Unlearning The Myths That Blind Us~Linda Christensen
In this reading Christensen explains how in cartoons, books, and even movies show a great emphasis on sexism, racism and are often very stereotypical. Ever since we have been children we have experienced sexism and racism and haven't even known it. Just by watching children's cartoons we witnessed cases of sexism and racism. We often refuse to see the fact that certain cartoons and children's movies have these issues.
"Many students don't want to believe that they have been manipulated by children's medias or advertising. No one wants to admit that they've been "handled" by the media." Nobody wants to be "controlled" by the media. But if you think about it when you think of professional athletes and their commercials, the children always want what they have. Or often times in movies the bad kid is always the black kid. When children see that, often times every time they see a black person they associate bad with that person. Or the old ladies and old men are always grumpy, they are never nice, and all the girls always want to be like the princesses and not the normal, more realistic characters.
"Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, this cartoon teaches a false sense of violence to kids: fight and you don't get hurt, or solve problems through fists and swords instead of words." When children see this they think that it is okay to fight with fists, they think that nothing can happen to them. They think that fighting is the solution to everything. I know that when my five year old cousin watches TMNT he gets alot of violence and fighting from their show. After watching he will be very rambunctious and crazy. Same with Star Wars, he always goes and gets his light sabers and wants to duel. I think that alot of shows that little kids watch should have higher viewing ages.
"We look at the roles women, men, people of color, and poor people play in cartoons." In older cartoons you notice that there are not many women as characters. But when the women started appearing in cartoons they looked perfect. They looked like barbies, and all the girls wanted to look like them. In cartoons the poor people always look dirty and have on haggy clothes, and get treated awful. So people have in their minds that this is reality, the real world is based on stereotypes!
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You clearly have your head around Christensen's claims. Now I want to hear from you -- comments or points to raise in class?
ReplyDeleteBecause the media portrays these girls that way do you think that's why girls go through eating disorders and depression? Because they feel like they need to look like that to get the "Cute" boy or the "jock" attention. It has to do a lot with the media and your right about how they make them look like barbies and look perfect. That's were all the stereotypes come from.
ReplyDeletegirls look at other girls on t.v and in magazines and they see these very skinny skinny girls with huge boobs. i think that is one big reason why girls start eating disorders and thats sad.
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