The Cultural Significance of the Child Star

Abstract

This study provides a sociological account of the child star as both a universal and culturally specific phenomenon. Arguing against dominant 'common-sense' definitions of child stars as precociously deviant, I relocate the child star as a product of wider social contradictions and constructions surrounding children and childhood more generally.Through an analysis of the way in which child stars are constructed in the textual media I demonstrate two central and competing discourses in relation to this group -one which focuses on their powerlessness due to their 'abnormal' status in relation to 'normal' children and the other which celebrates their power due to their 'natural' talents and redemptive qualities. These contradictory-positions are identified through a consideration of the historical and mythological antecedents of today's child stars as well as an analysis of the contemporary discourses which inform news stories about such individuals.I argue that such ambiguity towards child stars can be identified as symptomatic of complex attitudes towards children in our society. The hostility which subjectifies child stars and generates powerlessness can be understood as emanating from the habitual association of performing children with precocious sexuality, the commercialisation of childhood and the fear that children are 'growing up too quickly'. In contrast, the adoration of child stars which imbues them with the power to be reinvented with every new generation can be related to a more profound universal need to reify and admire a small number of 'special' children -a practice which is identifiable across the myths and folklore of the world (Jung 1959).By identifying child stars as both powerless and powerful because of their difference to 'normal' children this study exposes how dominant constructions serve to demonise certain experiences of childhood and validate others, as well as highlighting the important role the child star plays in symbolising hope, innocence and futurity in our society.

Can’t play here: the decline of pick-up soccer and social capital in the USA

“…Dempsey, as it turns out, is often described as having emerged from a less-traditional youth soccer structure, for he spent much of his early years playing pick-up games with siblings and local friends in his Texas hometown. 80 In some ways, his soccer training background actually parallels that of the Ghanaian players referenced earlier.…”

From Jackie Coogan to Michael Jackson

“…The fact that the term child star has been appropriated from its original commercial usage to denote children who were part of the Hollywood star system of the early twentieth century and has since become a common phrase to describe any and all children who achieve even a modicum of success in the entertainment world (O'Connor, 2008) serves to complicate the definition. For the purposes of this article then, a tautological definition applies, whereby a child star is anyone who is described as such in the media (as long as their achievements are in the popular performing arts).…”

“…They seem to have been somewhat overlooked in this tidal wave of protectionist concern over the welfare of the young over the last century. They fall outside the normative boundaries of childhood in many ways, such as by having a professional career and a public persona, by being at large in an "adult" world, and by being valued for their fiscal rather than for their emotional value (O'Connor, 2008). Even given certain laws which have been introduced to protect their earnings from grasping adults and limit their working hours, their experience of childhood remains at odds with the generally accepted "normal" Western childhood spent privately at home and at school.…”

“…"Currency" seems a particularly apt term to use in relation to children who have found success in the entertainment industry due to the conflation of these children's value as individuals with their value as commodities-a defining facet of child stardom which is also traced throughout the analysis. Previous academic studies on child stardom have drawn attention to the way in which the media often present child stars as following a standard trajectory toward adult disaster, which serve to function as a "warning" of the dangers of transgressing the socially constructed boundaries between childhood and adulthood in contemporary Western culture (O'Connor, 2008(O'Connor, , 2009). This media convention of "building up and then knocking down" celebrities is, of course, not just limited to children (see Holmes & Redmond, 2006), but tales of former child stars seem to have an added dimension of pity and shame, which suggests more is somehow lost when such high achieving children fall from grace than merely a promising career, and this loss is closely related to notions of childhood innocence which are at the heart of contemporary ideologies of childhood.…”

“…claim to have missed out on a "normal childhood" (O'Connor, 2008). This implies that the experience of being a famous child performer is intrinsically linked with wider social attitudes around childhood which dominate the culture in which they grow up.…”