Sutherland’s article research
Thesis Statement
The article by Sutherland (1992) focuses on the so-called voyeuristic empathy related to childhood reminiscence. The thesis posed by the author can be identified as follows: childhood is composed of structural states that may differ, depending on the certain period and cultural peculiarities that are necessary to be explored to understand one’s childhood.
Brief Summary
Encapsulating the scope of the mentioned article, one may note that it questions whether childhood memories can be used as a credible source of data concerning a person or not. On the one hand, it is a valuable historical source that likewise other similar ones can provide essential grounds to analyze a person’s past and present states. On the other hand, Sutherland (1992) emphasizes that people tend to remember good events and circumstances yet forget unpleasant obstacles, persons, or some other issues. The above statements are made based on various interviews with Canadian children and adults. In general, people tend to remember senses and feelings from their childhood while failing to do the same with rational constituents of their lives. Ultimately, the author concludes that it is unequivocally beneficial to explore childhood through recollections by penetrating one’s memory.
Evaluation
The article that is described above raises a rather important issue of childhood memories in adulthood. Considering the situation from different angles, the author cites the examples of interviews with respondents to illustrate the issue from the practical point of view, thus backing up his conclusions with evidence. The author assumes that the priority in upbringing should be given to a child’s sense of happiness and that this feeling grows out of a sense of personal freedom. He believes that the deprivation of a child of personal freedom in childhood causes the subsequent perception of unhappiness in adulthood, which, in its turn, may lead to various mental disorders. In those years, this idea seemed seditious while nowadays it is regarded as accepted almost universally. In this connection, it is possible to note that the ideas expressed by Sutherland (1992) were innovative and ground-breaking to the childhood study area.
Speaking of the design, style, and methodology of the article, it should be emphasized that the author selects the formal language that is still easy to comprehend and interpret. Besides, he implements a range of reliable sources, thus demonstrating the scholarly nature of the study. The article analysis shows that the author intends to embrace wide populations, including such audiences as scholars and adults. The first ones may benefit from reading a comprehensive article, providing insights into childhood investigation, perception, and analysis while the latter are likely to receive a significant tool to understand themselves in an in-depth manner. Thus, the mentioned points can be considered strengths of the article. As for limitations, one may note that the study is based on solely Canadian respondents and suggests no further research.
The study by Tsalik
Thesis Statement
The study by Tsaliki (2016) also investigates childhood, however, from the perspective of sexualization. The contemporary popular culture “pornified” children that root from the nineteenth-century emergence of sexual science and various myths regarding sex, especially when it comes to girls.
Brief Summary
Utilizing the historical approach, the author discusses the impact of popular culture and media on child sexuality as a social problem. Several discourses are brought together to show their close interdependence, including the harmful nature of pornography, womanhood, female sexuality, and the impact of modern media. Linking the mentioned concepts, the author states that media has a rather adverse impact on child sexualization as it promotes the so-called “risk talks” and acts as a driving force for the acquaintance of children with pornography. To present the effects of media, the author draws from Puritan American tendencies and the so-called “black pedagogy” that is also known as poisonous pedagogy. Along with connecting child sexualization to leisure time, Tsaliki (2016) assumes that anti-bullying and anti-abuse policies, as well as continuous risk assessment, can be employed as child protection measures while people themselves are expected to perform as protection managers.
Evaluation
The article by Tsaliki (2016) provides a set of convincing arguments related to modern youth culture, in particular, its sexualization. Following properly structured organization and implementing various sources, the author appropriately discusses the problem. The successful points of the article involve its accuracy, relevance, and scholarly nature. It should also be outlined that the analysis of the contemporary youth culture that is made by the author can be proved as there is evidence of it being taken from reliable sources. Moreover, the author offers some adequate decisions to resolve or at least facilitate the current situation. In her article, Tsaliki (2016) points out the core ideas, changes, and regulations that are associated with the modern youth culture and media. Therefore, it is possible to conclude that the purpose desired by the author was accomplished as she provided an average reader with useful and comprehensible information. Speaking of the procedural design flaws, the thing worth turning one’s attention to is the lack of illustrative materials such as tables, figures, or statistical data.
Links Between the Articles and the Broader Context
The evaluated articles have much in common. In particular, they focus on youth issues from a historical perspective and identify their causes and consequences. Taking into account that childhood memories significantly affect a person in his or her adult life, it is possible to suggest that child sexualization that can be observed in nowadays media environment would also have the same impact. In other words, the description of childhood memories provided by Sutherland (1992) can be regarded as the future of modern youth culture under the impact of media that is specified by Tsaliki (2016). Another link between the articles is associated with their approach to the investigation of the theme. Both articles focus on a multi-faceted exploration of all the details related to the issue and a precise description of their analysis and findings. Such an approach contributes to the comprehensive consideration of the problem.
The first and the second articles are relevant to the modern world as they raise critical youth problems that need adequate strategies to be addressed. Today the number of sexualized young people increases significantly driven by the “purifying” effects of contemporary media. In effect, it leads to psychological problems, low self-esteem, and even depression. Therefore, it becomes evident that there is a dire need to initiate appropriate protective and preventive measures that are suggested by Tsaliki (2016) to avoid adverse effects of child sexualization both in childhood and adulthood as is described in the article by Sutherland (1992). In other words, the articles represent pertinent ideas and clearly show the contemporary youth issues.
References
Sutherland, N. (1992). When you listen to the winds of childhood, how much can you believe? Curriculum Inquiry, 22(3), 235-256.
Tsaliki, L. (2016). A historical contextualization of the discussion about the sexualization of childhood. In L. Tsaliki (Ed.), Children and the Politics of Sexuality (pp. 33-63). London, UK: Palgrave Macmillan.