She's kickin' ass, that's what she's doing!' : deconstructing childhood 'innocence' in media representations

Childhood and childhood innocence are highly contested and contradictory discourses. In providing critical readings of the media texts Painted Babies and Little Miss Sunshine, the authors highlight the ways in which childhood 'innocence' and girlhood are discursively and materially constructed. They point out that childhood innocence is constituted within hegemonic gendered and sexualised discourses in which young girls are positioned to carry symbolic meanings that we usually attach to adult women.