著者

堀内かおる

出版者

国際基督教大学

雑誌

Gender and sexuality : journal of Center for Gender Studies, ICU (ISSN:18804764)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.6, pp.79-91, 2011-03-31

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This study examines how picture books provide children with an opportunity to be aware of issues of gender and sexuality by focusing on foreign picture books dealt with a homosexual couple and their children. It explores the possibilities and limits of the works' messages concerning "the diversity of family" through analysis of images of "family" in picture books. Published in 2009, Patricia Polacco's In Our Mothers' House has gained reputation as an important work itself without being subjected to homosexual bashing. Although this reflects current changes in the public's social background and awareness, this research note demonstrates that the couple in this work is depicted in a relationship with stereotypical concepts of the family, following the conventional family norm, even though it deals with homosexual couples. The study also suggests that picture books are a medium that provides children encounters with new knowledge that can enforce the traditional norm of family.