Talking Points 4

"Unlearning the Myths that Bing Us"                                                                               Kayla Brown
By: Linda Christensen

Quotes/Comments:

1) "Then students start to notice patterns - like the absence of female characters in many of the older cartoons.  When women do appear they look like Jessica Rabbit or Playboy centerfolds- even in many of the new and 'improved' children's movies."
       - This quote interested me because I hadn't really thought about it before, but it is very true and it is misleading to little girls and boys who watch these cartoons.  It gives the idea that boys should like girls that look this certain way and that girls should look this way because it is what they are being exposed to on television.  It is kind of scary to think that this is where we get some of our preconceived ideas about the way things are supposed to be.  I knew that media had a big role in influencing people, but I didn't really think about little kids seeing these stereotypes and then understanding them to be true to life.  It is disheartening and frustrating to see that little kids are being taught such negative things at such a young age through the thought to be harmless cartoons they watch.
2) "Both of these tales leave young women with two myths: Happiness means getting a man, and transformation from wretched conditions can be achieved through consumption- in their case, through new clothes and a new hair style."
          -This quote is taken the from the part of the text where Christensen is talking about having not only a white cinderella, but an African American one too; yet the same basic ideas and goals of the characters remain the same.  As a female who grew up on disney movies and disney princesses, it kind of came as a surprise to me when I realized that Christensen was right; all the disney movies that I loved and watched repeatedly as a child all told the same story: if you are young and pretty you will get the guy and that is all that you need in life to be happy.  I now see how this idea is so deeply, yet subtly inserted in all these disney princess movies and it irks me to think that little girls are being taught such narrow ideas about how to achieve happiness.  The standards of beauty that these movies set up are high and uneasily met by many viewers, not because of their lack of beauty, but because of the ridiculous standards set.  This really bothered me because a lot of little girls unknowingly look to these movies as reality and if they try to live within such a vain and unrealistic world, they are likely to feel more hurt than happiness.
3) "They accept the inequalities in power and exploitative economic relationships.  Their acceptance teaches me how deep the roots of these myths are planted and how much some students, in the absence of visions for a better world, need to believe in the fairy tale magic that will transform their lives- whether it's a rich man or winning the lottery."
       -I thought this quote showed how deeply rooted within us these ideas become and that they literally transform our views of the world and what are goals in life should be.  This is pretty serious and I think that because of these ideas children get from the media and movies is the reason so many people today have self esteem issues and so on.  I think if more parents became aware of the messages these movies are sending to their children, they would more closely monitor what their kids watch.