Author Archives: mmarcus

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2005/aug/15/pressandpublishing.genderissues

The link here shows just how much every company tries to aim its marketing to children because they recognize what a powerful market it is. There are a few retailers around the world that have begun to sell Playboy merchandise aimed at young children. And the products aren’t just limited to clothes, but also include pencil cases, notebooks, and pencils that these children are supposed to bring to school.

The article condemns the fact that pornography has become a mainstream topic, and people don’t take into consideration that it may be harmful to children later in life. This, of course, is true, and should be studied. However, the reason that this clicked with me is that advertisers are recognizing that children are a huge market and that they are more likely to be in charge of the buying decisions than the parents are.

Since there is a huge amount of media being bombarded at children, it is likely that they may encounter Playboy in many ways. For example, if an older sister is watching E!, the topic might be more sexual than a kid would encounter in media that she chooses to consume. Therefore, there is already brand recognition for the Playboy name in all ages. Marketers see this, and then take advantage of it.

Like Consuming Kids showed, Playboy is very likely using the latest psychology to convince children that their products are harmless fun and cool to own. Then, the children who are truly in charge of the purchases, convince their parents to buy them these sexualized products.

http://sciencebasedparenting.com/2009/01/19/a-skeptical-look-at-lotus-birth/
When I was doing research on natural childbirth, I encountered a new fad, the Lotus Birth. Although it is still small, and practiced mostly in birthing centers and in at-home births, it confirms a few of Margaret K. Nelson’s points in her research article from this week’s reading.
Nelson asserts that middle class women are often advocates of more natural childbirth and that they educate themselves about birthing possibilities. What happens in a Lotus Birth is that, instead of having the umbilical cord cut and the placenta thrown away after birth, the midwife or doctor leaves them both attached and they are left to fall off naturally over the next few days.
The Lotus Birth is certainly appealing to middle class and upper class families, because as Margaret Nelson found, they are more likely to want natural births and will latch on to any practice that claims to give their babies even a small advantage in life. The research blog that I found on Lotus Birth states that it can help to transmit nutrients to the newborn for a longer period of time, but also that it is unnecessary to keep the placenta attached for that long. I find it interesting that this could actually catch on with upper and middle class classes, since the few pictures I’ve seen of a baby with an attached placenta are not appealing, but now that I read Nelson’s article, I do not find this surprising at all. When something is “new” and “natural,” with any supposed health benefits attached to it, there will certainly be people willing to try it, and the upper and middle classes will lead the way.