Unlearning the Myths That Bind Us By Linda Christensen

While reading the passage I believe Christensen main point was to show the reader that the media matters. “Our society’s culture industry colonizes their minds and teaches them how to act, live, and dream. This indoctrination hits young children especially hard. The “secret education,” as Chilean writer Ariel Dorfman dubs it, delivered by children’s and movies instructs young people to accept the world as it is portrayed in these social blueprints” (Christensen pg 126) I feel like in today’s society the influence on the media is so strong that it decreases girls self esteem and can lead to eating disorders and unwanted pregnancies. Our society’s influence on our adolescents about being beautiful and having the best figure puts a lot of strain on girls. Questions like, does beauty really define my power as a woman? Does advertisement really objectify my body? Should sexuality be my main concern? “My waist didn’t dip into an hour-glass; in fact, according to the novels I read my thick ankles doomed me to be cast as the peasant woman reaping hay while the heroine swept by her handsome man in hot pursuit” (Christensen pg 126)
Beauty is culturally produced and changes across different cultures and historical points. Christensen feels like we are loosing sight of true beauty. If God wanted us all to look like the edited pictures in magazines, then he wouldn’t have made us all different. I think that it is kind of hard for girls to feel pretty now a days because of how people have changed what the real meaning of beauty is it seams like now beauty means that u need to be thin in the white America culture. While indicating, males are who we should be beautiful for “the strong fearless male”. “I am uncomfortable with those messages. I don’t want students to believe that change can be bought at the mall, nor do I want them thinking that the pinnacle of a woman’s life is an “I DO” that supposedly leads them to a “happily ever after.” I don’t want my female students to see their “sisters” as competition for the scarce and wonderful commodity – men.”

Things I didn’t understand
· The charting stereotypes, I don’t understand how charting stereotypes will help you. I feel like stereotypes have became a norm in are society and people often label with out even knowing it.

Web source
· http://kidshealth.org/teen/

Connections
· I felt like there was a connection with the assumptions posters we did in class the first day. I was in the “media matters” group and this passage clearly backs up a lot of what my group had on the poster. Indicating the fact that the media matters and is affecting are everyday life.

Questions/Comments
· I want to no how a stereotype has affected your life? And do you feel like stereotypes are present in children cartoons?