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Clothing, Products and Services for Children "Marketers clearly do not create gender role differences: the question is whether they respond to these differences in ways that, on balance, reinforce them."DCSF/DCMS, 2009

These are certainly not new concerns on the part of parents and it is important to view this aspect of the debate in a wider social and historical context. The report of the independent assessment led by Professor Buckingham offers a comprehensive analysis of this wider context, and particularly highlights the role that nostalgia plays in parental and societal views of childhood:

"There is a very dominant strain of nostalgia here — a looking back to a 'golden age' when childhood and family life were apparently harmonious, stable and well adjusted. But it is often far from clear when that time was, or the social groups to whom this description applies; and the basis on which historical comparisons are being made is frequently unclear. Historical studies of childhood certainly give good grounds for questioning whether such a 'golden age' has ever existed."DCSF/DCMS, 2009 43