Unlearning the Myths That Bind Us. by Linda Christensen By: Ruby Lazo
1. “We are taught, more than anything else, how not to rebel.”
Beginning at a young age all of us are taught rules in our society. We are taught to live by those rules rather than to ask questions.
2. “Our self-images have been formed by others, but if we don’t dissect them, we will continue to be influenced by them.”
Others construct our thoughts and beliefs; without questioning or education we are doomed to only think and believe what others have taught us.
Others construct our thoughts and beliefs; without questioning or education we are doomed to only think and believe what others have taught us.
3. “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 mate-realistic become commonplace”.
Our obsession to be something that we aren’t corners us into a world of self-hatred. A world where we will never be pretty enough or good enough. We look up to Barbie as the perfect all American girl. We all want to be her, yet it is impossible to be her. If Barbie were to be a real person, she wouldn’t be able to stand on her two feet! Why? Because her boobs are too big, her hips too wide, feet to small and she is just too tall. We look up to a doll as a representation of what all women in our society should look like.
Our obsession to be something that we aren’t corners us into a world of self-hatred. A world where we will never be pretty enough or good enough. We look up to Barbie as the perfect all American girl. We all want to be her, yet it is impossible to be her. If Barbie were to be a real person, she wouldn’t be able to stand on her two feet! Why? Because her boobs are too big, her hips too wide, feet to small and she is just too tall. We look up to a doll as a representation of what all women in our society should look like.
“Unlearning the Myths That Bind Us” was an extremely thought provoking article. I couldn’t help but reflect on my own childhood and some of the cartoons I used to watch. As a kid it is hard to ask questions like, why was it okay for Cinderella to marry a man whom she only knew for a day. However, today it seems as though many adults choose to not ask those same questions.
Disney Princess’s seem to be especially destructive. They begin teaching girls at a young age the value that beauty holds, the insignificance of their intelligence, how one man (along with his money) can provide their “happily ever after”.
As a kid, I always wondered why Cinderella never once stood up for herself - never once said she had enough. Can you imagine how much more significant and empowering it would have been if Cinderella had told her stepmother she was not waiting around for a man to save her but instead decided to pack her things and get a job!
Are their any cartoons out there that give out similar messages?
To answer your question: NO! There aren't any cartoons out there like what you've described! I believe that this is less what the media is trying to press on us, but more of how women were depicted in history. In our white, Anglo Saxon, Protestant society, this is how women did and were expected to act, so this is where those cartoons are coming from. You also have to remember that most of the stories that are retold by Disney were Grimm fairytales and oral stories before they surfaced to a feature film life. So I think that's where Christensen is wrong to criticize Disney, alone. People have to understand that these stories weren't made up to force our generation into a way of thinking, but were written centuries ago based on what life was like then. Everything stems from history! (says the history major ;) )
ReplyDeleteWith your reaction to quote three, I totally agree with you. Since toddlers, we see fairytale, and the princes and prince have the perfect bodies, and I think this is where your self concussions starts to kick in. These kids start to get the picture that in order to be happy you need to skinny with long straight hair and marry a perfect person, when this is not true.
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