Rebecca Hains – Wikipedia

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Feminist media studies professor and author

Rebecca Hains is a communication and media studies scholar and author. Hains is a frequently quoted expert on the subject of children’s media culture and marketing, which she studies from a feminist media studies and critical/cultural studies perspective.[1] She is a professor in the Media and Communication Department at Salem State University in Salem, Massachusetts,[2] where she has also served as department chair and a faculty fellow in diversity, equity and inclusion.[1]

Publications[edit]

Hains’ 2012 book Growing Up With Girl Power: Girlhood On Screen and in Everyday Life[3] presented a critical history of the girl power phenomenon. Combining textual analysis with field work among children and interviews with young women, the book considers girls’ interpretations of girl power’s messages about female empowerment, girlhood, strength, femininity, and race. In the book, Hains detailed strengths and limitations in commercialized girl power’s handling of preadolescent body image, gender identity, sexism, and racism.

Her 2014 book The Princess Problem: Guiding Our Girls through the Princess-Obsessed Years[4] critiqued princess culture’s consumerism and its gender, race, and beauty stereotypes, with special attention to the Disney Princess franchise. The book combines original field research and secondary analysis of scholarly research on media and child development, interpreting these studies for a mainstream audience of parents. It focuses on helping children develop critical thinking and critical viewing skills and was the subject of significant media attention, including a double segment on the Meredith Vieira Show.[5][6]

Hains has also edited, with collaborators, three anthologies on children’s culture: Princess Cultures: Mediating Girls’ Imaginations and Identities,[7] Cultural Studies of LEGO: More Than Just Bricks ,[8] and The Marketing of Children’s Toys: Critical Perspectives on Children’s Consumer Culture.[9]

Media appearances and perspective[edit]

Conventional U.S. and international media frequently cite Hains as an academic expert on children’s media culture. Her critical perspective on media representation of girls and women, as well as gender stereotypes on screen and in children’s toys, have been reported on in major publications, news programs, and radio broadcasts.

For example, her analyses of Barbie have been covered by Adweek,[10] the New York Times,[11] and on SiriusXM,[12] while her critiques of Disney Princess and princess culture have been reported on by the BBC,[13] The Christian Science Monitor,[14] Fortune,[15] the Guardian,[16][17] the Meredith Vieira Show,[5][6] the New York Times,[18][19] NPR’s On Point,[20] and The Wall Street Journal[21][22]

More broadly, many outlets reporting on gender-neutral toys and gendered toy marketing have included her expert commentary, such as CBC Radio’s The Current,[23] Fox and Friends,[24][25] NPR’s Morning Edition,[26] Slate,[27] and the Wall Street Journal.[28] Hains also spoke extensively about her expertise in princess culture, girl power, and the history of girls and media in the ARTE FRANCE documentary Pink Attitude: Princesses, Pop Stars and Girl Power.[29][30][31]

Academia[edit]

Hains’ academic credits include numerous peer-reviewed journal articles,[32] including “Power feminism, mediated: Girl power and the commercial politics of change,” published in Women’s Studies in Communication.[33] Her most frequently cited article, it often informs scholars’ research about feminism and power dynamics in the media.[34] Hains was invited as a special guest to the White House Council on Women and Girls’s Research Conference on Girls in 2014[2]

Hains is on the National Advisory Council of Media Literacy Now.[35] and the editorial board of the Journal of Children and Media. She was previously a board member of the Brave Girls Alliance, the International Communication Association, and the National Women’ Studies Association[1]

Education[edit]

Hains holds a B.A. from Emmanuel College, an M.S. from Boston University, and a Ph.D. from Temple University[2]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b c “Rebecca Hains”. Salem State Expert Gallery. Retrieved 2 November 2021.
  2. ^ a b c “Rebecca Hains”. Salem State Faculty Directory. Retrieved 2 November 2021.
  3. ^ Hains, Rebecca (2012). Growing Up With Girl Power: Girlhood On Screen and in Everyday Life. Peter Lang. ISBN 9781433111389.
  4. ^ Hains, Rebecca (2014). The Princess Problem: Guiding Our Girls Through the Princess-Obsessed Years. Sourcebooks. ISBN 9781402294037.
  5. ^ a b Vieira, Meredith. “The Princess Problem, Part One”. The Meredith Vieira Show: YouTube. Retrieved 3 November 2021.
  6. ^ a b Vieira, Meredith. “The Princess Problem, Part Two”. The Meredith Vieira Show: Youtube. Retrieved 3 November 2021.
  7. ^ Forman-Brunell, Miriam; Hains, Rebecca (2013). Princess Cultures: Mediating Girls’ Imaginations and Identities. Peter Lang. ISBN 9781433120619.
  8. ^ Hains, Rebecca; Mazzarella, Sharon (2019). Cultural Studies of Lego: More than Just Bricks. Palgrave. doi:10.1007/978-3-030-32664-7. ISBN 978-3-030-32663-0. S2CID 239062073.
  9. ^ Hains, Rebecca; Jennings, Nancy (2021). The Marketing of Children’s Toys: Critical Perspectives on Children’s Consumer Culture. Palgrave. doi:10.1007/978-3-030-62881-9. ISBN 978-3-030-62881-9. S2CID 242385528.
  10. ^ Klara, Robert (2019). “Here’s how much Barbie has changed since her debut almost 60 years ago”. Adweek. Retrieved 2 November 2021.
  11. ^ Cramer, Maria (2020). “After all these years, Barbie is still reinventing herself”. The New York Times.
  12. ^ Reed, Americus (March 17, 2016). “Will consumers buy into Mattel’s new Barbie strategy?”. Knowledge @ Wharton on SiriusXM Radio. Retrieved 9 November 2021.
  13. ^ Brook, Tom (2016). “The controversy behind Disney’s groundbreaking new princess”. The BBC. Retrieved 2 November 2021.
  14. ^ Hoover, Amanda (2016). “Disney’s ‘Moana’ wins at box office with feminist narrative”. The Christian Science Monitor. Retrieved 3 November 2021.
  15. ^ Zarya, Valentina (2017). “Is your daughter’s princess costume bad for her? Here’s what the experts say”. Fortune. Retrieved 3 November 2021.
  16. ^ McVeigh, Tracy (2015). “Kenneth Branagh’s corseted Cinderella fails the Frozen test, say critics”. The Guardian. Retrieved 2 November 2021.
  17. ^ Hill, Amelia (2015). “Princess Awesome: the fight against ‘pinkification’“. The Guardian. Retrieved 2 November 2021.
  18. ^ Barnes, Brooks (2016). “A new Disney Princesa carries responsibilities beyond her kingdom”. The New York Times. Retrieved 2 November 2021.
  19. ^ Dell’Antonio, KJ (2016). “Disney Princesses do change girls–and boys, too”. The New York Times. Retrieved 3 November 2021.
  20. ^ Ashbrook, Tom (2016). “The evolution of a Disney Princess”. NPR’s On Point, WBUR Radio. Retrieved 2 November 2021.
  21. ^ Jargon, Julie (2021). “Let it go? Disney Princess culture isn’t toxic, study finds”. The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 2 November 2021.
  22. ^ Gamerman, Ellen (2019). “Generation “Frozen” grows up”. The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 2 November 2021.
  23. ^ “Can gender-specific toys affect a child’s development? Researchers weigh in”. CBC Radio: The Current. CBC Radio. Retrieved 2 November 2021.
  24. ^ Carlson, Tucker (2014). “No Gender December: Movement calls for “more inclusive” toys”. Fox and Friends. Retrieved 2 November 2021.
  25. ^ “Nothing but Neutral: Toy Stores Dropping Gender-Specfiic Aisles”. Fox and Friends. 2013.
  26. ^ Kamanetz, Anya; Turner, Cory (2019). “Sparkle unicorns and fart ninjas: What parents can do about gendered toys”. NPR’s Morning Edition. Retrieved 2 November 2021.
  27. ^ Tu, Chau (2018). “How do toy companies appeal to kids in the post-Saturday morning cartoon era?”. Slate. Retrieved 2 November 2021.
  28. ^ Prang, Allison (2021). “Gender-neutral toys for children gain ground”. The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 2 November 2021.
  29. ^ “Pink attitude: Princesses, pop stars and girl power (excerpt)”. Daily Motion. 6 June 2016. Retrieved 2 November 2021.
  30. ^ Denjean, Cécile. “Pink attitude: Princesses, pop stars and girl power”. Cinefete.ca. Arte & Phares et Balises. Retrieved 2 November 2021.
  31. ^ “Princesses, Pop Stars & Girl Power”. Film Documentaire. Retrieved 2 November 2021.
  32. ^ “Rebecca Hains”. Google Scholar. Retrieved 2 November 2021.
  33. ^ Hains, Rebecca (2010). “Power feminism, mediated: Girl power and the commercial politics of change”. Women’s Studies in Communication. 32 (1): 89–113. doi:10.1080/07491409.2009.10162382. S2CID 143794585. Retrieved 2 November 2021.
  34. ^ “Citations: Power feminism, mediated”. Google Scholar. Retrieved 2 November 2021.
  35. ^ “Media Literacy Now: About Us”. Media Literacy Now. 2 November 2016. Retrieved 2 November 2021.