INNOCENCE OR IGNORANCE?:
CHILDHOOD AS A HOME FOR PURITY AND FANTASY

David Eusebio
MOPA 409-01: Visual Theory
December 14, 2020

davideusebio@my.capilanou.ca

1
Dorfman and Mattelart’s essay “Introduction: Instructions on How to Become a General
in the Disneyland Club” presents an intriguing paradox regarding the perception of childhood.
They argue that adults hide harsh elements of the world from their children because they have
been conditioned to preserve their innocence, yet the ideas associated with childhood innocence
have been constructed by the adults.1 These notions are not only endorsed by the vox populi, but
also reflect the values of corporations, namely Disney. While Dorfman and Mattelart criticize the
evangelism of the “Disneyland Club,” they do not present a solution for parting from this societal
contradiction. This begs the question: how was the concept of “childhood innocence” formed and
why do we preserve this innocence? This paper will trace the origins of childhood innocence
from the seventeenth century up until the mid-twentieth century. I will examine how childhood
innocence, which has been shaped by evolving ideologies and new technologies, has been
preserved. I will also analyze the effectiveness of these methods from multiple points of view
and answer the question: should we preserve childhood innocence? My findings reveal that
childhood innocence must be altered to address taboo subject matter that children have been
exposed to in our day and age, for the concept has eschewed societal issues and the experiences
of those in the lower-income strata, as well as many minority groups, for far too long.
The innocent child is a Western ideology that did not exist until the seventeenth century.
Until then, children were perceived to be “faulty small adults … in need of correction and
discipline.”2 In Christian theology, it was believed, especially among Catholics, Augustinians,
and Calvinists, that children were born sinful and were in need of salvation. In particular,
Calvinist theology enshrined that children were more “sinful and sexual … than adults.”3 This
1
Ariel Dorfman and Armand Mattelart, “Introduction: Instructions on How to Become a General in the
Disneyland Club,” in Media and Cultural Studies: KeyWorks, ed. by Meenakshi Gigi Durham and Douglas M.
Kellner (Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing, 2006), 127.
2
Anne Higonnet, Pictures of Innocence (London: Thames and Hudson Ltd., 1998), 8.
3
Robin Bernstein, Racial Innocence: Performing American Childhood from Slavery to Civil
Rights (New York: NYU Press, 2011), 4, http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt9qgj4w.

2
belief aligned with the prevalence of punitive, adult control, as well as the “surveillance of
children in church.” Davis acknowledges that the tradition of children leading a “commanding
role” is also enshrined in Judeo-Christian scripture.4 The former notion was illustrated in the
works of many pre-Renaissance painters who often depicted children with adult-like features
beside a motherly figure (see fig. 1 and fig. 2); she is the Madonna or the Virgin Mary.

Figure 1. The Vysehrad Madonna of the Rains, 1360,
https://www.art.com/products/p34960866946-sa-i9378
789/the-vysehrad-madonna-of-the-rains-c1360.htm; oil
painting

Figure 2. Duccio di Buoninsegna, Crevole Madonna
1283-1284, https://www.art.com/products/p1419639
5-sa-i2945471/duccio-di-buoninsegna-crevole-mado
nna-c-1284.htm; oil painting.

While these depictions were ubiquitous, they were forgotten by the height of the Renaissance
when paintings of infants were beautified. Raphael and Filippino Lippi embraced the tranquility
of children in their paintings while perpetuating the Madonna trend (see fig. 3 and fig. 4).

4

Robert A. Davis, “Brilliance of a Fire: Innocence, Experience and the Theory of Childhood.”
Journal of Philosophy of Education 45, no. 2 (May 2011): 383, doi:10.1111/j.1467-9752.2011.00798.x.

3

Figure 3. Raphael, Sistine Madonna, 1513-1514,
https://artsandculture.google.com/asset/the-sistine
-madonna/CgEiMJRg7ZS6DA?hl=en; oil painting.

Figure 4. Filippino Lippi, The Virgin and Child with
Saint John, 1480, https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/
paintings/filippino-lippi-the-virgin-and-child-with-sai
nt-john; oil painting.

This was a significant turning point; no longer would grotesque depictions of infants be
accepted. However, the Renaissance did not create childhood innocence; art historians suggest
that the changing depictions of children during this era reflected “the discovery of a natural
truth” among artists.5 The following era would establish childhood innocence: the Romantic era.
British, portrait painters from the eighteenth century pioneered childhood innocence,
including Reynolds, Gainsborough, and Raeburn.6 It was also apparent in eighteenth century
literature. Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s Emile (1762), an essay on education and humankind, praises
the inherent innocence of the child.7 Cox argues that, by condemning the corruption of society,
Rousseau “elevates childhood to a special place of innocence … and turns childhood into a
central part of his programme for social renewal.”8 Higonnet emphasizes that childhood
innocence was not discovered in the eighteenth century; it was an invention that invoked
5

Higonnet, 8.
Ibid., 9.
7
Kerry Robinson, Innocence, Knowledge and the Construction of Childhood: The Contradictory Nature of
Sexuality and Censorship in Children’s Contemporary Lives (New York: Routledge, 2013), 43.
https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=cat02755a&AN=cul.b1333107&site=eds-live&scope=site.
8
Roger Cox, Shaping Childhood : Themes of Uncertainty in the History of Adult-Child Relationships (New
York: Routledge, 1996), 64. https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=cat02755a&AN=cul.b140175
6&site=eds-live&scope=site.
6

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“anxiety, resistance, and … innovation.”9 The image of the Madonna was recuperated into a
modest, motherly figure who would embrace her precious newborn (see fig. 5 and fig. 6).

Figure 5. Joshua Reynolds, Lady Elizabeth Delmé
and Her Children, 1777-1779, https://www.nga.go
v/collection/art-object-page.102.html; oil painting.

Figure 6. Thomas Gainsborough, The Baillie Family, 1784,
https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/gainsborough-the-baill
ie-family-n00789; oil painting.

The adorable depictions of children expanded beyond oil paintings. In her children’s books, Kate
Greenaway mirrored the paradigms of eighteenth century portraits, but also fused Romanticism
into her character’s clothing and set the stories in the countryside which was reminiscent of rural,
pre-industrial England (see fig. 7).10

Figure 7. Illustrated by Kate Greenaway, Mother Goose or the Old Nursery Rhymes, Urbana IL:
Project Gutenberg, 2007. https:/www.gutenberg.org/files/23794/23794-h/2379 4-h.htm; drawing.
9

Higonnet, 193.
Ibid., 51.

10

5

Art historians recognize the impact these new depictions had in constructing childhood
innocence. Higonnet posits that illustrations of children were associated with maternity and
became catered toward feminine audiences. This allowed the illustrations to be interpreted in
multiple ways, attracting both conservative and progressive spectators.11 Garlen suggests that
these images were fueled by nostalgia for the previous century which also “incite[d] parental
anxiety” toward the changes in society.12 She suggests this anxious feeling stemmed from the
desire to protect children from violence and immorality upon viewing these images which
portrayed a heavenly scene.13
As popularity grew, these illustrations spread and innocence became the primary
distinction between children and adults. By the mid-nineteenth century, childhood and innocence
had become inseparable; innocence defined childhood in the Western world, especially in
America.14 Around the turn of the century, the prevalence of children was supported by the
accessibility of photography.
Higonnet claims that the purpose of photography was to “give parents a better chance to
identify and reclaim children” by creating positive identities associated with family values.15 Her
perspective connects with Barthes’ theory of the photograph. He describes photography’s
emotional impact as an “umbilical cord [that] links the body of the photographed thing to [one’s]
gaze.”16 The inherent link of photographs to memory nurtures a stronger form of nostalgia upon
11

Higonnet, 39.
Julie C. Garlen, “Interrogating Innocence: ‘Childhood’ as Exclusionary Social Practice.”
Childhood 26, no. 1 (Feb. 2019): 55, https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=edb&AN=134311799
&site=eds-live&scope=site.
13
Ibid., 59.
14
Robin Bernstein, “Let Black Kids Just Be Kids,” The New York Times, July 26, 2017,
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/26/opinion/black-kids-discrimination.html.
15
Higonnet, 80.
16
Roland Barthes, Camera Lucida: Reflections on Photography, trans. by Richard Howard (New York: Hill
& Wang, 1982), 80-81. https://eclass.uoa.gr/modules/document/file.php/PSPA254/Barthes_Roland_Camera_Lucida
_Reflections_on_Photography.pdf.
12

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seeing a photographed child. Not only does it become associated with childhood, but it also
allows the “less-than-ideal moments” to be excluded from the memory that is captured.17
Consequently, religious doctrine was inverted according to the cultural mandate; Christian
children were no longer considered born in sin.18 Building on Foucault’s argument that
Christianity is interlaced with family, Duschinsky suggests that adhering to the popular
perspective of childhood innocence was “fundamental in creating the modern subject-position of
the protective social authority,” just as condemning children was used to maintain authority
before childhood innocence was invented.19
Paintings, drawings, and pictures helped articulate the childhood innocence toward the
twentieth century. As Neustadter notes, these images finalized the ideal attributes associated with
childhood throughout the Modern and Postmodern Eras: “imagination, unselfconsciousness, and
a closeness to nature.”20 The transition is clearly positive. Children were beginning to be
appreciated in society and seemingly more beloved than in the pre-Renaissance era. So, how did
the Western ideology of childhood innocence escalate to a state of emergency, as presented by
Dorfman and Mattelart? To answer this question, we must examine how childhood innocence
prevailed in the new millennium.
Meyrowitz posits that print media was crucial to spreading, as well as preserving,
childhood innocence in the twentieth century.21 Magazines were ubiquitous at the turn of the
century as a result of innovations in print media. Frederic Eugene Ives invented black-and-white,

17

Higonnet, 89-90.
Bernstein, Racial Innocence, 4.
19
Robbie Duschinsky, “Childhood Innocence: Essence, Education, and Performativity,” Textual Practice
27, no. 5 (2013): 770, doi:10.1080/0950236X.2012.751441.
20
Roger Neustadter, The Obvious Child: Studies in the Significance of Childhood (Lanham, MD:
University Press of America, 2009), 72.
21
Joshua Meyrowitz, “The Adultlike Child and the Childlike Adult: Socialization in an Electronic Age,”
Daedalus 113, no. 3 (July 1984): 47n28. https://search-ebscohost-com.ezproxy.capilanou.ca/login.aspx?direct=true&
db=edsjsr&AN=edsjsr.20024926&site=eds-live&scope=site.
18

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halftone printing, its photomechanical process superseded wood engraving. The following
decade introduced colour into the technique. Not only did this expedite printing, but it enabled
publishers to easily include images with their text-based content, including articles, poems, short
stories, and written advertisements.22 Among the various illustrators, Jessie Wilcox Smith
pioneered the depiction of children within a variety of lifestyles. Inspired by Greenaway’s artistic
sentiment and nostalgic portrayals, Smith imitated Greenaway’s style in her work.23 Images of
children were everywhere in magazines. Higonnet observes flipping through various,
general-interest magazines to discover children portrayed in the following advertisements:
Macintosh computers, Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance, Évian mineral water, British
Airways, Ford, Baker Furniture, and The Breast Cancer Research Foundation. By portraying
children, the products became associated with quality and perfection which has become “one of
our [Western] culture’s most ideal ideals.”24 The charm of children has also been practiced in
photography where children project a specific, wholesome value associated with family. By
selecting what is captured, the photographer chooses the perfect portrayal of their homelife in the
comfort of their home, as well as their friends and colleagues when those images are shared.
Consider the holiday greeting card: at the height of its popularity, it was required that families
include photos of their children. Photos of the parents, or even the family, became obsolete. It
was clear: children’s innocence represented family innocence.25
Faulkner stresses that this shift has introduced a tabula rasa in society’s perception of
childhood. The innocent child satisfies a yearning felt by society which expunges other

22

Higonnet, 60.
Ibid., 61.
24
Ibid. 91-92
25
Ibid. 93.
23

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perceptions of childhood.26 The positive perception operates to construct, as well as preserve,
childhood as “spatially stable sphere through which adult Western subjectivity manages anxiety
about its vulnerability to social, economic, and environmental change.”27 This has been bolstered
by the sociocultural and political construction of the taboo in Western ideology. Certain topics,
such as violence, death, poverty, and politics, have been constituted as “difficult, particularly in
relation to children,” which has resulted in censoring content for children.28 Robinson identifies
two spheres of influence for adults and children: the public and the private spheres. The public
sphere, the events of the world, is reserved for adults whereas the private sphere, the home of the
nuclear family, regulates the information retained by the child.29 This influenced institutions,
such as the establishment of censorship boards which included the “rigid, prudish, Motion
Picture Production Code.”30 Therefore, childhood innocence was reinforced by “the magical,
fairytale, ubiquitous quality of the media … which could instantaneously transmit dreams and
beliefs.”31 In literature, children entered other worlds, falling down rabbit holes, accessing secret
passages, speaking with animals, venturing into the mystique, and returned home safely.
These techniques in controlling the sociocultural and political aspects of children’s lives
have solidified the idealistic, fantastical quality of childhood innocence. However, the efficacy
of preserving innocence in regards to its success, as well as its ethics, has been in dispute. Two,
opposing crises have emerged in the past century regarding childhood innocence: childhood

26

Joanne Faulkner, “Vulnerability of ‘Virtual’ Subjects: Childhood, Memory, and Crisis in the Cultural
Value of Innocence,” SubStance 42, no. 3 (Jan. 2013): 128, https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db
=edsjsr&AN=edsjsr.24540728&site=eds-live&scope=site.
27
Ibid., 129.
28
Robinson, 23.
29
Ibid., 34.
30
Marie Winn, “What became of childhood innocence?” The New York Times Magazine 25 (Jan. 1981): 68,
https://www.nytimes.com/1981/01/25/magazine/what-became-of-childhood-innocence.html.
31
Ariel Dorfman, The Empire’s Old Clothes: What the Lone Ranger, Babar, and Other Innocent Heroes Do
to Our Minds, E-Duke Books Scholarly Collection (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2010), 175, https://search.
ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=cat02755a&AN=cul.b1326077&site=eds-live&scope=site.

9
innocence has been tainted by the growing accessibility of content and the exploitation of
childhood innocence has commercialized the concept while limiting the knowledge of the world
which has become essential for children’s development.
Television complicated control over the private sphere, causing children to indulge in the
issues of the world. In the sixties and seventies, children could easily be exposed to issues of the
time, such as the Vietnam War, the Watergate Scandal, and world hunger. Winn claims that
parents were “appalled to find that their ‘innocent’ children were losing their innocence
rapidly.”32 In essence, there has been a rise in concern that the carefree, delightful childhood is
fading because of the growing exposure children have to world issues. The slew of content has
increased tremendously since the age of the internet, exposing children to subject matter they
may not be prepared to see as a result of this carried ideology of preserving their innocence. For
instance, since the pandemic, numerous news outlets have reported videos of people dying going
viral on TikTok, a video-sharing, social media app, in which over thirty percent of its users are
aged ten to nineteen.33 But, as Higonnet posits, childhood innocence “is now in jeopardy not just
because it is being violated, but because it was seriously flawed all along.”34
The exploitation of childhood innocence for commercial benefit has aggravated many
scholars and provides further context into Dorfman and Mattelart’s critique. Faulkner insists that
innocence “satisf[ies] the definition of a commodity fetish furnished by Marx,” for children have
become a potent inducement for persuading people to buy products.35 The child has become
objectified for the purpose of capital benefit. Connecting to Dorfman and Mattelart argument,
32

Winn, 68.
J. Clement, “U.S. TikTok users by age 2020,” Statista, App Ape, Nov 6, 2020,
https://www.statista.com/statistics/1095186/tiktok-us-users-age/.
34
Higonnet, 194.
35
Joanne Faulkner, “The Innocence Fetish: The Commodification and Sexualisation of Children in the
Media and Popular Culture,” Media International Australia, Incorporating Culture and Policy, no. 135 (May 2010):
112. https://search-ebscohost-com.ezproxy.capilanou.ca/login.aspx?direct=true&db=edsilc&AN=edsilc.1292765362
03412&site=eds-live&scope=site.
33

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Walt Disney World uses this tactic to attract tourists who seek to prolong childhood innocence,
but also to provide a form of escapism for adults.36 Furthermore, criticism is concentrated on the
fact that childhood innocence has stemmed from adult control. As the Church adapted its
doctrine for control, adults define childhood innocence to adhere to their values and perceptions.
Combined with fetishization, it becomes clear that childhood innocence benefits adults more
than children. Do you believe Pocohontas (1995) was made for children? Perhaps, but not
without the influence of adults who aged the character by seven years and whose illustrations
were “inspired by adult sex appeal, especially the allure of fashion supermodels Kate Moss and
Naomi Campbell.”37 As such, innocence becomes a form of repression. It represses adult desires
that, when permitted and strategically integrated, can be fulfilled through infantile depictions in
media because children are denied agency of the content they watch, nor the content that is
created for them.38
Another critical flaw with the concept of childhood innocence is its disregard for race,
gender, and those in the lower-income strata. As Higonnet explains, these images of children
have been “so dominantly white that race did not even seem to be an issue.”39 Garlen insists that
the ideal circumstances presented by childhood innocence were “not in the realm of possibility
for anyone but White elites” because children experiencing “poverty, abuse, or discrimination are
always already excluded from innocence.”40 Stockton posits that “experience is still hard to
square with innocence, making depictions of streetwise children, who are often neither white nor

36

Garlen, 58.
Higonnet, 154.
38
Lisa Farley. Childhood beyond Pathology: A Psychoanalytic Study of Development and Diagnosis.
SUNY Series, Transforming Subjects: Psychoanalysis, Culture, and Studies in Education (New York: State
University of New York Press, 2018), 14. https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=cat02755a&AN
=cul.b1551996&site=eds-live&scope=site.
39
Higonnet, 119.
40
Garlen, 62-63.
37

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middle-class, hard to square with ‘children.’”41 Even when African-American children were
illustrated for advertisements in the early-twentieth century, it continued to be a “tool of racial
dominance.” Bernstein compares two advertisements for Fairbanks soap: one “whose mascot
was a serene white child dressed in fancy clothes” and one with “[B]lack, nonchildren [sic]
toil[ing]” (see fig. 8).42

Figure 8. Two early 1900s advertisements for Fairbank soap: (left) featuring AfricanAmerican children; (right) featuring a white girl. Made by The N. K. Fairbank Company,
1900 and 1911, https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/26/opinion/black-kids-discrimination.html.

Not only do these advertisements belittle the African-American community, but stereotypes are
embodied in classic cartoons, such as Bugs Bunny and Mickey Mouse. Their white gloves,
sardonic facial expressions, and melodic body language and movement mimic the stereotypes
portrayed in minstrel shows. This also persisted in children’s toys.43
Negative experiences are excluded from childhood innocence, circumventing issues
many families experience, such as abuse, domestic disputes, divorce and financial struggle. Even

41

Kathryn Bond Stockton, The Queer Child, or Growing Sideways in the Twentieth Century (Durham;
London: Duke University Press, 2009), 31, doi:10.2307/j.ctv11689ts.
42
Bernstein, “Let Black Kids Just Be Kids.”
43
Bernstein, Racial Innocence, 19.

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when these issues are addressed truthfully, it is often faced with pushback from the community.
For instance, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian (2007) by Sherman Alexie sought
to explore themes of racial tension, domestic violence, and social injustice through the
perspective of a Native American adolescent. Additionally, Alexie contrasts the pervasive,
colonial mentality of childhood innocence to the traumatic childhood experienced by many
Indigenous peoples. He faced backlash from parents and instructors for the novel’s portrayal of
mature subject matter; some institutions banned the book from being taught or read in class.
When educators censor knowledge, then the notion of innocence becomes a dangerous fiction.44
As I have traced the origins of childhood innocence which has been accompanied with a
variety of visual references, I am compelled to present an image that seemingly encapsulates the
commercialization of childhood innocence and what has become of its exploitation. I present: the
cover art for Nirvana’s second studio album Nevermind (see fig. 9).

Figure 9. Photographed by Kirk Weddle, Nevermind cover art
in Nevermind by Nirvana, DGC Records, 1991, https://www.di
scogs.com/Nirvana-Nevermind/master/13814; photograph.

44

Farley, 98.

13
This image elegantly captures the bait of capital benefit that has led childhood innocence while
also exposing, literally, innocence to be desired by the spectator anyway they please. Not only
does the vast pool allude to the social class in which childhood innocence is marketed, but the
caucasian infant highlights the exclusion of minority groups in this myth. As Higonnet states,
“Innocence, as Nirvana reminds us, turns out to be highly susceptible to commercialization.”45
Considering the supporting and opposing arguments toward the concept of childhood
innocence, we come back to the initial question that has yet to be answered: what should be done
about childhood innocence?
Higonnet expresses that society must alter the Romantic child to be a “Knowing child”
which would require ending the binary categorization of public and private spheres. Clearly,
adults will continue to control children’s content, but the ideology must change. Adults must
value children “for what they are instead of for what they are not;” adults must resist reflecting
their own perceptions of what children should know and start to acknowledge what is necessary
for children to know.46 As Garlen posits, it is backwards to expand the definition of innocence to
include those who have been excluded because it “ignores what is problematic about the very
framework of innocence, which was built on inherently racist logic.” Innocence must be replaced
with justice which requires social change that is attentive to the needs of all children.47 In order
to bolster a further understanding of the world, society must encourage the social growth of
children by letting them participate in the concerns of everyday life. Robinson declares that
children cannot fully comprehend what they are and what impact they have on the world when
they are denied choices. Alternatively, difficult conversations must be discussed with children in
order to foster a healthy development that encourages understanding subjects that are difficult to
45

Higonnet, 194.
Higonnet, 224.
47
Garlen, 65.
46

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comprehend.48 Children have become subject to vulnerability as a consequence of innocence.
Financial issues, multiculturalism, indigenous concerns, sexuality, poverty, environmentalism:
these are all discussions that must be encouraged to have with children in order to expand their
understanding of the world so that they are knowledgeable of the issues that will not only affect
them when they are adults, but also while they are still children.
As I have presented the history of childhood innocence and analyzed its evolution into
the twenty-first century, it is evident that there is an inherent problem with this concept. Not only
has it prevented children from understanding the world they have entered, but it has excluded
minority groups, as well as those in the lower-income strata, from this idealistic depiction.
However, I have identified a solution for Dorfman and Mattelart’s problem. Instead of
innocence, society must allow children to become socially aware of their environment in order to
prepare them for the issues they will face as they get older, as well as the issues they may face as
children. Only then can children receive the respect they deserve and adults can freely terminate
their “Disneyland Club” memberships.

48

Robinson, 25.

15
Works Cited
1. Barthes, Roland. Camera Lucida: Reflections on Photography. Translated by Richard
Howard. New York: Hill & Wang, 1982.
https://eclass.uoa.gr/modules/document/file.php/PSPA254/Barthes_Roland_Camera_Luci
da_Reflections_on_Photography.pdf. Online.
2. Bernstein, Robin. “Let Black Kids Just Be Kids.” The New York Times, July 26, 2017.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/26/opinion/black-kids-discrimination.html. Online.
3. Bernstein, Robin. Racial Innocence: Performing American Childhood from Slavery to Civil
Rights. New York: NYU Press, 2011. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt9qgj4w. Online.
4. Clement, J. “U.S. TikTok users by age 2020.” Statista. App Ape, Nov 6, 2020.
https://www.statista.com/statistics/1095186/tiktok-us-users-age/. Online.
5. Cox, Roger. Shaping Childhood : Themes of Uncertainty in the History of Adult-Child
Relationships. New York: Routledge, 1996.
https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=cat02755a&AN=cul.b1401756
&site=eds-live&scope=site. Online.
6. Davis, Robert A. “Brilliance of a Fire: Innocence, Experience and the Theory of Childhood.”
Journal of Philosophy of Education 45, no. 2 (May 2011): 379-397.
doi:10.1111/j.1467-9752.2011.00798.x. Online.
7. di Buoninsegna, Duccio Crevole Madonna. 1283-1284. Oil painting. Opera del Duomo.
https://www.art.com/products/p14196395-sa-i2945471/duccio-di-buoninsegna-crevole-m
adonna-c-1284.htm. Image.
8. Dorfman, Ariel. The Empire’s Old Clothes: What the Lone Ranger, Babar, and Other Innocent
Heroes Do to Our Minds. E-Duke Books Scholarly Collection. Durham, NC: Duke
University Press, 2010.
https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=cat02755a&AN=cul.b1326077
&site=eds-live&scope=site. Online.
9. Dorfman, Ariel and Armand Mattelart. “Introduction: Instructions on How to Become a
General in the Disneyland Club.” In Media and Cultural Studies: KeyWorks, edited by
Meenakshi Gigi Durham and Douglas M. Kellner, 122-129. Malden, MA: Blackwell
Publishing, 2006. PDF.
10. Duschinsky, Robbie. “Childhood Innocence: Essence, Education, and Performativity.”
Textual Practice 27, no. 5 (2013): 763-781. doi:10.1080/0950236X.2012.751441. Online.
11. Farley, Lisa. Childhood beyond Pathology: A Psychoanalytic Study of Development and
Diagnosis. SUNY Series, Transforming Subjects: Psychoanalysis, Culture, and Studies in
Education. New York: State University of New York Press, 2018.
https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=cat02755a&AN=cul.b1551996
&site=eds-live&scope=site. Online.

16
12. Faulkner, Joanne. “The Innocence Fetish: The Commodification and Sexualisation of
Children in the Media and Popular Culture.” Media International Australia,
Incorporating Culture and Policy, no. 135 (May 2010): 106-117.
https://search-ebscohost-com.ezproxy.capilanou.ca/login.aspx?direct=true&db=edsilc&A
N=edsilc.129276536203412&site=eds-live&scope=site. Online.
13. Faulkner, Joanne. “Vulnerability of ‘Virtual’ Subjects: Childhood, Memory, and Crisis in the
Cultural Value of Innocence.” SubStance 42, no. 3 (Jan. 2013): 127-147.
https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=edsjsr&AN=edsjsr.24540728&s
ite=eds-live&scope=site. Online.
14. Gainsborough, Thomas. The Baillie Family. 1784. Oil Painting. Tate Gallery.
https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/gainsborough-the-baillie-family-n00789. Image
15. Garlen, Julie C. “Interrogating Innocence: ‘Childhood’ as Exclusionary Social Practice.”
Childhood 26, no. 1 (Feb. 2019): 54-67.
https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=edb&AN=134311799&site=eds
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National Gallery of Art.
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23. Robinson, Kerry. Innocence, Knowledge and the Construction of Childhood: The
Contradictory Nature of Sexuality and Censorship in Children’s Contemporary Lives.
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