Unlearning the Myths That Bind Us by Linda Christensen Reflection

While reading this text all I could think about is my god daughter and god son watching cartoons, movies, shows, and books learning about racism, and unequal rights portrayed in these shows. It's insane to think about how early we start children with shows that give girls the idea of the perfect body, or boys the idea that they are superior to girls just because they are male. Then I began to wonder does the amount of time watching these shows make more of an impact or does just the "regular" amount of tv time cause their opinions to form. I found a website that showed that children are spending more time with the television and that they are definitely affecting a child's beliefs.  I can't say that I will never watch any of these types of movies or shows or read any of these books, but I will never be able to see or read them in the same light.

One of the things that bothered me was actually reading the the only way to be happy if you're a woman is to change the way you are to win the man you want (page 133). This was the whole idea of the Cinderella story, and gives little girls the wrong idea about what being happy actually is. We should be teaching children that if you work hard to achieve your goals you will be happy no matter if you're a male or female. Something else that came to mind was the fact that creating stories like the Black Cinderella didn't really help the situation with the story line. I agree there needs to be a variety of dominant characters in stories, but the end of that story was the same as the original Cinderella, only showing that for multiple races the only way for a female to be happy was to change herself to make the prince come find her. 

I found this picture online, and I found it interesting that even without faces you can clearly tell which princes belongs to each body/clothes. Makes me wonder how much of these stories have built who I am today. I  also found an article about how the princesses are given "baby faces" and what they would look like if they were portrayed as adults. It was interesting to see the differences made, some being very clear changes while others were very subtle. 

Class Discussion: 

Children are watching more television then ever before due to the need to be constantly entertained. While the child is entertained parents are able to get other household duties done such as doing dishes, cleaning up toys, or vacuuming. Why don't parents include children in the duties of keeping the house clean? Teaching children that keeping a house clean isn't just the mother's job but the families job.