Challenging the Influence of Media on Children's Culture

 My Relationship

    I do not recall ever having a strong relationship to Barbies growing up. I had two older sisters but even then I do not recall them ever having an obsession or attachment to Barbies. I can recall beginning to see more of Barbie's when I began school and saw other girls with Barbie backpacks but it never really seemed to call my attention; hence why I have yet to see the Barbie movie. What I do recall is watching lots of Disney movies. Some of my favorites were The Little Mermaid, Cinderella, Snow White, Peter Pan, Pocahontas, and The Lion King. Now that I have time to reflect and after reading Linda Christensen's chapter unlearning the myths that bind us I notice that these stereotypes have always been present but it never really crossed my mind to question it. I would always look beyond them because I thought it was a good movie but boy was I wrong. I remember my sister having the biggest obsession with Pocahontas and now that I think about it, could it have been because who she related most to? Lots of questions now begin to arise. I can recall sitting in my freshman year of writing class at RIC and we were getting to know each other and our professor began by telling us a little about himself and his family and one of the things that mostly stuck out to me was when he shared that he would never allow his kids to watch  Mickey Mouse. Again, no one questioned why. I simply thought, oh I wonder why but never asked but if we were to use this technique that Christensen talks about we can pull apart Mickie Mouse and find the underlying assumptions. Children's books and movies instructs young people to accept the world as it is portrayed in these social blueprints. and often that world depicts the domination of one sex, one race, one class, or one country over a weaker counterpart (Christensen, 2016, p. 175). 

Christensen's "Secret Education"

    Christensen begins by pointing out how society's culture industry colonizes students minds and teaches them how to act, live, and dream. This brings me back to Barbie. Barbie portrays an image that girls should be skinny, tall, lean, and have perfect skin. Is this the reality for all girls? Not at all but there are girls who go to a certain extent to want to portray that image. Christensen wants her students to question this accepted knowledge and the secret education delivered by cartoons as well as by the canon. Her students did not want to believe that they had been manipulated by children's media or advertising but the more they questioned the more they began to discover the manipulation. Christensen also brings up an important point that even if the race of a character is changing, injustices may still remain. Disney has come out with different versions of movies changing the characters but if we question and critique I know that we will still find injustices. Taking action was also very important to Christensen. She wants students to develop their critical consciousness, but also hopes to move them to action (Christensen, 2016, p. 183). Although this has changed the way we view movies, cartoons, advertisements, magazines, etc, I believe that it is a very important skill to teach our students. Questioning is not bad at all and turning off the cartoons does not stop sexism and racism. "They were fueled by the opportunity to convince some parents of the long-lasting effects cartoons impose on their children, or to enlighten their peers about the roots of some of their insecurities" (Christensen, 2016, p. 185). As a parent, I have always been very careful of what I allow my son to watch and the influences it will have on him and this just made me question the very minimal shows and movies that I do allow him to watch. :)