Content of the learning field
Discrimination in Children's Books
Children’s books are everywhere. As parents, we want to allow our children to immerse themselves in fantastical worlds, we want books to help inspire and motivate them. But when we take a closer look, what are we actually reading to our children?
Most children’s books are completely outdated in terms of content – they contain all sorts of discrimination. More and more people are fighting back against this and want to be recognised as equals.
The movement in favour of revising discriminatory language in children’s books is gaining pace, yet there are still those who oppose it.
In fact, the desire for tolerance and acceptance (inclusivity) for everyone makes many people feel threatened .…
"The ideal of diversity and tolerance has increasingly become the focus of our society. While the call for tolerance has already been present for quite a long time, diversity is a comparatively new term that has gained importance in the public consciousness only in the last ten years…"
In order to recognise discrimination in children’s books, we must first understand what the term discrimination actually means:
“Discrimination is the unfair treatment, exclusion or humiliation of people because they belong to a certain group, or because of the assumption that they belong to that group.”
As soon as one is confronted by a particular discrimination, one notices that, for so many people, it is part of everyday life.
As a mother of Black children/daughters, I realised very early on that there are hardly any positive role models for them. Yet it is so important that children see themselves reflected in a normal way i.e. in everyday life. In most books there are no people with dark skin, and non-Christian, non-hetero and non-“Mummy and Daddy” households are mostly absent. And when they are shown, it is in the context of ‘being different’. Also, the portrayal of girls and women is far too often sexist…
Sexism in children's books
Sexism is when you treat someone differently, or not very nicely, because of their sex or gender.
Often it is the idea that one gender is better than the other at particular things.
For example, “girls are better than boys at baking” is an example of a sexist statement.
Sexism can make people feel excluded, judged or like they might not be good at something because of other people’s sexist comments.
A fragile white girl, humiliated by her stepmother, is then rescued by a prince. They marry, the girl is eternally happy and bears him many sons, and the prince is the ultimate sole provider and patriarch…. And they live happily ever after.
This is the standard plot of many fairy tales told within families across Germany, and reinforced via different media.
Male characters are twice as likely to take leading roles in children’s picture books and are given far more speaking parts than females, according to Observer research that shines a spotlight on the casual sexism apparently inherent in young children’s reading material. An Observer study shows that, from hares to bears, females are mostly sidekicks.
Only portraying girls as being delicate, helpless, smiling and forgiving, and just waiting for a man to rescue her, is a demeaning way of teaching young women what their assigned place in society should be.
This attitude is slowly changing, due to many women writers who empower girls and women in their stories. This is making it more and more “normal” that girls/women are not seen as weak, but there is still a long way to go.…
Why does the male always save the female? From experience, I must add that I know more women who have “saved” men….
By mostly portraying villains as boys or men (they are rarely girls or women) it makes it seem as though it is acceptable, desirable even, for HIM to be criminal and aggressive, strong and dominant, when HE is an adult.
This problem is called toxic masculinity.
What is toxic masculinity?
“Toxic masculinity is the term used to describe destructive behaviour in men, which is harmful to themselves and to others. Toxic masculinity is fuelled by assumed norms around how a man should be, what he should feel and how he should behave.”
There are many definitions of “toxic masculinity”.
Some researchers agree that toxic masculinity has three core components:
Toughness: this is the idea that men should be physically strong, emotionally insensitive and aggressive.
Anti-femininity: This includes the idea that men should reject anything that is considered feminine, such as showing emotion or accepting help.
Power: This is the assumption that men need to work towards gaining power and status (social and financial) so that they can gain the respect of others.
As a strong, independent girl, Pippi Longstocking was considered revolutionary for her time (the book was published in 1941, and the first film adaptation came out in 1968). For many, she still is. Although she does come across as a strong girl, it is noticeable that her best girlfriend is cast in the role of admirer. Therefore, as the only strong girl Pippi is portrayed as being something special, instead of girls’ strength being presented as something common within society.
In one famous quote, Astrid Lindgren said: “I have always been annoyed by the way women are treated. Often it can feel like one gender exists, the men.” For her time Astrid Lindgren was a pioneer, but it was a time when, for example, women in Germany were not allowed to sign an employment contract or open a bank account without the permission of their husband (this was changed in 1977).
Pippi’s origins are unclear; she tells of an eventful past on the high seas, with which she explains her lack of education. Her mother has been dead for a long time and her father, according to her, sailed the oceans as a pirate captain for years and lives as an ‘N-king’ on a South Sea island.
The problem with this book is not only that she is ‘different’ as a girl, but it is also colonially racist (more on ‘Racism in Children’s Books’ below).
As a toddler, my Black daughter was content with white girls/young women being the heroines in books and films. What she really craved was female characters who did not come across as weak and submissive to men. Furthermore, she accepted that if there was a Black girl, she only had a small supporting role.
“Our girls — and boys — love to read books that reflect the strong and independent females they see in the real world, stories with young heroines who save themselves, and others, from the dangers of daily life or magical adventures with a combination of grit, intelligence, wit, and perseverance.”
Then she discovered ‘Dora the Explorer’ and became her biggest fan.
Finally there were strong female leads who were not white!
The pressure to ‘be white’ is still an issue for my children to this day.
As a parent, constantly counteracting this narrative can be very frustrating.
Later, ‘Lilo and Stitch’ came along.
Racism in Children's Books
What is racism?
“The concept of a ‘racial group’ comes from certain anthropological theories which have long been disproved. They were mostly developed in the late 19th and early 20th century in Western Europe, and claimed that humans could be divided into racial groups based on physical and behavioural traits linked to ethnicity, nationality, and related concepts like shared language.”
The term ‘racism’ is often poorly understood. The Oxford Dictionary defines it as,
“Prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against someone of a different race based on the belief that one’s own race is superior.” However, this is a simplified explanation of a complex issue.
The concepts within that definition, such as discrimination and racial superiority, are not always straightforward. Views on these concepts are often fluid, changing over time with new social contexts and new ways of thinking.
Colonial, and therefore racist, ways of thinking are extremely deeply rooted in our minds, whether consciously or unconsciously. It takes constant questioning of our own ways of thinking to consciously break this pattern….However, if nothing is challenged, then the cycle of racist discrimination will of course continue, including in children’s books.
We need a variety of representations, not only so that every child can see themselves as a heroine/hero, but also so that every child understands that ‘other kinds’ of children can be the heroine/hero of the story too.
As much as Pippi Longstocking was considered revolutionary for the forefront of white feminism from the ’50s to the ’90s, and still is to some extent today, the story is unfortunately full of colonial and racist ways of thinking. The racist language in Astrid Lindgren’s children’s book has been revised so that the obviously racist terms are removed, but the colonial ideology is still present.
Her father, the white pirate, washes up on an island and is appointed by Black people as their king as a matter of course. What a load of nonsense!
Naturally, the choice of words was still racist at the time the book was written. So was the story of the father. To this day, many white people take white privilege for granted and unconsciously pass it on to their own children.
Language is in a constant state of flux, i.e. what we teach today as acceptable terms may later be classified as discriminatory by our grandchildren.
Here are a couple of videos about how to teach kids to be anti- racist :
Summary
In the Pippi Longstocking films and books, "other" people, such as those who do not live in Europe, are often explicitly described as "different", "peculiar", or "strange".
As long as children’s books are being written that are discriminatory on so many levels, these ways of writing must not only be reconsidered, but above all corrected. We live in a time when (thankfully) many voices have become louder, and are speaking out about the many ways in which feelings are being hurt.
It would be simpler not to bother with the contents of outdated/unacceptable children’s books and instead search for newer books. But even most new German children’s books are full of stereotypical characters. Children from minority groups almost never see themselves reflected, and these books rarely lead to a change of perspective for children from majority groups. The main characters are often white, male, thin, without disabilities, Christian, CIS, straight, middle class, and with Mum and Dad living together.
If you look nowadays, you will find books in which diversity is either depicted in the supporting roles, or explicitly addressed as the theme, but with the constant drawback that people are still portrayed as “different”. It is rare to find books in which diversity is taken for granted. Most white people do not notice this fact, their reality is just white.
When children don’t see themselves reflected in any way, they don’t feel seen and that has consequences.
Self-esteem has no chance to develop. Instead, self-doubt is created, which in all too many cases leads to depression, anxiety, stomach aches or several other symptoms.…
Racist-sexist-othering ways of thinking belong in the trash!!!
Children are the future. Let’s do our best to bring them up as proud and confident human beings.
The speaker
My name is Isabelle Kane, born in Berlin.
My upbringing was somewhat unusual and full of movement so that I was exposed to many different cultures early on. By the age of 32 I had lived in Italy, Germany, Los Angeles, Manchester, London and Dakar.
In 2004 I consciously picked England to raise my Black children. I saw that Black representation was part of the norm.
In 2010 my children and I returned to Berlin.
After settling in, I started looking for like-minded people, who also wanted to make positive changes and find braver spaces for my children.
In 2013 I started working with Global New Generation Berlin e.V. whose founder, like me, is a mother of Afro-European children .
The focus is on the importance of stamping out all forms of “othering”. Our children deserve to be seen and heard. Raising Black children as white mothers is an ongoing, eye-opening experience. Our children face both racist microaggressions and overt racism in their schools and outside the home on a daily basis. As parents, we need to constantly support our children to prevent them from collapsing under the heavy weight of racism.
Here at Global New Generation e.V. we try to offer our Black children a braver space where they can feel like simply being is enough.
Through musicals and workshops, our work with children and young people, predominantly of Afro/European origin, serves to instill and empower them with self-confidence, and a full and solid sense of belonging and pride. All fellow human beings are welcome – after all, the problem of racism must be tackled and addressed across the board.
opinion poll
financial support
Quellangaben
‘https://tebalou.shop/produkt-kategorie/buecher/lesebuecher-fuer-kinder/lesebuecher_4- 7_jahre
https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/60928436
https://txtmagazine.pubpub.org/pub/hoch-censorship/release/2
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/jan/21/childrens-books-sexism-monster-in-your-kids-book-is-male
https://www.br.de/extra/respekt/toxische-maennlichkeit-rollenerwartungen100.html
Vermittlung von Vorurteilen und Stereotypen im Kindesalter
https://www.crer.org.uk/what-is-racism
12 Girls from Fiction Who Are Their Own Heroes
https://www.doinggoodtogether.org/bhf-book-lists/diversity-picture-bookshttps://www.lwb.org.au/news/15-books-with-diverse-representations-that-kids-love/https://www.lovereading4kids.co.uk/blog/diversity-inclusion-100-childrens-books-that-celebrate-difference-6090
(Teaching prejudices and stereotypes in childhood)
https://www.tilburguniversity.edu/current/news/more-news/80-year-old-pippi-was-innovative-did-not-advance-womens-emancipation-much
https://www.inclusivebooksforchildren.org/
https://socialjusticebooks.org/
https://www.alumniportal-deutschland.org/deutschland/kultur/filmfestival-film-festival/kinderbuecher-zensur
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aasHJfR3GTk
https://www.bpb.de/nachschlagen/lexika/lexikon-in-einfacher-sprache/331402/sexismus https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d6/Dornroschen_%282%29.jp g/220px-Dornroschen_%282%29.jpg
https://www.brigitte.de/familie/schlau-werden/sexismus-im-kinderbuch–schurken-sind- meistens-jungs-11046844.htm
https://www.grin.com/document/229910
https://www.familie.de/familienleben/bilderstrecke/kinderfilme-starke-maedchen/
https://www.bpb.de/nachschlagen/lexika/lexikon-in-einfacher-sprache/322448/rassismus
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pippi_Langstrumpf
Vermittlung von Vorurteilen und Stereotypen im Kindesalter
(Teaching prejudices and stereotypes in childhood)
https://www.friedrich-verlag.de/deutsch/literatur/kinderbuchklassiker-keine-zeitlose-kunst-658
‘https://tebalou.shop/produkt-kategorie/buecher/lesebuecher-fuer-kinder/lesebuecher_4- 7_jahre
https://mitvergnuegen.com/2020/diverse-kinderbuecher-vielfalt-toleranz/
https://www.familie.de/familienleben/kinderbuecher-die-diversitaet-feiern/
https://www.gngberlin.de/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/newgeneration-berlin/albums/page1
https://www.alumniportal-deutschland.org/deutschland/kultur/filmfestival-film-festival/ kinderbuecher-zensur
Translation: David Palast