cinderella ate my daughter

Well i know i am a little late on getting this blog done but as i was going through my checklist this was an assignment i had missing. better late than nothing at all i guess. I remember being a little girl and having a ton of dress up clothes, many of them "princess" dresses, more barbie dolls than ever needed, and even a pink barbie corvette. I had all sorts of pink belongings. i even remember me and my brother having power ranger costumes and naturally i had the pink one. although the orenstein's article was entertaining and interesting to read i had a very difficult time relating to it. I do understand her point of view and her concerns and feelings but i don't personally feel that being gendered and playing with certain toys has had anything to do with i was as a teenager. Maybe this is because i had a brother and so i had the option to also share his toys with him...but i do not remember him ever wanting to share my toys. While i also liked to play dress up from time to time i never really let the whole princess stories get to my head, i was just more concerned about getting dressed up and putting on shows for my stuffed animals and dolls. I personally never really started to have concerns about image until i was old enough to start reading teen magazines, and watching teen shows and started to have an interest in boys. I understand where orenstein is trying to argue, but i feel like each individual girl or boy learns differently and some kids are more sensitive than others. Not all girls who play with pink toys and barbie dolls are going to have a negative image about themselves or become some "princess" in adulthood. i just think that children should not be limited so they can all learn and explore equally with any toys they want. i also know that when i have children i'm sure i will be guilty of gendering them but i don't necessarily think that this will ruin them. i think it also depends partly on how that child is socialized with others and how they view the roles of their own parents. Then once they get older there are a whole new set of issues that are more harmful for them to worry about. like i said i had a tough time connecting to this article and have very mixed feelings about it, so doing this blog was a little difficult for me.

Teens Talk Back

Before i even start my blog i have to say how perfect it is that i just happen to catch a scene from boy meets world and cory is concerned about his appearance as he is going through an awkward teenage stage i suppose. Topanga starts to comfort him and tell him that appearance does not matter and he is still the same awesome person and all that good stuff...then she happens to pass a mirror and notices that one side of her hair has been cut and is shorter than the other side. She screams in horror. After panicking briefly she says that all of this time she thought she was someone who did not care about her image at all but really she was just comfortable with her image this entire time so it just did not bother her. She finally goes on to realize that her hair does not make her and with or without her long hair she is the same person. This showed me just how much the media really does affect teens and how they feel about their image. It reminds me about being in middle school and high school and how i was obsessed with having the latest trends and all of the "must have" products out there for young girls to make them popular and enhance their image. Even now i am a little tempted when i see a commercial or ad for a product that seems "life changing". Some teens take living up to these expectations too seriously and devote so much time and energy into their image so others will like them or approve of them. For some these expectations may even lead to serious disorders, self mutilation, drugs, or even suicide.  i was never one of the "popular" girls, what ever that really means, and not that i really wanted to be but you could not help but look at them and wish you could know what its like to be them for a day. At a young age anyways, i feel most girls wish for things that they don't have or wish they looked a little more like someone else. it is part of being a girl and being so extremely influenced by magazines and commercials and all sorts of ads...some girls just never really get out of this phase or take it to an unhealthy extreme. I really liked the video that jenna posted on her blog, it showed young girls aware of the negative and unrealistic influence of the media and they were fighting back to not be apart of it and to just be themselves and to make others aware of this problem. After watching the video i noticed a website for an organization pop up called projectgirl.org and it aims at enabling girls to become better informed critical consumers of mass media, advertising and entertainment...it is teaching them to become media literate. There is a really awesome video on the website under the tab labeled "meet the girl" and other really cool stuff in there that i think some of you may really enjoy. It is not only girls that are influenced but boys too, through music and music videos and even from ads on tv or actors they see on tv. Here are a couple other cool video i found just talking about media and how is it shaping our society. I think that it is crucial to teach our children how to love themselves and take a stand, as a group effort, to fight against the media. change only happens when you get a group together. More organizations like project girl could benefit teens greatly and also have just as many that benefit boys too. what are every one else's thoughts and opinions?

hip hop controversies

while i was checking to see if i had all of my work done i realized i was missing pictures and a hyperlink from my hip hop controversies blog so here are just a few...

hip hop controversies

Before this assignment I had never heard of Tricia Rose, but now I know she is an internationally respected scholar of post civil rights era black U.S. culture, popular music, social issues, gender and sexuality. She lectures on a wide range of issues relating to race in America, mass media, structural inequality, popular culture, gender and sexuality, and art and social justice. She has been featured on many local and national media outlets. She is an incredible speaker and very animated and passionate about the topics she discusses. She is best known for her book titled Black Noise: Rap Music and Black Culture in Contemporary America written on the emergence of hip hop culture. Her book has had great recognition from various institutions. It is considered a foundational text for the study of hip hop. She argues that just hearing the word hip hop today creates images in our mind as to what it is all about. Some of these images may be of well known rappers, drugs, money and sex. She talks about how what we hear in contemporary hip hop creates these negative images and it is all just for ways of making money. Even some well known rappers admitted that they had dumbed down their lyrics in order to make a few bucks. Reading the question and answer section of this reading started me thinking back about Christensen and the "secret education" and how we are taught at a young age how we should view the world. The same thing is going on here with hip hop. The industry creates this image, one that will make them rich, and this is suddenly what hip hop becomes. The value of real hip hop, the underground stuff, gets buried. This kind of also relates to Orenstein in a way. In that reading there was pink and blue, what girls should be and what boys should be. Here there is hip hop and contemporary hip hop, what the music really is and what image the industry has created for money purposes and to gather a following. I am guilty of hearing the word hip hop and seeing the same negative images i mentioned earlier. It actually turns me off from listening to that type of music. It is all the same. I really wish more rappers would take a stand and stray away from this contemporary hip hop image and do some creative stuff again...no need for all the swearing, killing, drug, sex talk. That is not talent.

queer representation in the media

The main theme of these readings was about "queer" individuals and how they are, as a group, represented in all forms of media. The only thing that kept running through my mind while reading these articles was that society views homosexual individuals as some sort of alien life form, much like the way that we view teenagers. They are completely placed in a category all of their own and pretty much viewed as being less important or less human, mainly because they are different from the norm that society has created for us to follow. Pretty much all of my close friends are either gay, lesbian, or bisexual, but its a little strange that i don't really pick up on the negative representations of homosexuals in the media. This is probably mostly because i do not watch many television shows and because i know what i do see in shows is not reality but instead it is what a narrow minded group of people believe is funny. None of my friends never really get offended by this type of stuff and really we all should be very offended. All of my gay friends are not "sissys" at all...one in particular could physically take on anyone if he had to and my lesbian friends are not all "butch". Why are these the characteristics that are automatically given to gays and lesbians. why are they viewed as being all the same and not as individual people with many different interests, beliefs, goals, styles, values and likes just as all heterosexual individuals do. Now that i have read these articles i am going to make it a point to watch some of the shows and films mentioned and with open eyes pick out all of the negative ways in which homosexuals are represented.

A Cycle of Outrage by James Gilbert

OK, so I have to say that I did not enjoy this reading at all. It just did not hold my interest and I found myself just skimming through the entire piece...I did the same for the Raby reading, and actually the two seemed like the same story to me. I have been sitting here all day trying to get my thoughts together enough to write something. So I have been reading through some of the blogs to see what others had to say and I really enjoyed reading what Jessica had to say. She focused on the quote "teenagers lacked a sense of the line between good fun and delinquency" (Gilbert, 12). Teenagers then and teenagers now are exactly the same, the only difference is that the economy changes and they must change with it. Stereotyping teenagers by their appearance is unfair and does not prove anything. Teenage years are when you are supposed to experiment with all sorts of things, some good and some bad. They are supposed to get into some trouble, it is how a person learns. Teens should experiment with their dress, appearance, and with different interests. This is a crucial time of figuring out what you want and who you will be. I love that Jessica commented on the industrial boom post war. She is so right, teens and adults alike both got caught up in the want for materialistic items. So far in all of the readings that we have done, including the Palladino piece, the Raby piece and now this one, they all have the same negative stereotypical view of teenagers and focuses on how their appearance makes them look aggressive. I feel like teens know boundaries and sometimes they push them on purpose and that is ok, the teen years are for learning and testing out the boundaries. This does not make them criminals at all. It makes them teenagers and it is a normal part of growing up. I would love for a group of teenagers to write an article about their views on teenagers and also their views on adults. Why do the adults always feel the need to explain teens and their delinquent behavior. Lets just go straight to the source. After all, weren't adults adolescents once? Didn't adults, as teenagers, take part in delinquent behavior, and maybe even listen to rock and roll, dress according to the fashion of the time, and maybe even rebel? I know that when I was in high school I snuck around, rebelled against my mom, disregarded my curfew, wore some pretty crazy things, had all sorts of hair styles, smoked cigarettes, drank alcohol, got a tattoo and hung out in the neighborhood all hours of the night. I don't think that makes me a criminal or delinquent, I was just being a kid. Even today, I have some customers that see my tattoos and totally freak out. They automatically put me in a category as some rebellious kid (most of them think i am 20...I am 27). It is super annoying that they think i am so great until they see tattoos and I can see the way their faces completely change. So unfair. We need to stop judging teens and talking about adolescents as a passing phase. Maybe we can even learn a little from these so called delinquents.

A Tangle of Discourses: Girls Negotiating Adolescence-Rebecca Raby

"by characterizing adolescence as a turbulent and emotional stage, adulthood is framed as rational, calm, evolved, and knowing."

During the teenage years most adults are dealing with the stress of raising a teenager. The teenagers themselves entering the storm discourse prepare for this unpredictable part of life and therefore it becomes manageable on them. For the parents, they face anxieties triggered by the storm discourse and these anxieties and emotions are then transferred to the teenagers. Adolescents then become a whole group who need protection from themselves and this in turn makes the adults the protectors.



"being in the state of coming of age erases the ability of those in the state to describe or know themselves and places the privilege and responsibility on adult experts to explain adolescents."

Teenagers in the becoming discourse are made to feel like they cannot make their own decisions because they cannot know ones self. They are often told that they are too young to know better, or they have not experience enough to know. Adults are then put in charge with helping teens to understand themselves and adolescents. In a way this is a good thing because they have the time to make mistakes and to start over again.



"youth today are courted as a high-consumer group, and are modelled in the media as the ideal age, with teenagehood constituting the onset of the best years of your life."

In the pleasurable consumption discourse teens are not only top consumers but they enjoy the things that teens are supposed to do. They obsess over and enjoy music, movies, shoppings and other things that are fun and teens are supposed to have fun. They often enjoy all of these things at their parents expense and usually with ease. With teens having this disposable income, media targets them in the advertising world.

Unlearning the myths that bind us

The author, Linda Christensen, argues that within all children’s cartoons, movies and literature, there is a “secret education” being taught to young ones and teaching them how to act, live and dream. This “secret education” portrays society in a specific way, usually favoring one particular race and sex, and gives children a false sense of how they should view the world they live in, specifically on culture, race, and gender role issues. Christensen goes even further in her argument by saying that there can be no change unless we “dissect the dreams” and teach kids how to recognize these injustices and take public action to enlighten others about these inequalities in children’s media. Most importantly, Christensen has a hidden agenda of her own, she is teaching her students how to rebel.

First, I would like to say that I thoroughly enjoyed reading this article. This topic always sparks my interest. When this issue is discussed in classes I feel like we never spend enough time with it. I love that the author based the article around her students, using their quotes and feelings. The whole reason for her writing this article is to not only teaching her class how to detect these inequalities in our children’s media but to get them to act out outside of the classroom to really make a difference. Before watching any cartoons, Christensen has her class read the preface and first chapter of Dorfman’s book. She has them write responses to questions that she poses and keep track of them in a journal. Her reason for picking this particular reading is that Dorfman is very controversial and really gets to the students, makes them sort of angry. He basically says that all media is constantly teaching us how to act and think. It teaches us about violence, fashion, sex roles, also how to love, succeed, buy, conquer and more than anything, we are taught how not to rebel. She then shows old cartoons and gets them to recognize inequalities and stereotypes in these cartoons by filling out a chart that she has put together for them. The students quickly point out the obvious things that they see and jot them down. They soon start to notice the not so obvious “secret education” hidden within the cartoons. Some of the main things that the students noticed were that men usually held leading roles. When women were involved, they looked like playboy centerfolds, or they had to become beautiful to get the man and live happily-ever-after. Other cartoons depicted money and material things as being the most valuable possessions. They also noticed that violence was portrayed as having no negative outcome. People of “inferior” race were seen as servants or as violent thieves. Just as women were limited to any power and had to be beautiful to be “happy”, the roles of men are also limited. Only men with good looks and strength were viewed as worthy and powerful, otherwise they were old or used for “good-natured” humor.  Even when they read the retelling of Cinderella, titled Cindy Ellie, they noticed it was still very unfair. Even though a woman of color and different culture was the main character of the story, she was only recognized after she was transformed. Her role as a woman did not change, she was still viewed as a man’s property and that she could only be happy after saying “I do”.  While we may not want to hear it, media has tricked us all and it follows us into our adult life. It teaches of how to females and how to be males. It teaches us that money is the key to a happy life. Violence is glorified. We are taught how to view other cultures and races. We are taught how to dress properly, how to talk, how to act, all to fit in with society. Even as adults we never get away from this “secret education”. Christensen’s whole lesson is to teach us how to rebel, how to tell the media we don’t care what they say, we have our own minds and can think for ourselves. Christensen is also trying to teach us that we will never be able to change this negativity if we do not speak up, and act out publicly. She wants to provide the opportunity to make a difference.

I personally do not think media is completely responsible for how we think and feel, but I will admit that it definitely has affected me in some ways. I definitely am afraid to rebel in some ways because I am scared of what others will think. Media totally can affect a person’s self esteem and build insecurities, especially for young girls and women. I’m curious as to how many people catch themselves being “handled” by media. How does it alter the way you think today? Does it have any affect on what you buy or how you dress? Are people afraid to rebel and be “different”?

About me

Hi everyone! My name is Tanya. I am a full time student at RIC and just applied to the radiology program. Praying I get in! I am taking this class as an elective because I thought it would be interesting and I heard great things about it. I am in love with my 3 year old yellow lab named Marley!! Over break I met my boyfriend's daughter A'driana for the first time...she lives in Alaska with her mom. I am looking forward to getting to know everyone this semester!