Dr. Rebecca Hains
Author, professor and speaker | Children's media culture, media literacy, and media criticism
Monthly Archives: January 2012
Save the Childhood Studies program at Rutgers University!
In 2007, Rutgers University launched North America’s first doctoral-level program in Childhood Studies–a multidisciplinary program located at Rutgers’ Camden, NJ campus that also offers bachelor’s and master’s degrees. The program’s creation was fantastic news: the program promised to serve as…
Read MoreNew at the Disney Store: Princess Dolls with Extra Sparkles! (and extra problems)
On a recent visit to my local Disney Store, I learned that Disney had just released a new line-up of Disney Princess dolls at the holidays. The new line-up was on the shelves–and so were some of their older counterparts.*…
Read More“Chess for Girls,” or how Saturday Night Live predicted the future.
Saturday Night Live’s fake commercial, “Chess for Girls” [transcript], was hilarious in 1997–but today, it strikes awfully close to home. An ultra-pink chess set that’s “not too hard, just pretty and fun”–with prancing ponies and a long-haired queen in a…
Read MorePretty Princess Problems: The Case of Princess Celestia
My family and I were shopping for a child’s birthday present this weekend when we came upon the My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic section at a local Target store. As I’ve discussed previously, MLP:FIM is an unusually good children’s…
Read MorePracticing slightly subversive parenting: Toddlers and gender
Gender representations in popular kids’ storybooks make me sigh. Books based on TV programs and movies seem among the worst offenders; yet they’re inescapably popular. To manage them, I do two things: First, I keep movie- and tv-based books to…
Read MoreMy Little Pony: Even better than The Powerpuff Girls
A children’s television cartoon that appeals to boys and girls, men and women, is a rarity. The Powerpuff Girls exemplified this. In 1998, it stunned the television industry by crossing demographic barriers. The combination of extreme cuteness and extreme strength…
Read MoreChallenging our assumptions: Is there anything good about Bratz?
Bratz dolls came back on the market this fall. They’d been out of production for a few years while their maker, MGA, fought a legal battle with Mattel. MGA emerged victorious—and critics everywhere shook their heads. What good can come…
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Dr. Rebecca Hains 
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