning. That is all young girls need to know.

P.S. The Powder Puff Girls were actually boys in drag.

I take it your tired of this moderator role Tenn...

[Deleted]

She's just 2-- does not worry about a thing.
Well.. I checked the toys... furry, plastic... some look like girls, some like boys, many are animals... none have defined genders... the Dora's could be transsexuals, the boys have too many muscles, the dolls are terribly stereotyped.....some of the animals look violent. And our MOVIES!!!!!!!! SO many of girl characters subjecting themselves to rescue by handsome princes and male animals, lots of animal abuses.... about a hundred books, and they are ALL so WRONG!!!
I just do not know what to DO!!!!!

[Tennesseer]

May 7, 2011 11:02:15 GMT -5 ugonow said:

P.S. The Powder Puff Girls were actually boys in drag.

Remember the hubbub over Tinky Winky?

Yes I do. Jerry Falwell was oddly attracted to Tinky.

[Deleted]

We DO have a couple of Barney toys, and he is also gay, you know.

[Tennesseer]

May 7, 2011 11:09:51 GMT -5 deziloooooo said:

May 7, 2011 10:57:20 GMT -5 Tennesseer said:

I believe even fewer childrens' books should have strong female characters. We have been teaching our female children for years they can be anything they want to be. We have since learned that was a mistake and young females would best conclude their education with high school. Teach them home economics, child raising and house cleaning. That is all young girls need to know.

P.S. The Powder Puff Girls were actually boys in drag.

I take it your tired of this moderator role Tenn...

It's the truth dezi. Why do women even need role models let alone an education? Women can best serve their country, husbands and children by staying home and keeping house.