Sunday, February 2, 2014

Unlearning the Myths


“Our society’s culture industry colonizes their minds and teaches them how to act, live, and dream.” This quote is a great depiction of how society suggests and influences children to value such characters like Cinderella and cartoons. As I child I remember wanting to be Cinderella and loving anything princess, which is what society emphasizes. The article talks about how the impact of racism begins very early, and we often get a distorted view of people outside of our own racial or ethnic group. Last semester I took an online course of gender and society and I remember this article which is something that can change the ordinary for little girls.

“ Many students do not want to believe that they have been manipulated by children’s media and advertising.”  Children don’t understand that the media is influencing the stereotypes present in society today. The media is presenting racism, sexism, and class throughout movies, pictures, and literature. I thought it was interesting that older students could analyze children’s books and agree that the media presents an image for these children that is shaped by the media. Students were able to decode the assumptions that are presented today. 

"Women's role in fairy tales disort reality." The article provided examples how Tinker Bell is giving children the message that the mirror is the enemy and that her hips were too big. Every child looks up to whoever it may be, Tinker Bell, a cartoon, Spiderman, Barbie, whoever it may be that they want to be just like them, which can be unrealistic. Girls go to extreme measures to look like a barbie and go to such extremes as dieting and having an obsession with something very unrealistic and media-driven. After reading about the teachers idea to reconstruct and analyze the inequalities by creating characters that contained "relationships of respect and "equality."




6 comments:

  1. i think we should be teaching that the mirror is the enemy. beauty comes from within and no person or idea should be able to strip that from young girls

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  2. It's so sad that little girls and even adults think they need to change themselves to be "happy"

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  3. I have been one of those students that don't want to face the harsh truth that I have been manipulated by the media :-(

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  4. I think we have all been manipulated by the media at one point and time, if not still at this moment. We all need to come to realization that we are all perfect the way we are. If everyone was the same life would be boring!!

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  5. It's hard to not be manipulated by the media at least for one time in your life. With all the different forms of media we have, it seems to surround us wherever we go. I agree that the media does present such topics of racism, sexism, and so much more. I sometimes feel like TV shows/movies are trying to hide it, but it is still so clear now that I am older. When I was younger, it was not as noticeable and not easy to decode.

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  6. It is weird to look back now at Disney movies, cartoons, and etc. that we used to watch as little kids and see how we were manipulated by the media. I had no idea when I was a kid what it meant when Tinker Bell looked into the mirror; now it is actually disturbing to understand what was actually meant by her action.

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