"Looking Pretty, Waiting for my Prince."

For my TE 348 class, we have to respond and analyze to literature. This weeks reading consisted of critiquing fairy tales and films. One of the articles in the coursepack was titled just that, and was a very compelling piece, to me at least. The article discussed "secret education" within books and movies. This secret knowledge is the basis of stereotypes. It argues that from a young age, children are exposed to stereotypes in cartoons without even knowing it! And after reading the article, I completely agree!

The article by Linda Christensen explains that in these children venues, women are seen as passive, men as strong, and people of color as absent or evil. These stories teach children how to act, live, and dream. They always show the domination of one societal role over another. These stereotypes embedded in the plot become accepted, because children don't know any better! For example Cinderella teaches children that happiness comes with getting the man, and that you can attain beauty with new clothes, makeup, and a new hairstyle. In fact, most fairy tales similar to this have the same theme. The girl is always trying to get the prince, which would make them happy. And the prince is always the one to slay the dragon and gain the pretty girl. Just as in Cinderella, yea he "won" the nice girl, but he did not know the step sisters were not nice, they weren't as pretty though. The girls are also a victim of the "help me syndrome" as Christensen explains. Always needing the help of the strong man, girls never seem to be able to accomplish anything on their own. Wow, couldn't imagine if that were anywhere near the truth. These recurring themes are kind of scary to think about, since they are being taught at such a young age, but they are really being secretly embedded into the minds of young children.

Not only is there a problem in gender stereotypes, but also race. Although race may be overlooked in cartoons since they don't stand out as much. But with that realization, we should ask ourselves why race issues don't stand out as much in cartoons? Because different races are ABSENT! How often do you see an African American Cinderella, or a main character at all that is colored? Think hard. Maybe the jungle book? Not a very good list! It seems that they just dont appear in these fairytales. Some can blame it on the fact that these tales originate from olden times, where race wasn't as accepted. But it's 2009, why are we not pushing the boundaries a little more? Who says we can't remake a classic with a different race? Or even produce a new story of race to become a classic? It seems like a bad excuse to me. Some also say race is occurring in today's fairytales, and usually these roles consist of: a servant. Seems very stereotypical to me. Is this what we really want children to learn?

It's time that these embedded secrets become talked about more. Not only talked about though, acted upon. Children should not be learning only these stereotypes in the media in books. They need to be shown all of the possibilities of roles of these races and genders. Teachers can help this by making sure children understand that there are no set roles for a set gender or race. Teachers can build lessons on this, and incorporate the books that do expand out of this dilemma. Yet, teachers can't be the only people doing this. It's up to parents, film producers, authors, etc. etc. We need to act upon this secret knowledge, and show children these limiting factors are definitely not accurate.