Sunday, February 2, 2014

Unlearning the Myths That Bind US by: Linda Christensen





         This was a very interesting article. The author discussed points about cartoons and Disney movies that were created by a society driven secret.  Many people, myself included, have been blinded to the “secret education” that these movies and cartoons are displaying. I’m not even so sure if blinded is the right word to use… maybe denial is. I didn't like how they were picking apart the childhood movies that I grew up watching and still enjoy to watch as being something unfair and unfriendly. I didn't want to believe this article but you also can’t ignore the issues they presented. I decided to talk about three quotes from this text that stood out to me. “Our society’s culture industry colonizes their minds and teaches them how to act, live, and dream.” This point is saying that we are given the “vision” of how to be an average person instead of being an individual and creating our own thoughts about the world and ourselves. This is relevant to the text because it is explaining how our minds are being warped by society’s influence and can play a role into what we think about media and its influences.  Another quote I choose is “the second hand information we receive has often been distorted, shaped by cultural stereotypes, and left incomplete.” I found this to be a very powerful message. If you think about it, most of the information you here probably comes from another person. When you hear that information you often take it as being the truth, for some things this can be very naive. This is relevant to the text because as children, you grow up listening to your parents and expecting that the information they tell you is true. You are less likely to question things when you are being influenced. Just like watching a movie or cartoon show, you are less likely to ask what the really meaning behind it is or if there is one.  My final quote is “many students don’t want to believe that they have been manipulated by children’s media or advertising.” This was another strong statement because I can relate to this. This pretty much speaks for itself. The students are getting upset at the fact that they might not be the individual they are because media and society has played a huge role in their decisions. Its relevant to the text because it could be one of the main reasons why students/teens have not been able to see the “secret education” in these movies/cartoons.


*Class discussion comment- p.134, fourth paragraph; “Don’t you ever get tired of over analyzing everything?” I think this would be very interesting to discuss in class and see how many people either analyze everything, analyze some things, or don’t think about things at all.

5 comments:

  1. Its crazy watching movies/tv now and actually being able to understand what they mean. All we cared about as young girls were the pretty dresses and the love stories without being able to understand the stereotyping that was going on.

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  2. im not even sure denial is an appropriate term. as children and adults view commercials and movies we are always being influenced in some way and we arent even aware of it. you cant deny something you dont even know is happening. i would maybe suggest betrayed or blindsided by the media

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  3. We accept what's behind children's cartoons just like we accept what we hear on the news in the evening. It is scary that just because people put this in front of us, we don't question it. Just like at the grocery store, just because the food is available for sale, we accept it and purchase it. But, reality is, there are hidden health risk in most foods due to the processing the food goes through......

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  4. I agree that children have been blinded by to the "secret education," which you said even goes further into denial. I think children are so influenced today by movies, and literature in so many ways that they look up to these characters and don't even know how stereotyped these movies are, because i sure didn't
    know.

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  5. I'm glad you admitted that you couldn't deny being upset that the author was picking apart your favorite childhood movies...as you read, where there any movies or cartoons you could recall that had given you a "secret education" when you were younger that you now acknowledge?

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