Christensen

Unlearning the myths that blind us

Linda Christensen

Reading this article opened my eyes to things I never really noticed before. Growing up as a child I loved the Disney princess movies, even now they're my favorite movies. When I was a child I never paid attention to the fact that most of the cartoons and movies had mostly white characters and not those of color. I never really paid attention to the face that male characters dominated women characters. I was just so into the movie and the story that I thought was behind it. Even when I got older I still never paid attention to those things just because I'm always so into the movie. Now, after reading this article I want to rewatch some of the cartoons and movies and see if notice any stereotypes. The one thing I do remember from the Disney princess movies is that most of the main characters roles were always white, not of color but they were also all women like Cinderella, sleeping beauty, Rapunzel, snow white, etc. I can think of an equal amount of male and female leading roles. There were only a few leading roles of color like Aladdin, Mulan and Pocahontas. Now there are several more princesses and leading roles of color. I feel like their should be more, especially because there may be some kids out there that watch those movies and notice that there's always a white male or women in power and not someone of color and that could affect them and the way they view things.

"Children's cartoons, movies and literature are perhaps the most influential genre "read"."

- I do agree that children's cartoons, movies and stories are influential on children. I worked with many students who believe that some of the fairy tale movies are realistic and a lot if it is unrealistic. Some of them grow up with the Disney characters being their role models and have high expectations because of the movies/cartoons they watch and stories they read. I remember when I was younger, I thought life would be as perfect as some of their lives and it was complete opposite of how I thought life would be like.

"When we read children's books, we aren't just reading cute little stories, we are discovering the tools with which a young society is manipulated."

- The young society is manipulated by some of the movies, cartoons and stories. The stories aren't just cute picture books, they have a secret education. The kids are too young to realize the true meaning behind some of them and are manipulated into thinking that's reality and its not.

Link to reading:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-JcBFAuLc-0NEFOT1BJZXVnZnM/view