STEALING INNOCENCE
ALSO BY HENRY A. GIROUX Ideology, Culture and the Process of Schooling (1981) Curriculum and Instruction: Alternatives in Education, edited with Anthony Penna and William Pinar (1981) Theory and Resistance in Education (1983) The Hidden Curriculum and Moral Education, edited with David Purpel (1983) Education Under Siege: The Conservative, Liberal, and Radical Debate Over Schooling, co-authored with Stanley Aronowitz (1985) Schooling and the Struggle for Public Life (1988) Teachers as Intellectuals: Toward a Critical Pedagogy of Learning (1988) Critical Pedagogy, the State, and the Struggle for Culture, edited with Peter McLaren (1989) Popular Culture, Schooling & Everyday Life, edited with Roger Simon (1989) Postmodern Education: Politics, Culture, and Social Criticism, coauthoredwith Stanley Aronowitz (1991) Postmodernism, Feminism and Cultural Politics: Rethinking Educational Boundaries, edited by Henry Giroux (1991) Igualdad Educativa y Diferencia Cultural, co-authored with Ramón Flecha (Barcelona, Spain: 1992) Border Crossings: Cultural Workers and the Politics of Education (1992) Living Dangerously: Multiculturalism and the Politics of Culture (1993) Education Still Under Siege, second edition; co-authored with Stanley Aronowitz (1994) Between Borders: Pedagogy and Politics in Cultural Studies, edited with Peter McLaren (1994) Disturbing Pleasures: Learning Popular Culture (1994) Fugitive Cultures: Race, Violence, and Youth (1996) Cultural Studies and Education: Towards a Performative Practice, edited with Patrick Shannon (1997) Counternarratives, co-authored with Peter McLaren, Colin Lankshear, and Mike Cole (1996) Pedagogy and the Politics of Hope: Theory, Culture, and Schooling (1997) Channel Surfing: Racism, the Media, and the Destruction of Today s Youth (1998) Critical Education in the New Information Age, co-authored with Manuel Castells, Ramón Flecha, Paulo Freire, Donaldo Macedo, and Paul Willis (1999) The Mouse That Roared: Disney and the End of Innocence (1999) Sociedad, Cultura y Educación, co-authored with Peter McLaren (Madrid, Spain, 1999) Impure Acts: The Practical Politics of Cultural Studies (2000)
STEALING INNOCENCE Youth, Corporate Power, and the Politics of Culture Henry A. Giroux
STEALING INNOCENCE Copyright Henry A. Giroux, 2000. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews. First published 2000 by PALGRAVE 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010 and Houndsmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS. Companies and representatives throughout the world. PALGRAVE is the new global publishing imprint of St. Martin s Press LLC Scholarly and Reference Division and Palgrave Publishers Ltd (formerly Macmillan Press Ltd). ISBN 978-0-312-23932-9 ISBN 978-1-137-10916-3 (ebook) DOI 10.1007/978-1-137-10916-3 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Giroux, Henry A. Stealing innocence : youth, corporate power, and the politics of culture / by Henry A. Giroux. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-312-23932-9 (paperback) 1. Culture Political aspects. 2. Politics and culture. 3. Children and adults. 4. Education Aims and objectives. 5. Free enterprise. 6. Industries Social aspects. 7. Civil society. I. Title. HM621.g57 2000 00-042075 306 21 dc21 CIP A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Design by Acme Art, Inc. First paperback edition: May 2001 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
To Susan, my dearest love and companion. To Jack, Chris, and Brett who are always in my heart. To John DiBiase, my fallen comrade. To Linda Barbery, a sister that Gramsci would have loved. To Stanley Aronowitz, Donaldo Macedo, Roger Simon, and Bill Reynolds national treasures and brothers to the end. To working class kids everywhere learn, dance, and organize!
CONTENTS Acknowledgments...ix INTRODUCTION Childhood Innocence and the Politics of Corporate Culture......1 SECTION I CORPORATE POWER AND THE CULTURE OF EVERYDAY LIFE ONE Nymphet Fantasies: Child Beauty Pageants and the Politics of Innocence..........39 TWO Heroin Chic and the Politics of Seduction...............65 THREE Kids for Sale: Corporate Culture and the Challenge of Public Schooling.......83 SECTION II CULTURAL POLITICS AND PUBLIC PEDAGOGY FOUR Radical Education and CultureintheWorkofAntonioGramsci...109 FIVE Paulo Freire, Prophetic Thought, and the Politics of Hope......137 SIX StuartHallandthePoliticsofEducation...157 Notes... 173 Index... 193
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS All writing is a collaborative project, and I am particularly grateful to friends such as Larry Grossberg, Carol Becker, Randy Martin, Micaela Amato, Don Schule, Stanley Aronowitz, Donaldo Macedo, Roger Simon, Paul Youngquist, David Theo Goldberg, Jeff Nealon, Cheryl Glenn, Heidi Hendershott, Lynn Worsham, Ralph Rodriguez, Eric Weiner, Susan Searls, Lee Quinby, and others for their support and critical feedback on this project. Susan Searls and Eric Weiner were particularly helpful in reading and editing the manuscript. I also want to thank Sue Stewart, my administrative assistant, for all of her excellent support. My editor, Michael Flamini, graciously supported this project from the beginning. Alan Bradshaw is an outstanding production manager and his input has made a qualitative difference in the manuscript. I would particularly like to thank Meg Weaver for her incredible copyediting of the manuscript. She really made a qualitative difference in shaping the work. I also want to thank my students for all of their feedback, help, and critical advice. The essays which appear in this book have been extensively revised and in large part bear little resemblance to the originals. They have been previously published in: Nymphet Fantasies: Child Beauty Pageants and the Politics of Innocence, Social Text 16:4 (1998), pp. 31-53; Heroin Chic, Trendy Aesthetics, and the Politics of Pathology, New Art Examiner (November 1997), pp. 20-27; Rethinking Cultural Politics and Radical Pedagogy in the Work of Antonio Gramsci, Educational Theory 49:1 (Winter 1999), pp. 1-19; Radical Pedagogy and Prophetic Thought: Remembering Paulo Freire, Rethinking Marxism 9:4 (1996/97), pp. 76-87.