Unlearning the Myths That Bind Us- Linda Christensen
ARGUMENT

The first thing I analyzed was the title that Christensen decided to use for her piece. Before even reading I wanted to think about what I thought the piece was going to be about. I had an understanding for how media has influenced people and their actions but my eyes were opened to the multiple ways media could be used. I had always learned it was from television commercials or advertisements in magazines but it began when I was much younger as well. Christensen discusses the many stereotypes that exist in the world of Disney and one student wrote about the gender role issues that are secretly embedded in the Little Mermaid. I had not noticed that until reading this article and it made me realize how many hidden stereotypes there are in Disney movies and how those myths influenced me as a child. These are the myths that have bound me together and persuaded the way I think about certain situations.
Christensen's argument is that "Children's cartoons, movies, and literature are perhaps the most influential genre 'read'. Young people, unprotected by any intellectual armor, hear or watch these stories again and again, often from the warmth of their mother's or father's lap. The messages, or 'secret education,' linked with the security of their own homes, underscore the power these texts deliver. As Tatum's research suggests, the stereotypes and worldview embedded in the stories become accepted knowledge" (127). Her argument relates directly to the title she chose, the myths we grew up to accept became our knowledge and this knowledge is all we know so it does keep us together, or bind us, and we have to condition ourselves to unlearn it as we grow up because we learn that the information or stereotypes we learned to be true are actually untrue.
Comments to make in class: When I was younger there were no worries about whether I would be influenced by a movie or show, there was no paranoia that I would want to be somebody on television because I was taught right from wrong and I learned to be myself no matter what other people did or said. I enjoyed watching Disney movies, not for the stereotypes that were hidden but for the jokes and love stories and awesome characters and animation. Now we are so paranoid with what is being put into children's mind that we forget that it is not just the media that has an influence on children. So show them a Disney movie or a cartoon or read a book then explain to them the fictitious parts of it and let them enjoy the fantasy about it. This image shows the multiple influences on children and how closely related they are and how closely they affect children.