Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Hyperlinks: Unlearning the Myths that Bind Us- Linda Chistensen

In this article Christensen talks about children's media and how it shapes the way children view gender roles and other stereotypes.  It made me think it is strange that as we get older, our media becomes more aware of other lifestyles and has a broader range of diversity portrayed, so why aren't we starting earlier? I found a video that shows an interview with children on gender roles that confirms the fact that children are starting out in life with the belief that men and women have specific roles.

What I found most surprising was that all the children said the men go to work.  It seems like a lot of children have parents who both work, yet when asked which one is supposed to work, they still said the man. 

I also found a study done by USC's Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism which looked at top grossing family movies from 2006-2009. (click on the pdf file in the article for more statistics) I thought the most interesting statistic was that 71% of the leading roles in the movies were male. What is this telling our children? How do girls feel when they do not see themselves portrayed in media? Or when they do, they are portrayed as sex symbols?

In addition to gender roles, Christensen also talks about racism portrayed to children. Although this article mainly refers to older media, it is still an example of what children (this includes us) have grown up watching.
Disclaimer: this article is from cracked.com so it may not be appropriate and is kind of silly. 

Lastly, this article talks about the Disney princesses and which ones portray a strong female role and which do not. This article is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Disney princesses distorting gender roles, but it is interesting to see the progression of the princesses and how some of the more recent characters actually contain some sort of role model. 


In general, I believe that every child should be able to see themselves portrayed in a positive light in the media and in order to do that we need to embrace new protagonists and make different lifestyles more acceptable in the media.

4 comments:

  1. I really liked the third article that you added in relation to the article. Though the princesses are all considered the main character in the Disney princess movies - it's always that man who comes and saves the day - some of the princesses are just there to be pretty and eventually be saved.

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  2. i think it's interesting that these kids seem to say the same thing adults would about what's "manly" or "girly". I wonder if they pick these ques up from their parents or if there's something more going on...

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  3. I thought the same thing as Heather! The movies portray it so that it seems like girls are incapable of saving themselves and NEED a prince charming to come along and sweep them off of their feet.

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  4. Great use of links to make a strong point and stay connected to CHristensen!

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