Table Of Content“We have placed the lives of our children in the hands of media capitalists who are
redefining and reshaping childhood. It is about time that cultural critics take this
issue seriously. [Kinderculture] opens up the possibility of a rigorous and scholarly
debate in what must be one of the most important issues of our time.”
—Larry Grossberg, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
“This is a brilliant book, a critical, interpretive undoing of North America and her
children. We have waited too long for this analysis of child rearing, media-made
children, and the postmodern family. This is the very best of critical pedagogy and
cultural studies.” —Norman K. Denzin, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
“An important contribution to the field of education as it is one of the few books that
successfully makes the argument as to why (in very concrete terms) educators must
pay attention to cultural studies.” —Educational Researcher
America is a corporatized society defined by a culture of consumerism, and the youth market
is one of the groups that corporations target most. By marketing directly to children,
through television, movies, radio, video games, toys, books, and fast food, advertisers have
produced a “kinderculture.” In this eye-opening book, editor Shirley R. Steinberg reveals the
profound impact that our purchasing-obsessed culture has on our children and argues that
the experience of childhood has been reshaped into something that is prefabricated.
Analyzing the pervasive influence of these corporate productions, top experts in the fields
of education, sociology, communications, and cultural studies contribute incisive essays
that students, parents, educators, and general readers will find insightful and entertaining.
Including seven new chapters, this third edition is thoroughly updated with examinations
of the icons that shape the values and consciousness of today’s children, including Twilight,
True Blood, and vampires, hip hop, Hannah Montana, Disney, and others.
SHIRLEY R. STEINBERG is the director of The Paulo and Nita Freire International Project for
Critical Pedagogy at McGill University and has been Research Professor at the University of
Barcelona. Her most recent books include: Boy Culture: An Encyclopedia; 19 Urban Questions:
Teaching in the City; Diversity and Multiculturalism: A Reader; Christotainment: Selling Jesus
Through Popular Culture (Westview Press); and the award-winning Contemporary Youth
Culture Encyclopedia.
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COVER DESIGN: MIGUEL SANTANA & WENDy HALITzER
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KINDERCULTURE
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KINDERCULTURE
The Corporate Construction
of Childhood
T H I R D E D I T I O N
Edited by
Shirley R. Steinberg
A Member of the Perseus Books Group
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Westview Press was founded in 1975 in Boulder, Colorado, by notable
publisher and intellectual Fred Praeger. Westview Press continues to publish
scholarly titles and high-quality undergraduate- and graduate-level textbooks
in core social science disciplines. With books developed, written, and edited
with the needs of serious nonfiction readers, professors, and students in mind,
Westview Press honors its long history of publishing books that matter.
Copyright © 2011 by Westview Press
Published by Westview Press,
A Member of the Perseus Books Group
All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. No part
of this book may be reproduced in any manner whatsoever without
written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in
critical articles and reviews. For information, address Westview Press,
2465 Central Avenue, Boulder, CO 80301.
Find us on the World Wide Web at www.westviewpress.com.
Westview Press books are available at special discounts for bulk
purchases in the United States by corporations, institutions, and other
organizations. For more information, please contact the Special Markets
Department at the Perseus Books Group, 2300 Chestnut Street,
Suite 200, Philadelphia, PA 19103, or call (800) 810-4145, ext. 5000,
or e-mail [email protected].
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Kinderculture : the corporate construction of childhood / edited by
Shirley R. Steinberg.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-8133-4489-8 (alk. paper)
1. Early childhood education—Social aspects—United States.
2. Popular culture—United States. 3. Critical pedagogy—United States.
4. Curriculum planning—United States. 5. Child development—United
States. 6. Educational anthropology—United States. I. Steinberg, Shirley
R., 1952-
LB1139.25.K55 2011
372.21—dc22
2010041436
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
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To our girls:
Hava, Luna, and Maci
Bronwyn, Christine, Marissa, and Meghann
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CONTENTS
1 Kinderculture: Mediating, Simulacralizing,
and Pathologizing the New Childhood
Shirley R. Steinberg 1
2 Teens and Vampires: From BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER
to TWILIGHT’s Vampire Lovers
Douglas Kellner 55
3 Is Disney Good for Your Kids? How Corporate
Media Shape Youth Identity in the Digital Age
Henry A. Giroux and Grace Pollock 73
4 Selling Subculture: An Examination of Hot Topic
Sarah Hanks 93
5 Queer Eye for the Straight-Acting Guy:
The Performance of Masculinity in Gay Youth
Culture and Popular Culture
Dennis Carlson 115
6 FLUID: Teen and Youth Identity
Construction in Cyberspace
Donyell L. Roseboro 135
7 Tween-Method and the Politics of
Studying Kinderculture
Ingvild Kvale Sørenssen and Claudia Mitchell 153
vii
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viii / CONTENTS
8 From Miley Merchandising to Pop Princess
Peddling: The Hannah Montana Phenomenon
Ruthann Mayes-Elma 173
9 Corporatizing Sports: Fantasy Leagues, the
Athlete as Commodity, and Fans as Consumers
Daniel E. Chapman and John A. Weaver 187
10 Hip Hop and Critical Pedagogy: From Tupac
to Master P to 50 Cent and Beyond
Greg Dimitriadis 201
11 McDonald’s, Power, and Children: Ronald
McDonald/Ray Kroc Does It All for You
Joe L. Kincheloe 219
12 The Book of Barbie: After Half a Century,
the Bitch Continues to Have Everything
Shirley R. Steinberg 249
13 HOME ALONE and Bad to the Bone: The Advent
of a Postmodern Childhood
Joe L. Kincheloe 265
About the Contributors and Editor 291
Notes 295
Index 299
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Chapter 1
KINDERCULTURE:
MEDIATING, SIMULACRALIZING,
AND PATHOLOGIZING THE
NEW CHILDHOOD
Shirley R. Steinberg
O
n June 30, 2010, La Vanguardia noted a poll listing the top one
hundred most influential newsmakers in the world. Among the group
ranked were Taylor Swift (twelve), Miley Cyrus (thirteen), and the Jonas
Brothers (forty). In the six years since the publication of the second edi-
tion of Kinderculture, the world has changed. Along with a sweeping
tsunami of politics, religious influences, struggles, and advancing web
2.0 globalization comes an incredible phenomenon, kinderculture: Chil-
dren and youth have become infantilized by popular culture, schools,
and adults, and while being considered “too” young for almost anything,
at the same time, they are being marketed to as seasoned adults. The re-
sult is a consumer public of little girls, for example, who wear chastity
rings and hip-clinging jogging pants with “Kiss My Booty” in glitter on
the backside. With one voice, adults tell kids to stay clean, avoid sex and
drugs, go to Disneyland, and make vows of celibacy . . . with another
other voice, the corporate side markets booty clothing, faux bling, and
sexualized images of twelve-year-olds. This edition of Kinderculture adds
to the other editions by claiming that new times have created a new
1
