Sociology of Childhood

In the Victorian era, the child was often viewed as a ôminiature adult,ö and when children from rural and poor classes were depicted it was often from the perspective of the upper-classes. Such images of children are often exploitative, an exploitation that Fuller (1979, p. 232) argues still occurs in contemporary images of children, ôThe child is depicted as a miniature consumer, or the childÆs image is used with no thought of the childÆs own experience, as a narcissistic enticement of adults.ö Such images portend a connection between the child and socioeconomics, one that Fuller (1979) argues is pure fabrication since children are as close to nature and the biological and as far removed from the socioeconomic as it gets during childhood. Because of this Fuller (1979, p. 233) argues children ôàcannot be equalized by social exchange.ö In othe

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nity life, or perhaps it is the postmodern childhood that is the aberration. It is still too early to tell.ö Response and Connections The work of Fuller and Calvert demonstrates the separate worlds of childhood and adulthood. They also illustrate how social institutions, from the media and church to social classes and the arts, impact the perspective of childhood, children, normalization processes and the parenting process. For example, Calvert (1998, p. 248) argues that during the Nineteenth-century, the preoccupation with romanticism in American society influenced perceptions of childhood, ôChildhood fit nicely into this romantic pattern: It was something bright and fleeting to be cherished while it lasted.ö Fuller also maintains that different social phenomena were responsible for different images of children throughout history. For example, though the child is furthest removed from socioeconomic systems of existence and closest to the biological and natural state of human-beings, images of children in many eras have portrayed children as nothing more than ôminiature adults,ö (Fuller, 1979, p. 218). Fuller (1979) argues that children were portrayed as belonging to the bourgeoisie, including being dressed, coiffed, and po
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Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1336
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page)