Talking Points #4

Unlearning the Myths that Bind Us by Linda Christensen

     Of all the reading's we have done so far, I enjoyed this one the most so far. It really got me thinking about my childhood and things that were shaping me and my beliefs without me even knowing.
   Christensen, when working with her students and cartoons asks "What would children learn about what's important in this society?" I asked myself the same question and was really saddened by my thoughts. The very things we loved as children are contributing to issues such as the rules and codes of power and the luxury of obliviousness argued by Delpit and Johnson in previous readings.
  Something right in front of your face is often easy to look past.  How is it that all this stereotyping just sort of slipped by in editing? The fact that it did, is in itself the problem. We need to take notice and put forth the effort to change this and the fact that it is so engrained in us to overlook it.

   I really love the Disney princess movies, but I see both sides. The first being where Disney likes to think of the princesses as role models but they're the source of insecurities and they teach young girls that they need a man to be happy (this example being in cartoon form above).  The other side however is that the movies really do teach good lessons.  For example, Mulan teaches girls that courage is often rewarded, Pocahontas teaches girls to never be afraid to lead and be yourself, and Belle teaches girls to never be afraid to explore beyond the limits. Both are valid arguments with much support from all the movies.

     This also got my mind reeling about Disney princesses and race. All of the princesses are beautiful, thin, well spoken WHITE women.  I'll give it to Disney - yes, you did add in Jasmine, Pocahontas, Mulan and Esmeralda (who I consider a princess!) but it took them until just recently to have an African American princess. Disney makes many attempts to create cultural diversity in its films and its other products and tries to reach a broad audience and occasionally has marketing campaigns directed towards minorities, but are they really successful?  It honestly still seems like Disney films work to maintain the invisibility of whiteness.

     What made me feel better about this reading though, was that I wasn't oblivious to these things. For whatever reason - I've always noticed the flaws in media and television shows - probably because I would consider myself a victim of the stereotyping of women. As a child, I always remember wanting to look more like the women in magazine adds; thin, white and beautiful - and I never felt like any of those things growing up. I even wanted it to such an extent that for a long time, I would avoid going outside in the sun because for whatever reason, in my mind, I hated getting a tan (being Native American, I get a tan very easily). I'm repulsed by the fact that I was driven to that as a child, not for health reasons like the avoidance of skin cancer but for vanity purposes.
   In class I would like to bring up what I mentioned before about Disney princesses - mainly if anyone else had noticed it before this reading. I could probably talk about this article for days so I'm hoping other people have have as much to say about this article as I do.