Talking Points #4

Unlearning The Myths That Bind Us

Linda Christensen

Quote #1: "Many students don't want to believe that they have been manipulated by children's medias or advertising. No one wants to admit that they've been "handled" by the media." 

Nobody wants to be "controlled" by the media. But if you think about it when you think of professional athletes and their commercials, the children always want what they have. Or often times in movies the bad kid is always the black kid. When children see that, often times every time they see a black person they associate bad with that person. Or the old ladies and old men are always grumpy, they are never nice, and all the girls always want to be like the princesses and not the normal, more realistic characters. Media sets the basis of what we see or think we see in society.  Its true that media had influenced all of us in some way... even car commercial... Buy this car and you can look as sexy as this woman driving it.

Quote #2: "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, this cartoon teaches a false sense of violence to kids: fight and you don't get hurt, or solve problems through fists and swords instead of words." 

When children see this they think that it is okay to fight with fists, they think that nothing can happen to them. They think that fighting is the solution to everything. I remember being five and watching this show my self. I loved it and my brother and I used to dress up as the turtles and pretend fight each other. Children should not be allowed to watch violence on tv.

Quote #3: "We look at the roles women, men, people of color, and poor people play in cartoons." 

In older cartoons you notice that there are not many women as characters. But when the women started appearing in cartoons they looked perfect. They looked like barbies, and all the girls wanted to look like them. They set an unreachable goal... To be perfect.  In cartoons the poor people always look dirty and have on ripped and torn clothes, and get treated awful. So people have in their minds that this is reality, the real world is based on stereotypes! It is so sad that this is true.  If your black your bound to end up in jail... If your gay we all know you have aids and if your women you are weak.  Why do we set such unreachable goals for ourselves and believe that because one person did it it most be true for the rest? 

In this reading Christensen explains how in cartoons, books, and even movies show a great emphasis on sexism, racism and are often very stereotypical. Ever since we have been children we have experienced sexism and racism and haven't even known it. Just by watching children's cartoons we witnessed cases of sexism and racism. We often refuse to see the fact that certain cartoons and children's movies have these issues.