"The New and Improved Princess" Post 7.

• CONNECTIONS:  Use the reading to make connections to two other readings we have done in class.  Discuss the texts in relation to one another.

Ahhh... The Wonderful World of Disney and the Movies, lets talk about the movie  "Brave" I do have  to say that I truly enjoyed this movie for many reasons...

Well first let me start of with the connection between Orenstein's "Cinderella Ate My Daughter" and "Brave", Merrida's mother's preparation & training for her Princess duties can be seen in everyday practices intentionally or intentionally in our day to day practices and messages being thrown into young females faces. Through media through movies through our parents and their expectations of is, this whole expected role play seen in "Brave" through the mothers expectations on merrida and her becoming a princess and Females in the real world today are fed who they should be in society These specific piece I pulled from the text automatically tie in with Orenstein's piece on the whole visualization and conceptualization of "The Princess" and the roles she must fulfill. 

What I did like about Brave was the emphasis on resistance towards these roles that we are expected to fufil as young females in society. Merida refused to play these roles that her mother expected of her. She refused to get lost in those expectations of what the world wants to make out of her and she listened to her own voice and fought through the conflict. The ultimate result was the voice that laid within her was listened to she refused to play by the rules of what was expected of her and her relationship was mended through making her mother conscious of what is important in life and what the true meaning of love and life should be!!!!!! AWESOME FORM OF CREATIVE RESISTANCE!!!

Victims of a Massive Con Job: Post 7.

• REFLECTION: Write about your personal connections to this text.  What does it make you think about?  How does it relate to you? Be sure to draw directly from the text so that the author’s themes and issues are clear.

       
        "I have never seen a study proving that playing princess specifically damages girls' self-esteem or dampens other aspirations. And trust me, I've looked. There is, however, ample evidence that the more mainstream media girls consume, the more importance they place on being pretty and sexy" (Orenstein 18). 

            It is more than apparent that there is a massive con job going on here, yet masked through this brilliant idea: that idea summed up,"we are only giving the children what they want versus we are by no means coercing them with vast amounts of advertisements," (sarcasm of course).  Through these mainstream forms of media this secret education is sold through Disney Princess movies and the business flourished through mass production of these gendered products being sold, as well as the concepts and coercion being sold and projected towards and upon young females about what "ideal beauty" is and mass production/consumption of these Princess products. Capitalism and patriarchal social organizations could be blamed for young girls issues with body image, self-esteem, eating disorders, and suicide. 

             Although you cannot blame the companies for conspiring and brainwashing due to there conning ways munipulating parents and children there has to be a line drawn somewhere. As Orenstein mentions in the chapter there is a fine like between what we want as young kids and what we are secretly coerced to want. Not only are we fed to be and act and follow the roles of "Disney Princesses" but we are also coerced and subjected as well as victims of this massive con job. The stereotypical roles of princesses I mean come on now this is not a difficult thing to understand as adults and I bet without even listing them you have already thought about how you thought you had to be or act as a young girl in the blink of an eye! Like you know the graceful, soft-spoken, submissive, clean, pure, sweet, weightless, perfect body shape, loving, dainty, beautiful facial features, quiet, girly voice, virginil and husband ready? Yeah not surprising, I bet you could not dis-agree with these roles that you thought as a child were your definite future. Even if you felt different or you felt as if this did not fit who you were as a person you still felt that you had to do this because it was what you were supposed to do. Right? Even our parents are and were brainwashed into believing that as a girl, as their daughter you want princess barbies, or covers for your new bed, and don't forget you must have all of the princess movies. Daddy always calls you his little princess and plans out a that future princess wedding for you before you even come out the womb hoping you'll find the perfect prince and have the perfect family. Not to mention that as a princess you must fufill those princess roles, right? Like those I had listed earlier, but by no means could you step out of line. 

            Also do not forget the new and improved princess aka supergirl you must also be successful and strive for the riches while also being the perfect princess and by perfect I mean, fulfilling all of those princess roles, you know having that ideal beauty which consists of unattainable expectations, the perfect body, skin tone, weight, not a scar or blemish on that smooth skin of yours... BY NO MEANS  CAN WE EVER BE HUMAN BEINGS PEOPLE!!! DONT YOU GET THIS?! ha. The systems and frameworks that place these expectations, oppression, and manipulation upon us and the pressures we face as females on a day to day are far to insidious. They continue and have been used against us for a very long time and they continue to get stronger this will stop is from ever achieving are well deserved  prosperity and fulfillment in life and as living breathing human beings. As of right now we are the walking dead.... we have no say when it comes to large/massive change... but through our voices and resistance I hope that one day we can dismantle the machine!

FINAL PROJECT IDEA:

I was thinking about doing somethings creative for my final project. Possibly shedding light on the medias representations both false and true on teenage lesbian females. I would like to explain the correlation's with everything we have learned in teens in the media.  I would also like to include some things that would include creative resistance that go against the dominant ideology. The creative resistance via art, poetry, writing, protest, film etc.. that the lgbtq community as a "sub-group" has brought about to create change in the world to represent them in a more truthful positive representation that would go against the grain.

Teach kids how to think, not what to think!

MIDTERM PROJECT

I am working in a group with Chela and Jackie for the midterm project. We will be recording a short skit using a flip camera. The skit is about the perceptions of teenage girls and how their parents perceive them and the certain expectations they have of their teenagers. Parents at times get mixed messages via the media their lack of access to new ideas and ways of living can cause some conflict between adults and teenagers. We will also at the end of the screening give a short speech about how our short skit correlates with our readings so far this semester. We also hope to have time to have a couple minutes for discussion as well.

THIS IS WHAT HATE, GREED, AND VIOLENCE AGAINST HUMANITY LOOKS LIKE... WE NEED A BETTER WORLD (VIDEO IS GRAPHIC WARNING)

THIS IS WHAT HATE, GREED, AND VIOLENCE AGAINST HUMANITY LOOKS LIKE... WE NEED A BETTER WORLD (VIDEO IS GRAPHIC WARNING)

LAURYN HILL - THE PASSION IS SONG PLAYING  DURING VIDEO.

POST: 5 Ted Talk: Michael Wesch :From Knowledge to Knowledge-Able"

REFLECTION: Write about your personal connections to this text.  What does it make you think about?  How does it relate to you? Be sure to draw directly from the text so that the author’s themes and issues are clear.

“We cannot live the next 100 years, like the way we have lived the last 100 years” (Wesch TED). This 18 minute video just reminded me of the horror in which we endure on a day to day basis and the horror we will soon endure in the near future. This video reminded me of the murderous ways in which humanity destroys its very life source, home, and its means of survival for capital and positions. This video should make your heart cringe with fear for the future our children and our children’s children. Just look around when you are walking down the street the trash we leave behind, the fear of one another, the people we do not acknowledge based on races, based on classes, based on gender, or the destructive messages being thrown in our children's faces of which roles they should play, the oppressor or the oppressed. Take a deep look at the murderous violence our country forces upon other races, the female sex, children, and other countries for means of production. We so desperately need to realize everything we lack as a people because if we do not, I mean that TED video said it clear enough we will willingly disconnect our life support. Our planet is hanging on by a thin string and we need to use this new technology as a means to reunite the people, to create a global movement, and to save humanity. It is very clear that those whom wish to hold power do not care about humanity but rather their pockets and positions in the world. We need to connect, we need to speak loud, we need to stand against the dominant culture. If we do not we will seise to exist we will be destroyed. It is easy to sit in a classroom and feel as if you have made a difference and I am not saying that you have not because just being awake to attend classes like teens in the media is the first step. I want to use my voice but I want you to use your’s with mine lets do a little more. Talk to your classmates tell them you want and that you need more from them, collaborate with them, tell your teachers you wish to have a voice in classes, you wish to make a change, you wish to create a better tomorrow in every aspect of the word. A better world, better systems, better living, and better treatment for all living things. This destruction of the planet should leave you un-able to sleep at night as it does to me. I loved the ending statements of the video when he spoke of the small bird all by its lonesome trying to save its habitat and just through the vision of this one small step every other animal joined in to save their world. It seems to me that this world at this time in history and in past centuries only greed, hate, and violence is being spread all over the world. Lets join together as a people and stop it before its to late. We need to do the same as that little bird we need to utilize our beaks “the media/internet/voices” we have the ABILITY. We need to love one another, we need to spread love with everything in us, we need to let young girls know they are beautiful the way they are, let them know they do not need beauty products to be someone, we need to let boys know they do not need to be violent oppressors, we need to except all genders, all sexualities, all races, we need to make a difference and we desperately need to make a huge change. That is the only way we will survive as a species it is the only way we will save our home. LOVE YA’LL!!!