Were you read to as a child? Do you remember your favorite story, or book? It is very possible that you can remember books from your childhood because they are extremely impactful. Children’s books have a huge impact on the development of the children who read them, making even their subliminal messages important. Sometimes, these books are extremely beneficial to the child who reads them. In the case of many books, though, negative subliminal messages are extremely prevalent, biasing the children who read them for life. While some may argue that children’s books are not capable of being harmful, or in this case, sexist, Harry Allard’s work, Miss Nelson is Missing, truly is sexist, as it is full of stereotypes and gender roles, it features …show more content…
First, the new sub, a strong woman, is portrayed in a negative fashion. Ms. Swamp takes away story time for the children, and bosses them around, forcing them to learn. This is a put down, because it shows that whenever a woman is in charge, negative things will happen. When Miss Nelson was in charge, she was extremely passive, and let the children truly be in charge. Once Ms. Swamp appeared, though, she took charge, and negative events followed suit. This negative portrayal of women causes children to associate women with less fun, leading to a strong bias against woman leaders. Yet another way in which women are portrayed negatively is through illustrations of the children. At the beginning of the book, when the children are crazy and out of control, their image backgrounds are gray. Interestingly, once the children become passive once again at the end of the story, their backgrounds turn pink. This change in color occurs as the children become passive, leading to a strong correlation between passivity and femininity. This correlation is one of many examples of negative portrayals of femininity, as it paints feminine characteristics as passive. This idea is extremely damaging, as it can cause young women to not believe in having