Sunday, February 21, 2016

Unlearning the Myths that Bind Us

Linda Christensen
Reflection

Reading Christensen’s piece was an eye opener to me. Before reading I know cartoons and movies had stereotypes and hidden messages, but I was unaware of how much each cartoon or movie portrayed it. Young children look at these films or cartoons and see a women needing a man to save her, or the only way to be liked it to have the “perfect” body image. Reading this article showed how much of a negative impact media has on people of young ages. When they see what is going on they think they have to be that way and go about making themselves that way to fit in. 

In this article I made the connection to Grinner’s SCWAAMP. I mostly connected it to straightness and whiteness. Straightness comes from every relationship in fairy tales being heterosexual. Not one is a homosexual relationship. This demonstrates that everyone has a happy ending when they are attracted to the opposite sex (which we know isn’t true). The connection to whiteness is every character with a major role is white and not of color. Other races were mixed into the princess role but it wasn’t until 2009 when the “Princess and the Frog” came out and changed the “white princess” aspect when they introduced a princess of color. 



Girls who watch the Disney princess films always see the princess in trouble and looking for a prince’s help or how they need to change to get their prince's attention. They show that a man must be the one who is strong and to be the hero at the end of the. When a young girl sees this message they get the idea that the only way they can be saved is by a man. This message was changed slightly in 2013 when the film “Frozen” came out. Yes, it showed a man trying to be the hero and save the day, but in the end it is the sister love that saves everything. 

Points to share:

I believe media has a major role in all our lives when it comes to we should fit into society and how we should act as both male and females. Disney has positive and negative impacts on children’s lives. It positively shows motivation and determination, but negatively shows body image and heroism is just being males. Knowing what I know now about the “secret education” that Christensen talks about changes my out look on children films and cartoons. 

3 comments:

  1. Yes! I think the idea of straightness and whiteness is a HUGe part of Disney princesses. Almost every princess is looking for a prince so they can achieve perfection. That's not all there is in life and these movies make it so children value these thing at such a young age.

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  2. I like the fact that you compared it to SCWAAMP this is really true. Most of these movies are based on straightness. The prince saves the princess happily ever after. But, in this society there are children who have two moms and or two dads. They should not be excluded because of media always portraying "Straightness" as the best choice. I wonder if Disney will ever release a movie between two people of the same gender falling in love. Who knows.

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  3. Kelsey, I liked how you tied the straightness aspect into the idea because that was something I had not thought about before and would love for Disney to focus on. I also appreciated the Frozen reference about the sister love because I high key love that movie. Good job :)

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