Talking Point #4

Underlearning the Myths That Blind Us

By: Linda Christensen

Premises:

• Culture
• Society
• Media
• "Secret Education"
• Sex
• Race
• Class
• Myths
• Stereotypes
• Disney's movies

Argument:

Christense argues that the media, especially children's movies, old cartoons and books, shapes a child's self image. The stereotypes that are found in the media gives children the wrong message of the society in which they are living in.

Evidences:

1. When Christense talks about how she proved to her students about the stereotyping in children's cartoons by letting her students watch several cartoon episode. After the students finished watching each episode many stereotypes were easily seen and the class came into a conclusion.

"People of color and poor people are either absent or servants to the rich, white, pretty people" (pg. 130)

"Men must be virtle and wiled power or be old and the objects of good natured humor" (pg. 131)

"...overweight people were portrayed as buffons..." (pg. 131)

"...absence of mothers, the wickedness of stepparents" (pg. 131)

These are several stereotypes that Christensen and her class found when they were watching several cartoon. The first stereotypes simply tells a child that poor people and people of color are inferior to rich, white and pretty people in this society. The second stereotype introduces sexism to the children by telling a child that a man is masculine and they have all of the power in this world. The third quote is a stereotype in which overweight people in movies are always seen as the joker of the story. The absence of mothers in many of the movies gives a child mix messages about mothers' being there for their children. The wickedness of stepparents gives a child a negative message that all stepparents are mean.

2. "Happiness means getting a man, and transformation from wretched conditions can be achieved through consumption..."(pg. 133).

Linda's quote refers to the Cinderella's story, where Cinderella has to compete for her man against her stepsisters and all the other ladies from the town. Christensen uses this quote to relate to the Cinderella story because she feels that a transformation does not mean that you have to go on a shopping spree and get the latest styles to look beautiful. She wants girls to know that in order for them to be happy they do not have to get married with their "prince". She also doesn't want to see sisters fighting over a man. All she wants is to deliver the correct messages to the children, not a "fairy tale" where children are not going to be exposed to the reality.

3. " ...Tinker Bell's obsessive vanity in Peter Pan...Thinker Bell inspects her tiny body in a mirror only find that her minute hips are simply too huge..." (pg. 136)

Linda put this quote for reasons, to show the readers that by girls watching it creates an insecurity. It actually makes girls think that the mirror is their enemy. It makes girls belief that they have to be skinny in order to be pretty and feel secure about themselves. That is why we have so many young girls with health problems and low self esteem.

Reading this article made me think a lot about how children movies make a huge impact in their lives. I am sure that the producers didn't do this with negative intentions however they should be a little bit more careful with what they put in their movies for children. When ever I use to see these movies I never thought about it the way Christensen interprets it. I never use to think that the movies had negatives impacts hiding. I think that this articles is good for people to read because it will leave them shock after they are done reading it.

Gayness, Multicultural, and Community

Premise:

• Gay
• Lesbian
• Invisible
• Silence
• Community
• Public Schools
• Roles
• Homosexual
• Heterosexual
• Privileges
• Straight teachers
• Gay teachers
• "Normal"
• "Abnormal"

Author's Arguments:

Dennis Carlson argues that public school play an important role in developing a democratic, multicultural community where the sexual identity is recognized. In the dominate normalizing community specific people have privileges and are seen as "normal" people, while Others (people who are not part of the dominate community) are characterized as "abnormal" and are described as crazy, lacking of education, sick, etc.

Evidences:

Page:236

"...we do not get very far if we look for what is said about gayness in educational texts...."

This lines simply states that what the school texts offer students is not enough for them to understand the gay community. Even though it is a hard subject to bring up in school, students should have more information on this community. Carlson finds it very important because everyone should be treated and get the same privileges equally. The homosexual society doesn't get the same recognition as the heterosexual society. This makes the homosexual community inferior to the heterosexual community, making them become "silence" in the dominate society. Carlson also stated that students' educational text only introduce "selective tradition". The problem with normalizing textbook is that students don't get to learn about other communities that are outside the norm community. Instead they are forced to learn the dominate culture because in it is seen as the only culture that is value in this society. Making a change in the textbook and allowing students to learn more about the Other communities will prevent that community from becoming "silence" and becoming more recognized in the dominate society.

Page: 237

"...dismissal of teachers who were found out to be homosexuals"

With the dismissal of homosexual teachers it is obvious to see that gayness is invisible in some public schools. Many of these homosexual teachers were dismiss from their jobs as a way to prevent young students to be expose to this community because they find that they are not role models to students. With examples like this particular one makes the gay community more invisible and harder to understand. It doesn't let the students see for themselves if they accept the community or deny the community because they are not expose to people from that community. This statement also brings up the argument that the gay community is often seen as the "abnormal" society rather then the "normal" community. Being seen as the "abnormal," homosexual teachers privileges are also being taken away by the dismissal of their jobs.

Page: 239

" ...abuses get tolerated because gay teachers and students operate in an environment where they feel afraid to stand up for themselves....the discussion on of gay people continues to be absent in the curriculum so that homophobia is not interrogated."

These people are often getting abuse from the dominate society. They do not feel that they have any sort of privileges to protect them from constant abuse. They don't stand up for themselves in the dominate communities because they are afraid of being put down more than what they are currently are. Not having the same privileges as the "normal" community prevents them to interact with the society in which they are forced to lived in. Carlson states that one of reason why this abuse is tolerated is because schools are not offering students with more education on they gay community. The greeting incident that a male substitute teacher had as he entered an English classroom had happened primarily because students are exposed to the community and not knowing much at all and keeping it invisible to students, they are not going to take any thing into consideration. Since they are not taught that homosexuality is another community that exist they will just see it as "abnormal" and will find ways to make fun of it because they do not see it as part of their community.

Comments:

I honestly didn't find this article interesting what so ever. It was full of facts not much with life experiences like the other articles we have read in class. What this article is trying to state that in order to make the gay community visible and acceptable, the starting level is to educate students more about the community so that the abuse and rejection is not tolerated. Based on my religious beliefs I don't see gay/lesbian as being right, however I respect them because they are human just like me. I agree with Carlson's argument about school playing an important role because as a students in public schools I wasn't expose to the gay community as much. They would of bring up the subject however, teacher wouldn't go into much details because they feared that a conflict was going to arise in class. I believe that since it is a community that does exist in the community, schools should put it in their curriculum because it feel as though they are no preparing students correctly by trying to hide that community.