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Christensen~ Reflection

When I started to read this article, a memory of my childhood came to mind.  Growing up, I was rarely, if ever, allowed to watch Disney Princess movies.  My parents reasoning behind this was that it sets young girls up for disappointment.  They were trying to protect me from believing that the girl always ends up with the perfect man.  Just like the beginning of Christensen's article mentioned, it is "manipulating young society by creating expectations".  The thought of a magical ending can be disappointing for someone (especially a child) that knows it is almost unattainable.  This leaves children questioning the cards they were dealt.  Especially when I was young, there were no princesses of minority races or anything other than the societies vision of perfection- skinny, white, beautiful hair, proper, etc.  As time has evolved, Disney princesses have developed into more diverse characters with diverse stories, yet they will always carry those stereotypes.  In the article, Christensen preformed an evaluation with students regarding old shows and movies.  It was very noticeable that women were absent in older films, the servants were black women, the pretty girl always gets the rich and popular prince, etc.  All of these racist/sexist stereotypes were viewed by children starting at very young ages.  It makes me wonder if that becomes a huge factor towards why people still classify race and gender.  Maybe if films did not prolong these stereotypes, then they would have been abolished sooner, though we will never know for sure.  One thing I do know for sure is that I will try my best to incorporate equal amounts of representation involving sex and race in my classroom.  Whether it be on posters, books or games.  This will allow every child to feel welcomed and included.  


Even as time evolved, there was not much of a change in incorporating multiracial characters.



Comments

  1. sbabulaMarch 3, 2019 at 3:21 PM

    I liked how you related the reading to yourself growing up. Also that you talked about the issues that these children are faced with. Growing up that's all I watched but have different views on these movies now.

    ReplyDelete
  2. CeliaMarch 3, 2019 at 5:55 PM

    I also used an image of disney princesses in my blog post. I think it is important that disney is now evolving like your image shows.

    ReplyDelete
  3. William RobergeMarch 17, 2019 at 9:53 AM

    I like how you used examples from when you were younger. Also how you talked about the stereotypes and the expectations that people have. Growing up and being around all of this will definitely change your point of view on some things.

    ReplyDelete

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