Unlearning the Myths That Bind Us

"Many students do not want to believe they have been manipulated by children's media or advertising. No one wants to admit that they've been handled by the media." I think that because Disney movies and cartoon movies were so much of our child hoods we set that as the standard for what we wanted to be. I know I'm not the only girl that dressed up as Cinderella almost every year for Halloween. Then as I grew up, I would start dressing like Snow White because I realized I looked the most like her-- because she had dark hair. (Great comparison I know) They had what we wanted as a young age, they had long beautiful hair that never looked messy, a beautiful prince just waiting to kiss them and change their world, and a huge palace in which they would live once they lived "happily every after." We also learned a lesson that I never put a lot of thought into, you can never trust "old, ugly, and scary looking women." Isn't that horrible? We always saw the villain as an older women who was never as beautiful to us as the princess, and us as children feared them. Princesses were predominantly white, never until recently did we see a princess of color. (I mean unless you count Princess Jasmine, Pocahontas, and Mulan).

It is said in the reading that, "The impact of racism begins early. We are exposed to misinformation about people different from ourselves." Which is very true, I grew up watching mainly white people on TV and in movies. I did not think it was bad, I just thought that they all looked like I did. The world is changing. They are making a lot of remakes of older movies and shaking things up. I know this Christmas Eve I took my little cousins to see the new Annie that came out. I saw the older one and of course she was a young white girl. In the remake, she was African American and I thought the movie was great! Many people are creatures of habit and did not like the fact that they changed the original story line. Everyone watches these old movies or television shows, so I think it is necessary to make changes and show a different take on things. I know Disney is planning on making many changes in the upcoming years to show a different race in one of their princesses! Yay! Not only is this just with the princesses, it is with all Disney characters in all movies, parks, and television shows.

The media is a huge thing for children as they are growing up. I would watch things like that all the time and I know when I was younger, my cousin who was adopted would constantly wonder why none of the princesses looked like her or were from where she was from? What could we have told her to make her feel better while teaching her a lesson? I would love to know what some of you think we should have said?