A recent essay by Henry Giroux, "Commodifying Kids: The Forgotten Crisis," dovetails nicely with our previous post and follows another article by him that we posted back in February about the criminalization of today's youth. In this most recent essay, Giroux urges that we recognize the "teachable moment" unfolding before us, given the current state of society (hyper-commercialized and profit driven).He discusses how children have come to be defined through market principles, their worth determined by their market value; the role of a $17 billion advertising budget aimed at shaping children's identities; and the roles of children as both consumers and commodities. Perhaps more important than criticizing consumerism, argues Giroux, is "developing public spaces and social movements that help young people develop healthy notions of self, identities and visions of their future no longer defined - more accurately, defiled - by market values and mentalities."
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Great post. The article is staggering, important, gross and sadly enough a never ending cycle.
ReplyDelete"The road to recovery cannot be simply about returning to modified free-market capitalism and a re-established, utterly bankrupt consumer society." - Giroux brings up an excellent point here - one that too few people are talking about. Unfortunately it looks like we're just trying to save the system. There is no talk about change occurring at the level Giroux is speaking of.
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