As far as stereotypical female roles in media that is also how woman lived back in the day. Women use to be the people who stayed at home, took care of the kids, cleaned the house, etc. As a group we have evolved and taken the freedoms that we deserve and have bettered ourselves. There are stories now where women are portrayed as strong, independent, and important. The old stories, such as Cinderella, show how she (a woman) is not happy until she is rescued by the Prince, a man, and then lives happily ever after. This is not the case anymore, and stories written about these former women are not acceptable for teaching our children today how to live.
The important morals and lessons of our society should be taught by parents and teachers. Children's books are not meant to tackle tough issues such as racism and stereotypes. It is often hard for children to comprehend these issues. It is my opinion that books for children as well as movies and television shows are overall meant to entertain and possibly teach lessons that are not as difficult to comprehend. Such lessons can be about friendship and family.
Nowadays our society has begun to adapt and change to how the world is changing. The more diverse our society becomes, in terms of the people in it and what they can do and accomplish, the more diverse our media becomes and needs to become. One change that has happened occurred within children's movies. Disney has put out a movie, The Princess and the Frog, that has its main characters portrayed by non-white people. This is a huge step for Disney who typically portrayed their main characters as white people. This story does have a happy ending and that is also atypical for characters of a different race.
All in all my main problem is how my childhood is being ruined by all this controversy over children's media. Not everything has to be analysed to find something wrong with it. All the books, movies, and television shows I watched as a kid helped to form the person I am today. Even if these media were stereotypical and/or racist I did not turn out that way. I am not a racist or stereotypical person and I don't think any people my age who viewed any media from the past are as well. So please stop ruining my childhood memories, I'm going to like this stuff regardless, I just don't want to hear the negativity.
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I agree with you 100% and ever since the class started I have been thinking the same thing.
I mean if anyone reads a book and tries to LOOK for issues like stereotypes or problems in society, they will find them. I believe that just because we are looking so closely we find it. If anyone analyzes anything, books, movies, the way we do in class then they will find issues even if they are not true or supposed to be there.
But I disagree when you say children’s books are not meant to teach children about morals. I think they are a great way to teach children lessons and morals especially if you are a parent who will talk about it after reading or relate it to something in their real life. A children’s book also lets the child have their own way of thinking while reading. It lets them think for themselves unlike being told right and wrong by a parents or teacher.
I am very happy that Disney put out The Princess and the Frog. I agree this is a HUGE step for Disney and it shows how much our society is changing, but I can’t help but ask myself if Disney really wanted to do this or if they just felt like they had to?
Don’t let it ruin your childhood you should think what you want to think. That is what I am trying to do because just because a teacher or student notices a stereotype or an issue in a book doesn’t mean the author did it on purpose. Look at it how you want to look at it. When I told my mom how our class portrayed movies and books we used to read and watch together she laughed.
I agree with you in the fact that critics are over analyzing some of the movies and books of our youth. Growing up I loved watching Disney and hearing about all the romance and fairy-tales. Yes, it does give false hope of what life is like, but that is the beauty of the story, for children to use their imagination.
However, I don't agree that books and movies are for pure entertainment purposes. I think every aspect of a child's life is used as a lesson and can teach children important values and life lessons. Some parents aren't around and don't take the time to teach their children valuable things and so children turn to Disney or other forms of entertainment. Regardless if it's watching a movie or reading a book, a child is going to learn and react from the source. Authors and movie directors take into account what they are instilling in children's minds. I give props to Disney for The Princess and the Frog for finally having a different race other than the stereotypical white household. Times are changing and hopefully literature moves along with it.
I do understand where you are coming from on your post however, I am going to play devils advocate on this one. When you hear about all of these disney movies, and childhood book trying to show stereotypes, and send hidden messages, it is easy to say people are just looking too far into a simple story. But in fact they may be bring up valid points. After reading the article for this week, some of the points brought up were hard to disregard. When all you see in movies is a slim, good looking white women playing the role of princess, how can a good portion of the population relate to the story. If your childhood is being ruined by hearing about all these stereotypes, some people may have never got to experience this aspect of their childhood because they could not relate to the stories at all.
I do like how you mentioned the princess and the frog, because this is a great example of trying to change the way disney movies are being made. But again I am sure you can find hundreds of stereo types and hidden messages in that movie as well. Also just because all of these stereotypes are present in these movies and books, it is not trying to make people feel bad or downplay the movie/book, it just means people need to be aware of the things they are showing to their children. Again I am not trying say that your opinion is wrong, you just have to look at the issue from a different point of view.
Lauren, I agree with you 100%. What you said about how there were a majority of white/Caucasian people in the United States is absolutely true, and I agree that it had a strong influence on literature. According to census statistics, in 1950 89.5% of the population was white, African Americans made up only 10% of the population, and other races, only .5%. In 2005, 80% of the population is still white/Caucasian, African Americans make up 12.8% of the population, and 7% fall into the category of "other races." (http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0110384.html) It is factual that the white/Caucasian race was a dominant group simply because they made up 90% of the population and still make up 80% of the population. The U.S. is becoming more diverse, and so, other cultures are integrating their culture into American society. But, I think critics need to consider the census statistics before saying whites were trying to create a stereotype of dominance, because they factually were the dominant group at that time. I have been thinking a lot about reader's response. While I do think that everyone is entitled to their own opinion, I believe that there is still one right answer: the intent of the author. And, at the end of the day, there are reasons the author was writing and ideas that they wanted to portray. Sometimes these ideas are harmful, however, most of the time, people read to far into it; their mind is in the gutter and they warp what was meant to be good.
It’s hard for me to say I agree fully and completely. I would love to say that I just can’t stand listening to people attack my childhood favorites, and truly I can’t; but there is a strong part of me that doesn’t disagree with them.
I would agree some critics go too far and some are just plain malicious, but what about the ones who aren’t? What about the people who pick up a book and never find a character that looks, or acts, or speaks like them? What about the people that have to fight the stereotypes that books and the media has shaped, the people who only get to play the “bad guys” or the “crooks”; don’t they disserve an equal chance to be the hero if your argument is that they are in reality? I respect the fact that your argument is based on progress, and its reference to the Princess and the Frog, but in my eyes this isn’t progress since African Americans have been equal for decades and it took this long to come up with ONE movie with a lead black role from Disney, one of the most popular sources of entertainment in the world. It just doesn’t seem to add up.
I will not fight you on your point that “this is the way it was back when”, but we don’t live back then, we live now, and these are the issues we face and they are still present in current literature. I won’t disagree that isn’t heart wrenching to hear your favorite childhood story ripped to shreds, but I find the points made relevant to the world we live in now. If I was a little kid with different color skin and the only person that ever looked like me in a story was the villain I might just think that’s what I’m supposed to be. I’m tired of everyone assuming little kids don’t get it, that they won’t pick up on things. They do, they know before you even tell them. Kids are sponges, they don’t just absorb the good stuff like we all like to think they do, the get it all the good, the bad and the ugly.
Sure it sucks to see your favorite book exposed to the worst possible criticism and sure some of it is outlandish and ridiculous. But stop for a second and realize that was then and this is now, kids are growing up faster than we give them credit for and as hard as it might be the world needs to grow up with them.
I would have to disagree with you 100%. While we are a generation that grew up with Disney fairy tales and grew to love and adore them, we shouldn’t cast aside what implicit messages their movies are sending to the children watching them (REGARDLESS of whether that is what the creators intended or not). To bring up an excellent point that Linda Christensen made in Unlearning the Myths That Bind Us, “No one wants to admit that they’ve been ‘handled’ by the media.” I think that this is one of the main reasons so many people freak out when they are first introduced to the idea of corruption via Disney. People like to look back at their lives and think that they are responsible for how they turned out. As much as I’d like to say that, I know it’s partially wrong. Look at your sexual orientation, the life you want to live, the kind of man you want to marry, all of this I think is reflective of the types of media that impacted us as children. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not advocating that every woman should reject the idea of married life with kids, I want that for myself, but I am also aware that part of the reason why I want these things is because I have been influenced by the movies I’ve grown up with. What Disney is doing is advocating that this is the ONLY way a woman can be happy, that being alone will leave you looking and acting like Ursula from The Little Mermaid, or the wicked step mother from Cinderella.
Aside from woman, I also think it is not acceptable that minorities are not represented in Disney movies. I think we discussed this in class: when children who are not white watch these movies and don’t see characters that are like themselves, they feel unimportant. I get it when you say that these movies were created a while ago when it was acceptable for a woman to be dependent on a man and the white race was dominant (well, that part hasn’t changed much). The problem with that is we continue to show these ‘outdated’, I guess you could say, movies today.
You may not have been able to comprehend these matters when you were five so you think this couldn’t possibly have had an effect on your life. But the next time you watch a Disney movie, look at it from a feminist or racial stand point. You’d be surprised at how much you notice.
Lauren, I also agree with you for the most part Ever since the discussions in the class, I have thought more about the negative aspects about the childhood stories and movies I grew up with and I don’t want to look solely at those aspects! You made a good point when you talked about how the majority of the United States were white/Caucasians at the time so the movies reflected society then. Now that Caucasians are slowly starting to become the minority, I believe that we will start to see much more diversity in the new movies and books to come.
I really think that people read/look too far into them, trying to grasp something negative out of it. I believe that the author doesn’t sit down and produce a movie or write a children’s novel with these aspects in mind. By looking too far into it, it seems as if people are twisting the basic storylines/morals.
However, children are like sponges and really do pick up on things more than one would think. They might not verbally express what they get out of the movie or story, but these things are getting engrossed in their brains and will eventually become vocalized with age. I think that we do need more diversity in children’s books so that all children are represented. In conclusion, I also don’t like the bashing and the picking apart of our childhood movies and stories. However, I believe we are in desperate need to supply more diversity for our students today.
I agree most of your viewpoints, I have the same feeling as you that nowadays the new media and society are trying to "recreate" the old childhood story. As we all growing up and have a better understanding about our life and the real world, it is inevitable to have the same feeling as when we were young when respond to the same thing (story, movie and ect.) So whatever we recieve when we were a kid, we will look it differently now. In some aspect I think to have a stereotype story was not absolutely negative. Because children has the limitation when taken, understand, and absorb the story they read, therefore a stereotyping story is easier and more acceptable for children to understand. And ofcourse all of us will see it through the diffrent perspective when we grown up.
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