Motherhood, Wifehood and “Beauty Objects”: Defining Femininity in Children’s Book

Abstract

                  Children’s book is an important medium to transfer social norms and ideology to children aged 3-6 years old. This dissertation therefore focuses on how the imagined world represents femininity, and to what extent and in what manner audiences in daily life construct meanings about femininity. In addition, this work concentrates on three statuses of femininity, which are motherhood, wifehood, and a “beauty objects”. With the concept of feminism, these statuses have been regulated by society in order to control women, and they are at the same time a social space that human agency negotiates and challenges.
                   The findings reveal that with a dominant gender ideology, representation of femininity dominates children’s picture book. For example, a mother who is kind, gentle, sweet, loving, caring, and who dedicates her life to children. Moreover, a mother who always stays home and does all the domestic chores. The stereotypical wife is kind, loving, serving, submissive, faithful to her husband, and husband-centered. Such a wife also stays home and does all stereotypical activities. The concept of “beauty objects” is dominated by the ideology of loveliness both inside and outside, the goal of which is to attract people, especially men. There are, however, certain negotiated representations of social norms or of the dominant ideology. For example, children’s book portray a mother who abandons her child, or loves her child only under some conditions; a wife who is deceitful and wants to acquire some benefits from her husband; or a beautiful woman who is comely and at the same time clever, strong, independent of the male, and able to add value to herself or to have more power than men.
                   With regard to an audience’s construction of meanings, the findings show that mothers decode or interpret femininity with reference to the dominant ideology, such as a mother who loves and takes care of her children, or a wife who serves her husband, or a beautiful woman whose beauty is to attract men. Meanwhile, children both accept and negotiate the dominant ideology. For example, they believe that a mother must love and take care of her children, but there is no need to stay home all the time or to be the one who cooks. A wife may not serve her husband. A beautiful woman can be beautiful as well as clever, and can help other people. However, different family statuses and characteristics are likely to lead to different meaning-construction. For example, the children of a single-mom family may negotiate toward a stereotypical image of mother and wife. Other institutions, media, or children’s daily life practices, most likely have an influence on children’s meaning-construction as well.