The Achilles Effect by Crystal Smith
Review by Chris Singer
About the author:
Crystal Smith is a social media and marketing writer who has spent many years working with non-profit agencies seeking gender equality and an end to discrimination against women. After being regularly disappointed by the film and television offerings available to her two young sons, she decided to write about the impact of kids’ popular culture on young boys.
Crystal is a member of the Professional Writers Association of Canada. She has an Honours B.A. in History and French, and a Master of Library and Information Science degree, both from the University of Western Ontario.
When not writing or blogging about boys and pop culture, she provides pro bono social media marketing services to the Halton Women’s Centre. She also works as the volunteer Blog Editor for The Pixel Project.
About the book:
When most people think about gender stereotypes and children, they envision princesses, dolls, and pink clothing. Few consider the warriors, muscle-bound action figures, and T-shirts covered in graffiti and skulls that are assumed to signify masculinity.
The pop culture environment that surrounds boys introduces them to a world where traditionally masculine traits—like toughness, aggression, and stoicism—are highly esteemed and where female influence is all but absent.
The Achilles Effect explores gender bias in the entertainment aimed at primary school boys, focusing on the dominant themes in children’s TV shows, toy advertising, movies, and books: gender stereotypes of both sexes, male dominance, negative portrayals of fathers, breaking of the mother/son bond, and the devaluing of femininity. It examines the gender messages sent by pop culture, provides strategies for countering these messages, and encourages discussion of a vitally important issue that is rarely talked about—boys and their often skewed understanding of gender.
The Achilles Effect is a guide for parents, educators, and students who want to learn more about male and female stereotypes, their continued strong presence in kids’ pop culture, and their effect on young boys.
My take on the book:
Crystal Smith's The Achilles Effect is an incredibly well-researched book full of specific examples of ways our pop culture and media portrays masculinity in cartoons, movies, toys and books. Smith shows time and time again how TV shows, movies, toys and books teach young boys the ways they should act (tough, aggressive, dominant) while belittling and making fun of any qualities considered weak (i.e. feminine).
Of particular interest to me was Smith's chapter on fatherhood (Distant and Disappointed Dads: Pop Culture Lessons About Fatherhood). Smith again shows many examples of how fathers are portrayed negatively in picture books, television and movies. I have to agree with Smith's assessment that if we believed only what pop culture and the media tells us, men are men first and fathers second. For the most part, our television shows and movies portray fathers as dumb, uncommunicative, emotionally and sometimes physically distant and too career-minded to be a successful parent.
Hopefully things are starting to change for the better in how fathers are portrayed in our pop culture. (I've been enjoying the new comedy, Modern Family, and while not perfect, it has been one of the better recent showing positive portrayals of fathers). One of the reasons I took over Book Dads was to highlight books showing strong representations of fathers. I've come across some terrific books over the last year showing very positive and strong portrayals of fathers. As I looked at the new releases scheduled for this spring, I was very pleased to see a lot of books highlighting father and child relationships. Maybe things are getting better in that respect, but I think we need to do better with our boys and girls in taking the time to educate them about gender, stereotypes and what our pop culture and media is trying to say by bombarding them with these messages.
This is a valuable book for parents of both boys and girls. I strongly encourage dads to pick this up and read it. Too often, dads are not involved in the conversation about gender, stereotypes and sexualization. I don't think we can continue to ignore the powerful influence our pop culture has on kids, and especially its negative influence on how children understand and view gender.
