Art, Argument, and Advocacy (2002) argued that the appeal substitutes emotion for reason in debate.[1]Ethicist Jack Marshall wrote in 2005 that the phrase's popularity stems from its capacity to stunt rationality, particularly discourse on morals.[2] "Think of the children" has been invoked by censorship proponents to shield children from perceived danger.[7][8]Community, Space and Online Censorship (2009) argued that classifying children in an infantile manner, as innocents in need of protection, is a form of obsession over the concept of purity.[7] A 2011 article in the Journal for Cultural Research observed that the phrase grew out of a moral panic.[9]
It was an exhortation in the 1964 Disney film Mary Poppins, when the character of Mrs. Banks pleaded with her departing nanny not to quit and to "think of the children!"[10] The phrase was popularized as a satiric reference on the animated television program The Simpsons in 1996,[11][12] when character Helen Lovejoy pleaded variations of "Will someone please think of the children?"[13][14][15] multiple times during a contentious debate by citizens of the fictional town of Springfield.[13][16][17]
In the 2012 Georgia State University Law Review, Charles J. Ten Brink called Lovejoy's use of "Think of the children" a successful parody.[13] The appeal's subsequent use in society was often the subject of mockery.[8] After its popularization on The Simpsons, an appeal to the welfare of children has been called "Lovejoy's Law",[15] the "Lovejoy argument", the "Mrs. Lovejoy fallacy",[18] the "Helen Lovejoy defence", "Helen Lovejoy syndrome",[19] the "Lovejoy Trap",[20] and "think-of-the-children-ism".[21][22]
In 2018, author Nassim Nicholas Taleb, coined the term 'pedophrasty' for an argument "involving children to prop up a rationalization ... Often done with the aid of pictures".[23]
Child advocacy
Think of the children ... freed of the crushing burden of dangerous and demeaning work.
"Think of the children" has been used in its literal sense to advocate for the rights of children.[4][5][6] Early usage during the 20th century included writings in 1914 by the National Child Labor Committee criticizing child labor standards in the United States.[4] U.S. President Bill Clinton used the phrase in a 1999 speech to the International Labour Organization,[24] asking his audience to imagine a significant reduction in child labor: "Think of the children ... freed of the crushing burden of dangerous and demeaning work, given back those irreplaceable hours of childhood for learning and playing and living."[24]
The phrase's literal use extends into the 21st century, with Sara Boyce of the Children's Law Centre in Northern Ireland drawing on it to advocate for the legal rights of the region's children.[5] The 2008 book Child Labour in a Globalized World used the phrase to call attention to the role of debt bondage in child labor.[25] Sara Dillon of Suffolk University Law School used the phrase "What about the children" in her 2009 book, International Children's Rights, to focus on child-labor program conditions.[26] Benjamin Powell used the phrase differently in his book, Out of Poverty: Sweatshops in the Global Economy, writing that in the absence of child labor some youth faced starvation.[27] In a 2010 book on human rights, Children's Rights and Human Development, child psychiatristBruce D. Perry used the phrase "think of the children" to urge clinicians to incorporate a process sensitive to developmental stages when counseling youth.[6]
Debate tactic
Logical fallacy
In their 2002 book, Art, Argument, and Advocacy: Mastering Parliamentary Debate, John Meany and Kate Shuster called the use of the phrase "Think of the children" in debate a type of logical fallacy and an appeal to emotion.[1] According to the authors, a debater may use the phrase to emotionally sway members of the audience and avoid logical discussion.[1] They provide an example: "I know this national missile defense plan has its detractors, but won't someone please think of the children?"[1] Their assessment was echoed by Margie Borschke in an article for the journal Media International Australia incorporating Culture and Policy, with Borschke calling its use a rhetorical tactic.[3]
Ethicist Jack Marshall described "Think of the children!" as a tactic used in an attempt to end discussion by invoking an unanswerable argument.[2] According to Marshall, the strategy succeeds in preventing rational debate.[2] He called its use an unethical manner of obfuscating debate, misdirecting empathy towards an object which may not have been the focus of the original argument.[2] Marshall wrote that although the phrase's use may have a positive intention, it evokes irrationality when repeatedly used by both sides of a debate.[2] He concluded that the phrase can transform the observance of regulations into an ethical quandary, cautioning society to avoid using "Think of the children!" as a final argument.[2]
In his 2015 syndicated article "Think Of The Children", Michael Reagan criticized the phrase's use by politicians.[28] According to Reagan, politicians needed to stop using children as tools when arguing for favored governmental programs.[28] He called the tactic an illogical argument, an act of desperation by those who felt they had a weaker case with reason-based arguments.[28] Noting that it has been used by Democrats and Republicans alike in the United States,[28] Reagan called the tactic "obvious political BS".[28]
Moral panic
The Journal for Cultural Research published an article in 2010 by Debra Ferreday,[29] which was republished in the 2011 book Hope and Feminist Theory.[9] According to Ferreday, media use of "Won't someone think of the children!" had become common in a climate of moral panic.[9] She suggested that the phrase was becoming so common that it could become another Godwin's law.[9]
In a 2011 article for the journal Post Script, Andrew Scahill wrote about the power of children in rhetoric to create an untenable stance for an opposing viewpoint.[30] According to Scahill, an individual arguing "for the children" makes it extremely difficult for an opponent to hold a "not for the children" position.[30]Cassandra Wilkinson discussed the impact of "think of the children" rhetoric in a 2011 article for IPA Review.[31] Wilkinson cited research by No Fear: Growing Up in a Risk-Averse Society author Tim Gill that hypersensitivity in defending children from potential harm has the adverse effect of contributing to the inability of youth to own their choices and react to dangerous situations.[32] In the New Statesman, Laurie Penny characterized the tactic as a political belief system and called it "think-of-the-children-ism".[21]
Elizabeth Bruenig wrote in a 2014 article for First Things that moralizing with the phrase was commonly seen in discussions of sexuality,[22] attributing this to society's increasing perception of morality as a feminine domain.[22] Bruenig also cited the labeling of NBC's refusal to broadcast a movie trailer about abortion as "think-of-the-children-ism".[22]
Censorship
Scott Beattie wrote in his 2009 book, Community, Space and Online Censorship, that the question "Will no one think of the children?" was often raised by individuals advocating censorship out of a concern that youth might view material deemed inappropriate.[7] According to Beattie, youngsters were cast as potential casualties of online sexual predators to increase regulation of the Internet; characterizing children as infantile evoked a concept of innocence which was a form of obsession over the concept of purity.[7]
In his 2013 book, Fervid Filmmaking, Mike Watt discussed the history of censorship relative to the United Kingdom's Obscene Publications Act 1959 and noted that films banned during that period became known as "video nasties".[34] Watt called a current interpretation of such censorship the "Think of the Children" characterization.[34] Brian M. Reed wrote in his book, Nobody's Business (also published that year), that the phrase was devoid of substance and could be replaced for comic effect with "How many kittens must die?"[35]
According to Kathryn Laity, early use of the phrase may have stemmed from its appearance in the 1964 Walt Disney Pictures film Mary Poppins.[10] In an opening scene, the character of Mrs. Banks pleads with her nanny not to quit by begging her to "think of the children!".[10] Laity wrote that the popular use of the phrase evokes strong feelings in those who object to a nanny state,[10] pointing out the conflict in the United States between the country's conservatism (derived from the Puritans) and its desire to use sex in advertising.[10]
Before the phrase's exposure in The Simpsons, most Americans first became accustomed to it during the 1980s in a charity commercial with Sally Struthers for Christian Children's Fund. At the end of the commercial Struthers pleaded with the viewers, "Won't somebody please think of the children?"
The Simpsons writer Bill Oakley said in the 2005 DVD commentary on the episode that the motivation for the phrase on the show was to emphasize how "think of the children" was used in debate; irrelevant, it sidetracked discussion from the original issues.[12] Lovejoy used variations of the phrase, including "Oh, won't somebody please think of the children"[11][16] and "What about the children",[13][42] shrieking it most often when residents of the fictional town of Springfield debated a contentious problem or argued about politics[16][17] and logic failed.[19] Lovejoy's comic use of the phrase on The Simpsons[16]satirized its use in public discourse.[15]
Lovejoy's Law
After the popularization of the phrase on The Simpsons, its use in society was often ridiculed, and came to be referred to as "Lovejoy's Law" in internet culture as early as 2006, probably independently coined several times.[8] In the Toronto Star, journalist Edward Keenan defined "Lovejoy's Law" as a warning that the phrase is a probable diversion from a weak logical stance, writing that true empathy toward children involved rational argument rather than manipulation.[15] In an article for Ireland's Sunday Independent, Carol Hunt called the use of the phrase in political debate the "Helen Lovejoy defence" and wrote that it is also known as the "Helen Lovejoy syndrome". According to Hunt, it is often invoked in reference to hypothetical children rather than real children affected by a problem.[19]
In his book, The Myth of Evil, Phillip A. Cole wrote that Helen Lovejoy's plea assumed that children were pure, unadulterated potential casualties who required constant defense from danger.[43] Cole contrasted this notion with character Bart Simpson, who prefers creating disorder to conformity and adherence to regulations.[43] According to Cole, this exemplifies the dual perception of children by society: guileless potential prey and malevolent entities to be distrusted.[43] Cole wrote that throughout history, the child has represented humanity's savage past and its optimistic future.[43] Jo Johnson contributed a chapter, "Won't Somebody Think of the Children?", to the book Mediating Moms, in which she analyzed the phrase's use in animated media (including The Simpsons).[44] According to Johnson, the phrase was a key example of popular cultural depictions of mothers as neurotic and filled with anxiety about moral values.[44]
^Hamad, Ruby (2020). White tears brown scars : how white feminism betrays women of color. New York. ISBN9781948226745.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
Borschke, Margie (November 2011). "Rethinking the rhetoric of remix". Media International Australia Incorporating Culture and Policy. 141. University of Queensland, School of Journalism and Communication: 17. doi:10.1177/1329878X1114100104. S2CID146356976 – via InfoTrac.
Boyce, Sara (2003). "Northern Ireland's Bill of Rights: A Children's Rights Perspective". ChildRIGHT (183). Children's Legal Centre. ISSN0265-1459. OCLC749128561.
Cohen, David; Matt Groening; Bill Oakley (2005). The Simpsons season 7 DVD commentary for the episode "Much Apu About Nothing" (DVD). 20th Century Fox.
Dillon, Sara (2009). International Children's Rights. Carolina Academic Press. p. 117. ISBN978-1-59460-115-6.
Ferreday, Debra (2010). "Reading Disorders: Online Suicide and the Death of Hope". Journal for Cultural Research. 14 (4): 409–426. doi:10.1080/14797581003765366. S2CID144648542.
Ferreday, Debra (2011). "Reading Disorders: Online Suicide and the Death of Hope". In Coleman, Rebecca; Ferreday, Debra (eds.). Hope and Feminist Theory. Routledge. p. 99. ISBN978-0-415-61852-6.
Hunt, Carol (January 5, 2014). "Don't use our children as shields to protect status quo; The Helen Lovejoy argument against gay adoption is simply discrimination in a 'caring' guise, writes Carol Hunt". Sunday Independent. Independent Newspapers Ireland Limited. p. 27 – via LexisNexis.
Johnson, Jo (2012). "'Won't Somebody Think of the Children?': The Nineties Subversion of the Animated Mother". In Podnieks, Elizabeth (ed.). Mediating Moms: Mothers in Popular Culture. McGill-Queen's University Press. pp. 53–68. ISBN978-0-7735-3979-2.
Keenan, Edward (April 26, 2014). "'Won't somebody please think of the children!'; The Simpsons has taught us not to trust anyone who stoops to use the corruptibility of children to advance a political argument". The Toronto Star. p. IN2 – via LexisNexis.
Keenan, Edward (October 1, 2014). "Thinking of the children is no laughing matter". The Toronto Star. p. GT4 – via LexisNexis.
Kitrosser, Heidi (May 2011). "Symposium: Presidential Influence Over Administrative Action: Scientific Integrity: The Perils and Promise of White House Administration". Fordham Law Review. 79. Fordham University School of Law: 2395 – via LexisNexis.
Laity, Kathryn A. (2013). "Chapter Nine: 'Won't somebody please think of the children?' The case for Terry Gilliam's Tideland". In Birkenstein, Jeff; Froula, Anna; Randell, Karen (eds.). The Cinema of Terry Gilliam: It's a Mad World. Directors' Cuts. Wallflower Press. pp. 118–119, 128. ISBN978-0-231-16534-1.
Martyn, Warren; Wood, Adrian (2000). "Jacques To Be Wild". BBC Homepage: Entertainment; The Simpsons. BBC. Archived from the original on January 2, 2009. Retrieved May 6, 2007.
Perry, Bruce D. (2010). Willems, Jan (ed.). Children's Rights and Human Development. Maastricht Series in Human Rights. Intersentia. p. 498. ISBN978-94-000-0032-2.
Sagers, Aaron (May 12, 2009). "Pop 20: When sexual discomfort reaches our legislative branch". The Monitor. McAllen, Texas. McClatchy-Tribune News Service – via LexisNexis.
Scahill, Andrew (2011). "The Sieve or the Scalpel: The Family Movie Act of 2004, Infantile Citizenship, and the Rhetoric of Censorship". Post Script: Essays in Film and the Humanities. 30 (2): 69–81. ISSN0277-9897 – via InfoTrac.
Shotwell, Mikaela (Winter 2012). "Won't Somebody Please Think of the Children?!". The Journal of Gender, Race & Justice. 15. Iowa City, Iowa: University of Iowa: 141 – via LexisNexis. The Simpsons character Helen Lovejoy popularized this phrase.
Sherr, Susan A. (January 1, 1999). "Scenes from the Political Playground: An Analysis of the Symbolic Use of Children in Presidential Campaign Advertising". Political Communication. 16 (1). Routledge: 45–59. doi:10.1080/105846099198767.
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