DBA123, Dorfman and Mattelart

“Children’s comics are devised by adults, whose work is determined and justified by their idea of what a child is or should be.” (125)

I have always known that books and comics that are written by children are obviously produced by adults, but I had never thought as it is put in the context above. When parents tell their kids to do clean their room or go to bed they are conditioning them to behave in a certain way. But I had never thought of a children’s book as another way to teach a child a way to be, and further, a parent’s decision in which book or comic to read to their children is chosen by what its contexts contain. The fact that Dorfman and Mattelart bring up this issue and then relate it to basically everything Disney has ever created I found to be fascinating. I have always associated Disney with what all children grow up believing; Disney is magical. Not until college, and especially this article did I really sit down and think, Disney’s goal is not to keep children happy and entertained, showing them fairy tales and talking animals. It is to make money. To make money they need to please the parents, the ones buying their merchandise for their kids. Therefore, to keep parents buying, Disney needs to continue to produce material that shows talking animals and fairy tales. This happens to be is what parents believe is what a child should be watching and conditioning them to be the way they should be. Then it is interesting to think of some of the newer age baby books and movies. Take for instance, Baby Einstein, a new brand that produces educational videos and toys that show babies what colors are what, the alphabet, numbers, etc. This seems to be quite the opposite of Disney, showing them real, tangible things as opposed to fairy princesses being picked up on balconies by magic carpets. So which do we choose to show our children, how do we want them conditioned? It would be interesting to take a survey of what parents would choose.