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Henry Jenkins discusses iconic works from The Cat in the Hat to The Twilight Zone to explain cultural trends in parenting and how we conceptualize childhood

Image courtesy of interviewee. September 18, 2024

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This video is a reflective narrative discussing the author's experiences with parenting and his insights into the evolution of parenting philosophies, particularly focusing on permissive parenting. The author begins by sharing a childhood photo and how questions from his son about his own upbringing inspired him to explore parenting themes, especially in relation to Dr. Seuss and Dr. Benjamin Spock's influential works.

Permissive parenting ideals emerged post-World War II, fueled by the desire for more democratic family structures and a shift away from authoritarianism, which highlighted children's rights and self-expression. This video perspective coincided with the baby boom and a growing body of literature aimed at children and parents alike. The author emphasizes the importance of understanding the interconnectedness of these literary works and the contemporary parenting discourse, particularly through the lens of cultural icons like Fred Rogers and stories such as "Where the Wild Things Are."

The author also touches on the implications of cultural narratives around childhood and parenting, citing characters like Dennis the Menace and their depiction of the "good bad boy," who embodies curiosity and challenges traditional authority. He links these discussions to broader social movements and the concept of global brotherhood, referencing the changing dynamics in American culture during the mid-20th century.

Ultimately, the author highlights the ongoing struggles within parenting philosophies, situating current debates about children's rights, sexuality in literature, and family values as extensions of the permissive movement's legacy, while also noting the conservative backlash against these ideas in recent decades. He advocates for a nuanced understanding of these dynamics to respond effectively to contemporary political challenges related to family and parenting.

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Here are five key points from the video:

1. **Personal Background and Influence of Dr. Seuss**: The speaker shares a personal anecdote about being asked by their son about childhood experiences, leading to the tradition of celebrating Dr. Seuss at MIT, which grew into a 20-year event. This tradition included showing Seuss's work and discussing the convideo of children's literature and parenting.

2. **Definition of Permissive Parenting**: Permissive parenting emerged after World War II, promoting a more democratic family structure, allowing children greater involvement in their lives. This movement reacted against authoritarian parenting styles, emphasizing the importance of children's curiosity and creativity.

3. **Influential Figures in Parenting Philosophy**: Key figures such as Dr. Benjamin Spock and anthropologist Margaret Mead are highlighted as central to the development of permissive parenting ideologies. Their work contributed to a more child-centered view of parenting, emphasizing the importance of understanding children's needs and perspectives.

4. **Cultural Reflections in Children's Media**: The video discusses the connections between children's literature, like "Where the Wild Things Are," and the evolving ideas around parenting. It suggests that children's stories reflected societal changes in attitudes towards discipline, authority, and children's rights, often portraying more egalitarian relationships between parents and children.

5. **Legacy of Permissive Parenting and Current Debates**: The speaker reflects on how current cultural and political discourses around parenting echo the debates from the permissive era. Asserting that ongoing discussions about family values, education, and children's rights are extensions of historical ideologies, the video emphasizes the need to understand the historical convideo to navigate contemporary parenting challenges effectively.

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Here are some key quotes from the video:

1. **On Parenting Traditions:**
- "I wanted to be able to tell him that... Dr. Seuss passed away... [which] became for 20 years an annual tradition."

2. **On Permissive Parenting:**
- "Permissive parenting is a set of ideals about what good parenting looks like, that start around World War II."
- "It was about shifting some of the authority that adults had had and allowing children a greater say in their own lives."

3. **Cultural Shifts:**
- "A celebration of children's curiosity, creativity, imagination... and their desire not to repress their sense of their body and their sexuality."

4. **Influences on Parenting:**
- "Dr. Benjamin Spock is very much a Freudian when he writes the Child and Baby Care book, which is the definitive childcare guide of this period of time."
- "I wanted to better understand the conversations the adult were having in the other room while I was watching Dennis the Menace."

5. **On Child Development Ideals:**
- "We have a sort of more child-centered view of what parenting might look like."
- "The push against authoritarian parenting in favor of democracy at home."

6. **Reflections on Childhood Literature:**
- "Maurice Sendak's book, which is about a boy who was bad in one sense, but is just being boyish in another."
- "What he discovers is... being a good parent... means knowing and respecting the rights of your subjects."

7. **Historical Convideo of Children’s Media:**
- "Johnny Quest... is not only an embodiment of America, but... also shown in strong friendship with a South Asian boy."

8. **On Current Debates:**
- "The kinds of debates about children's books... whether they should be sexually explicit or not also come out of this period."
- "We're seeing the struggle right now between ideals that were the legacy of the permissive era and ideals that are a legacy of the Reagan era come head to head."

9. **On Progressive and Conservative Parenting Ideals:**
- "We've accepted the idea that family values is a conservative discourse."
- "The more we understand the strengths and limitations of permissiveness, the better we can frame a response to reactionary politics of the family."

These quotes encapsulate the key themes surrounding the evolution of parenting ideologies, the role of children's literature, and the sociocultural shifts in understanding childhood and family dynamics over time.

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Yes, that is me.

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That is a picture of me from six years old

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or thereabouts that my mother took.

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So, so,

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and indeed this grows out of the chain of parenting, right?

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I, I most like most kids, my son always used to ask me

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what things were like when I was a little boy,

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and I wanted to be able to tell him that at the same time,

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around that same time, Dr.

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Seuss passed away

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and we decided to do a salute to him at MIT, which became

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for 20 years an annual tradition.

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So I would show 5,000 fingers of Dr TA film

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that he was centrally involved with.

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And I would read aloud, seuss's books

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to a mostly college mi, you know, audience

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and talk about what, what, what context they came out at,

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why were those stories written when they were written.

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So it starts with Dr.

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Seuss and a question from a little boy,

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and it's taken me almost 20 plus years to finish this book

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due to other professional interruptions.

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But I'm so happy that it's finally out and into the world.

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Now, the question about permissive parenting.

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Um, essentially permissive parenting is a set

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of ideals about what good parenting looks like, that start

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around World War ii.

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They're fed by, the idea

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of a more democratic family structure

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for America after the war.

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A sense that authoritarianism had been not serve the Germans

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or the Japanese well,

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and maybe wouldn't serve Americans well either.

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So it was about shifting some of the authority

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that adults had had

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and allowing children a greater say in their own lives.

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Now, the, some of these ideas were already taking shape

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as early as the progressive era,

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and there was just a sense of what, you know,

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giving children more say in their everyday development,

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a celebration of children's curiosity, creativity,

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imagination, their sense, you know, desire not

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to repress their sense of their body and their sexuality.

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This is the Freudian contribution to all of this.

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And Spock,

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Dr. Benjamin Spock is very much a Freudian when he writes

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the Child and Baby Care book,

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which is the definitive childcare guide

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of this period of time.

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So we put all that together

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and we have a, a sort of more child-centered view of

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what parenting might look like.

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Now, this comes out at the point

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that the baby boom is exploding a population

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explosion in America, and so is the rise of paperback books.

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So what we see are lots

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and lots of discourses about parenting

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and childhood, a large expansion in a number

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of books written for children

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or media produced for children,

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and a large expansion of the number of books written

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As advice literature for parents.

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So what I decided to do was read them side by side.

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'cause my mother raised me with Dr.

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Spock in one hand, and Dr. Seuss and the other.

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And I wanted to better understand the conversations the

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adult were having in the other room while I was

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watching Dennis the Menace.

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One was the permissive era idea about a more about,

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families and gender dynamics in the home.

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The second was the push against authoritarian parenting in

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favor of democracy at home.

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The third is the rise in popularization of Freudianism

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by Benjamin Spot.

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So we put those together

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and I would say the key architects are Margaret Mead,

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the anthropologist and her circle around her,

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and Benjamin Spock, the pediatrician,

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and the circle around him.

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Interestingly, Spock was Mead's pediatrician,

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so those worlds collide.

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Spock also was part of a center research center

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that included Eric Erickson and, Fred Rogers.

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So we can already start

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to see the ways something like Mr. Rogers neighborhood,

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which is much beloved now, comes out of this discourse about

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what child could, which should be.

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And Fred Rogers trained minister also trained

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in child study.

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So he was able to really observe parents

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and children interacting directly

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and tried to translate that into the philosophy of the show.

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And so what we do, what when we do across the book is try

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to find where those connections occur.

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And many, many cases they do directly in terms

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of the biographies of these key figures,

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but also they just occur in terms of the ideals,

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the philosophies, the images of childhood

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that are taking shape during that period of time.

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So there was a congruence

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between the books my mother would've been reading

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and the books I would've been,

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she would've been reading to me.

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And I think that congruence is

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what I'm mapping across this book.

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Let's think about where the wild things are.

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The Maurice Sinek book, which is about a boy who was

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bad in one sense,

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but is just being boyish in another, right?

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And how does his mother deal with him?

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She sends him to bed without any supper,

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although later she relents and brings supper up to him.

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So it wasn't really a punishment, it was a timeout.

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And he goes to an island where he meets monsters

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and has to figure out how to manage them and parent them.

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And what he discovers is, you know, that being,

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you know, a good parent as and

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or being a good king means knowing

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and respecting the rights of your subjects.

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And so he, he earns their respect. He doesn't demand it.

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And so I think if we look at that, Sendak is the illustrator

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for, several other earlier children's book writers,

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including the one who wrote a hole is to Dig,

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and the one who wrote Harold and the Purple Crayon.

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So there's a set of connections there.

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Uh, both of them were into progressive politics,

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reading anthropology, including the works of Margaret Mead.

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So it's not hard to make both thematic connections.

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Wow is parenting being depicted

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and, you know, what does it mean to be a good, bad boy,

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which is in some ways the ideal of that period.

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And it's also connected by the intellectual circles.

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The ri travel in kind of central figure in the book is

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what I call the Boy in the Stripe shirt.

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And hence my picture on the cover of the book.

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I'm wearing a striped shirt.

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I'm surrounded by the toys of that era,

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but the boy in the Stripe shirt is everywhere in

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fifties and sixties.

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Culture, even Charlie Brown has a rather anxiously jagged

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stripe shirt, but is still a boy in the striped shirt.

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Now what that fig, the striped shirt is red

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and white, typically with blue jeans.

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So we have red, white, and blue.

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The All American handful Dennis de Menace is

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described by his author.

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Uh, and so the sense of Americanness as being a little bold,

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but also democratic, you know, a natural leader.

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There's a kind of national image at stake in those figures.

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So if we look at Dennis the Menace, we see one set

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of ideals, which is the good bad boy.

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The boy who's badness is not mischief

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as it would've been saying the Cats

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and Jamer kids in the twenties and thirties.

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It is curiosity, it is a willingness to treat adults

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as equals not to see them as superior to him.

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And as a result, he does things that cause problems,

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but they're not really malicious problems.

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Uh, Hank Ketchum

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who created Dennis de Menace was a bit on the conservative

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end of the permissive side.

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So he often shows the parents' frustrations with these kids,

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but he is also speaking to the humor of a situation

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where parents who were raised

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with strict discipline were trying to raise their children

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with more permissiveness.

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In terms of Johnny Quest. We take that one step further.

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He is, he is not only an embodiment of America,

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but he is also shown in strong friendship

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with a South Asian boy, right,

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who's been adopted into the family.

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Now, this is a period of time when Americans

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after the war adopting large numbers of kids from Asia,

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although few from India than from China or Japan.

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But India during this period under Nru was standing in

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standing as a kind of mediator

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between the east and the West.

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So there's enormous interest in the US foreign policy

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to reach out and embrace India and pull

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It over to our side in the Cold War politics.

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So there's no accident that Haji is an Indian kid.

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There's some, there's a similar white kid,

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Indian kid Friendship in Maya, another show of the period

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where Jay North plays the American boy.

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So we put all that together

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and it really embodies this notion of brotherhood,

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global brotherhood, which Margaret Mead writes a lot about.

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This is a period of time in the Boy Scouts

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as the citizenship in the world merit badge when the Model

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UN is coming into being, where it's a small,

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small world is created by Disney first for the world's fair

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and later for its theme parks.

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So there's a lot in the air about global brotherhood,

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gro global friendship.

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And in that way, I think Johnny Quest,

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it totally embodies that spirit,

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even if at the same time it has a healthy dose, dose

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of yellow peril, discourse running through it too.

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You know, a lot of the culture war debates that we're seeing

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around children's books around teaching boil down

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to the same debates that emerged during this period, right?

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I, I'm certain that the writers of the period wouldn't know

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what to do with the trans kid if it bit, if it bit them,

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but the sense that a child's body should be not sha should

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be respected and they should have pride in it.

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They shouldn't be ashamed of it,

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that they sh they know what's important for their own lives.

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All of that is there. You know, the, the kinds

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of debates about children's books,

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whether they should be sexually explicit

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or not also come out of this period.

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So at the end of the period, I'm writing about 68, 69,

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we start to see conservative backlash

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against permissiveness.

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And some of the kinds

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of cultural discourse we're seeing today from the right,

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say from Florida, those were very much the dominant beliefs

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in the seventies as people like Charles Dobson stepped in

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and became much more conservative figures.

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So we're seeing the struggle right now between ideals

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that were the legacy of the permissive era

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and ideals that are a legacy of the Reagan era come head

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to head where it comes to

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how we think about parenting today.

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And so I think it's important for us to understand

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that more progressive discourse.

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We've accepted the idea

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that family values is a conservative discourse,

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that parenting is celebrated by JD Vance.

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Not necessarily,

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but even though we see what a spectacular parent, you know,

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governor Wal, coach Waltz is right?

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So, so those debates today really boil down to an extension

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of the debates that have their legacy back in this period.

11:41.095 --> 11:45.335
And the more we understand the, the ti that strengths

11:45.335 --> 11:48.415
and limitations of permissiveness, the better we can frame

11:48.975 --> 11:51.855
a response to reactionary politics of the family.

"Reflecting on Childhood: The Intersection of Dr. Seuss, Permissive Parenting, and Cultural Ideals"

00:00:00 - Yes, that is me. That is a picture of me from six years old or thereabouts that my mother took. So, so, and indeed this grows out of the chain of parenting, right? I, I most like most kids, my son always used to ask me what things were like when I was a little boy, and I wanted to be able to tell him that at the same time, around that same time, Dr. Seuss passed away and we decided to do a salute to him at MIT, which became for 20 years an annual tradition. So I would show 5,000 fingers of Dr. TA film that he was centrally involved with.
00:00:45 - and mi you know, audience and talk about what, what, what context they came out of. Why were those stories written when they were written. So it starts with Dr. Seuss and a question from a little boy, and it's taken me almost 20 plus years to finish this book due to other professional interruptions. But I'm so happy that it's finally out and into the world. Essentially, permissive parenting is a set of ideals about what good parenting looks like, that start around World War ii. They're fed by, the idea of a more democratic family structure
00:01:25 - A sense that authoritarianism had been not served the Germans or the Japanese well and maybe wouldn't serve Americans well either. So it was about shifting some of the authority that adults had had and allowing children a greater say in their own lives. Now, the, some of these ideas were already taking shape as early as the progressive era, and there was just a sense of what, you know, giving children more say in their everyday development, a celebration of children's curiosity, creativity, imagination, their sense, you know, desire not to repress their sense of their body and their sexuality.
00:02:08 - And Spock, Dr. Benjamin Spock is very much a Freudian when he writes the Child and Baby Care book, which is the definitive childcare guide of this period of time. So we put all that together and we have a, a sort of more child-centered view of what parenting might look like. Now, this comes out at the point that the baby boom is exploding a population explosion in America, and so is the rise of paperback books. So what we see are lots and lots of discourses about parenting and childhood, a large expansion in a number
00:02:47 - or media produced for children, and a large expansion of the number of books written as advice literature for parents. So what I decided to do was read them side by side. 'cause my mother raised me with Dr. Spock in one hand and Dr. Seuss in the other. And I wanted to better understand the conversations the adult were having in the other room while I was watching Dennis the Menace. One was the permissive era idea about a more about, families and gender dynamics in the home. The second was the push against authoritarian parenting in favor of democracy at home. The third is the rise in popularization of Freudianism
00:03:30 - So we put those together and I would say the key architects are Margaret Mead, the anthropologist and her circle around her, and Benjamin Spock, the pediatrician, and the circle around him. Interestingly, Spock was Mead's pediatrician, so those worlds collide. Spock also was part of a center research center that included Eric Ericsson and, Fred Rogers. So we can already start to see the ways something like Mr. Rogers neighborhood, which is much beloved now, comes out of this discourse about what child could, should be. And Fred Rogers trained minister also

"Exploring Childhood Ideals: Connections Between Parenting, Literature, and Cultural Narratives"

00:04:11 - So he was able to really observe parents and children interacting directly and try to translate that into the philosophy of the show. And so what we do, what when we do across the book is try to find where those connections occur. And many, many cases they do directly in terms of the biographies of these key figures, but also they just occur in terms of the ideals, the philosophies, the images of childhood that are taking shape during that period of time. So there was a congruence between the books my mother would've been reading and the books I would've been, she would've been reading to me.
00:04:52 - what I'm mapping across this book. Let's think about where the wild things are. The Maurice Sinek book, which is about a boy who was bad in one sense, but is just being boyish and another right. And how does his mother deal with him? She sends him to bed without any supper, although later she relents and brings supper up to him. So it wasn't really a punishment, it was a timeout. And he goes to an island where he meets monsters and has to figure out how to manage them and parent them. And what he discovers is, you know, that being,
00:05:32 - or being a good king means knowing and respecting the rights of your subjects. And so he, he earns their respect. He doesn't demand it. And so I think if we look at that, Sendak is the illustrator for, several other earlier children's book writers, including the one who wrote a whole is the Dig and the one who wrote Harold and the Purple Crayon. So there's a set of connections there. both of them were into progressive politics, reading anthropology, including the works of Margaret Mead. So it's not hard to make both thematic connections.
00:06:14 - and you know, what does it mean to be a good, bad boy, which is in some ways the ideal of that period. And it's also connected by the intellectual circles. The ryers traveled in. The kind of central figure in the book is what I call the Boy in the Stripe shirt. And hence my picture on the cover of the book. I'm wearing a striped shirt. I'm surrounded by the toys of that era, but the boy in the Stripe shirt is everywhere in fifties and sixties. Culture, even Charlie Brown has a rather anxiously jagged stripe shirt, but is still a boy in the striped shirt. Now what that fig, the striped shirt is red and white, typically with blue jeans.
00:06:55 - The All American handful Dennis de Menace is described by his author. and so the sense of Americanness as being a little bold, but also democratic, you know, a natural leader. There's a kind of national image at stake in those figures. So if we look at Dennis the Menace, we see one set of ideals, which is the good bad boy, the boy whose badness is not mischief as it would've been saying The cats and jam are kids in the twenties and thirties. It is curiosity, it is a willingness to treat adults,
00:07:40 - And as a result, he does things that cause problems, but they're not really malicious problems. Hank Ketchum who created Dennis de Menace was a bit on the conservative end of the permissive side. So he often shows the parents' frustrations with these kids, but he is also speaking to the humor of a situation where parents who were raised with strict discipline were trying to raise their children with more permissiveness. In terms of Johnny Quest. We take that one step further. He is, he is not only an embodiment of America, but he has also shown in strong friendship

"Navigating Global Brotherhood and Cultural Shifts: Reflections on Parenting and Identity in Post-War America"

00:08:21 - who's been adopted into the family. Now, this is a period of time when Americans after the war adopting large numbers of kids from Asia, although fewer from India, than from China or Japan. But India during this period under Nru was standing in standing as a kind of mediator between the east and the West. So there's enormous interest in the US foreign policy to reach out and embrace India and pull it over to our side in the Cold War politics. So it's no accident that Haji is an Indian kid. There's some, there's a similar white kid,
00:09:03 - where Jay North plays the American boy. So we put all that together and it really embodies this notion of Brotherhoodhood global Brotherhood, which Margaret Mead writes a lot about. This is a period of time, and the Boy Scouts adds the citizenship in the world merit badge when the Model UN is coming into being where it's a small, small world, it is created by Disney first for the world's Fair and later for its theme parks. So there's a lot in the air about global brotherhood, global friendship. And in that way, I think Johnny Quest,
00:09:42 - even if at the same time it has a healthy dose, dose of yellow peril, discourse running through it too. You know, a lot of the culture war debates that we're seeing around children's books around teaching boil down to the same debates that emerged during this period, right? I, I'm certain that the writers of the period wouldn't know what to do with a trans kid if it bit, if it bit them, but the sense that a child's body should be not cha should be respected and they should have pride in it. They shouldn't be ashamed of it, that they sh they know what's important for their own lives. All of that is there. You know, the, the kinds
00:10:22 - whether they should be sexually explicit or not also come out of this period. So at the end of the period, I'm writing about 68, 69, we start to see conservative backlash against permissiveness. And some of the kinds of cultural discourse we're seeing today from the right, say from Florida, those were very much the dominant beliefs in the seventies as people like Charles Dobson stepped in and became much more conservative figures. So we're seeing the struggle right now between ideals that were the legacy of the permissive era and ideals that are a legacy of the Reagan era come to head
00:11:04 - how we think about parenting today. And so I think it's important for us to understand that more progressive discourse. We've accepted the idea that family values is a conservative discourse, that parenting is celebrated by JD Vance, not necessary, but even though we see what a spectacular parent, you know, governor Wal, coach Waltz is right? So, so those debates today really boil down to an extension of the debates that have their legacy back in this period. And the more we understand the, the ti that strengths and limitations of permissiveness, the better we can frame
00:11:43 -

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