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Association: Name: American Studies Association URL: http://www.theasa.net
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Paris, Leslie. "“Free to Be … You and Me”: Activist Ideals and 1970s Childhood" Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Studies Association, <Not Available>. 2009-05-24 <http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p113835_index.html>

Paris, L. M. "“Free to Be … You and Me”: Activist Ideals and 1970s Childhood" Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Studies Association <Not Available>. 2009-05-24 from http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p113835_index.html

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript Abstract: In 1972, Marlo Thomas, “That Girl” of recent television fame, released a children’s album, Free to Be … You and Me, with the collaboration of such 1970s luminaries as Alan Alda, Shel Silverstein, Mel Brooks, Kris Kristopherson, and Diana Ross. Through sketches, stories, and songs, the award-winning album (and the book and television special that it spawned) encouraged children to feel free to express their feelings, to seek success on their own terms, and to move beyond sexist stereotypes: in one sketch, “Ladies First,” a girl who insists on wearing frilly dresses and being waited upon ends up as lunch for a hungry tiger, while in another, “William’s doll,” a grandmother validates her grandson’s tenderness toward his toy. Free to Be … reflected not only Thomas’s feminist politics - proceeds from the best-selling album supported the fledgling Ms. Foundation for Women, which in turn made grants to grassroots feminist groups - but those of a cohort of younger parents who had come of age during the civil rights movement and the feminist movement, and who wished to offer their children alternatives to traditional gender prescriptions. In the standard historiography of the 1970s, the period is described as one of decline and disillusionment, a time when the optimism and activism of the 1960s gave way to cynicism and disappointment. Through an exploration of children’s culture during the period, I trace an important counter-current: idealistic visions of childhood given expression by the civil rights movement and feminism. Free to Be … You and Me was one such voice. Others included Sesame Street and Zoom, two children’s television programs on PBS that showcased racial and ethnic diversity. Zoom, for instance, which was produced from 1972 to 1977 with a racially and ethnically diverse (and yearly rotating) cast of Boston children, presented an implicit counterpoint to the city’s racial tensions and widely-publicized school busing debacles. Among its features were “raps” among the children that drew on the style of feminist consciousness-raising groups. This paper, part of a larger book project on children’s culture of the 1970s, considers how this brand of children’s culture allowed parents to put their politics into action while providing a new rubric for children’s emerging political sensibilities. My work sheds light on children’s culture of the 1970s, and just as importantly, it argues for children’s culture as a pivotal site for the production of new citizens. Free to Be … and similar programs for children were more than entertainment; they helped to consolidate liberal ideals for a younger generation, provided the language for children to challenge established wisdom both within their own friendship groups and American culture at large, and affirmed the era’s activism in intergenerational terms.

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