Talking Points #4

Christensen: "Unlearning the Myths That Bind Us"

Premise:
~ myth
~ race
~ difference
~ stereotype
~ Disney
~ cartoons
~ character portrayal
~ children
~ television
~ "secret education"
~ change
~ inequality

Argument:

Christensen argues that the media spits out a "secret education which soon becomes the foundation for the way young children believe they should live their lives.

Evidence:

1. "Our society's culture industry colonizes [students'] minds and teaches them how to act, live, and dream. This indoctrination hits young children hard. The 'secret education ... delivered by children's books and movies, instructs young people to accept the world as it is portrayed in these social blueprints." (126)

2. "Many students don't want to believe that they have been manipulated by children's media or advertising. No one wants to admit that they've been 'handled' by the media. They assure me that they make their own choices and the media has no power over them - as they sit with Fubu, Nike, Timberlands or whatever the latest fashion rage might be." (128)

3. "As Tinker Bell inspects her tiny body in a mirror only to find that her minute hips are simply too huge, she shows us how to turn the mirror into an enemy... And this scenario is repeated in girls' locker rooms all over the world." (136)

4. "Because we can never look like Cinderella, we begin to hate ourselves. The Barbie syndrome starts as we begin a lifelong search for the perfect body. Crash diets, fat phobias, and an obsession with the materialistic become commonplace. The belief that a product will make us rise above our competition, our friends, turns us into addicts. Our fix is that Calvin Klein push-up bra, Guess jeans, Chanel lipstick, and the latest in suede flats. We don't call it deception; we call it good taste. And soon it feels awkward going to the mailbox without makeup." (136)

Other Stuff:

This is, by a mile, my favorite article so far. I agree totally with Christensen. Until I read this article, I never actually realized how stereotypical and brainwashing the media could be. I never noticed the "secret education" being spat out at children without their knowledge. I can see advertisements being this way, but definitely not Disney movies. I guess I was always just naive. I have been a Disney fanatic ever since I was little, and being old enough to really see what points are coming across in those movies kind of breaks my heart. I never once realized the point that Cinderella makes about the stepmother and stepsisters and how they are always put across as being mean. That whole idea comes from the Cinderella idea. Also, I always loved the Cinderella made with Brandy, Whitney Houston, and Whoopi Goldberg. That movie gets the minority idea across. The beginning of the first line of this whole article is my favorite and it is absolutely how I based my life. "I was nourished on the milk of American culture: I cleaned the dwarves' house and waited for Prince Charming to bring me to life; I played Minnie Mouse to Mickey's flower-bearing adoration..." (126) Me. The end. Growing up in a Disney-crazed home being a "princess", I based my life upon how they live. Reading this article, I came to the realization that I may have needed all my life, and that is to live life the way you are and not as others live theirs (especially how lives are put across in the media/or in my case Disney movies). I always thought that the "Disney" life was the perfect life, but in reality, nothing is really perfect. Finally, I agree 100% with my last point of evidence when Catkin writes about Cinderella and the Barbie syndrome. Being a teenage girl I have lived this first-hand and we do become "addicted" to "the belief that product will make us rise above our competition..." (137)