Unlearning The Myths That Bind Us

In the reading, Unlearning The Myths That Bind Us by Linda Christensen, Christensen goes into how media secretly shapes and educates young people to accept stereotypes and worldwide views as knowledge. In cartoons, movies, literature, advertisements, and especially now, the internet, children and young people are being exposed to and are absorbing myths on what society believes should be views on life. Through the media, we are all taught how to succeed, how to love, how to buy, how to conquer, what we should look like, how we should act, the list goes on and on. It is incredible the examples Christensen uses that show how racism, sexism, and other important social issues are sneakily put into what kids watch and read.
"Because we can never look like Cinderella, we begin to hate ourselves." Christensen says about how young girls and even women feel because of what media portrays a woman should look like. It saddens me that little girls at such a young age get brainwashed into what society believes the perfect woman should look like and act like. I have a 9 year old niece who is very very bright and earlier this year she told me she believes she's supposed to look a certain way and has hopes that she will soon, and I am quoting her, "blossom". At age nine! I just can't believe that media has been and still continues to dominate opinion and idealistic views on life and how much that can affect a person.
The picture below shows how inaccurately proportioned a "perfect" Barbie Doll would be if she were an actual woman. This is one example on how something every little girl loves can poison their mind into believing that it is possible to have the impossible mutant Barbie body.