Disney Princesses:

(Cinderella Ate My Daughter-Peggy Orenstein) 

(Extended Comments: from Mike's blog) 

**I read Mike's blog and decided to do an extended comment type for my entry for this reading. I first want to point out that the pictures and videos Mike used were awesome. Mike's main focus was on the Disney princesses which I think is a very good focus point. Personally I have noticed the sudden commercialization of these princesses over the passed few years. I am also guilty of purchasing them for my 4 year old niece. She is a perfect example of a young girl who loves the princesses and gets excited to play with the newest toy or sticker book with their faces on them. As Mike said in his blog, "She says Disney movies can be promoting traditional gender roles, which tell young girls repeatedly what their role in society should be". This worries me because I love my niece like she is my own little one. I don't want her growing up and seeing these princesses and getting subliminal thoughts about how she needs to be domesticated and clean and fall in love with Prince Charming. However, my niece has not been exposed to every princess story. I know she does not own every Disney princess tale, so there are some things she has not been exposed to (thank God). She like the princesses because they're "pretty". Which also seems to be a problem that Orenstein points out. It is not just the idea that women need to become house wives and stay home and clean, cook, raise the family, etc... It is the image that these princesses represent that cause young girls to have these ideas.

**Just looking at the princesses you can see how a young girl would get such ideas like  "I want to be pretty, my hair needs to be prefect, I need teeth must be straight and white, I man only falls in love with a beautiful girl, I will be rejected if I'm not beautiful". I Googled some Disney Princess pictures and I found this picture

It's a pretty interesting picture of the princesses...all in bikinis and heels.

"There is, however, ample evidence that the more mainstream media girls consume, the more importance they place on being pretty and sexy. And a ream of studies shows that teenage girls and college students who hold conventional beliefs about femininity- especially those that emphasize beauty and pleasing behavior- are less ambitious and more likely to be depressed than their peers."

**On Mike's blog, he posted that picture of the princesses, each with a small message about how they live and what their advice would be. It seems like we are all quick to point fingers about how this stuff affects women and young girls. But what about young boys and men? Maybe it highers the expectations men have for women, or what about the self esteem of men? All these princesses fall for "Prince Charming". Wouldn't young boys and men feel that they have to meet a standard of "Prince Charming" to get a women to fall in love with them? When I Googled "Disney Princess Sexism" I found this great picture of the Disney Princes (similar to the one Mike posted). It represents what these princes would have to have or look like in order to get a princess to love them.

**This whole concept of the media having affects on girls and women is not new to me. I've discussed it in other classes and talked about how the Cover Girl adds tell us we're "still worth it", as if by aging we are no longer valued and worthless. This breaking down of women's self esteem continues through out our lives. These Disney Princesses may just be where it all begins.

**Point for class: Let's talk about how sexism affects men's self image also. We are all aware of the magazines and beauty product commercials that feed into women and make them feel they have to live up to a certain standard. What about men? What types of standards do the men in this class feel they are expected to live up to?

Some Good Reads!!

**So I tried the Google document thing that I asked about in class today...lets see how this goes: 


 **I'm posting three articles that I had to read this passed semester for another class and they are all relevant to what we have been talking about and I think they are really good! So if you are all interested and have some spare time check them out and let me know what you think!!


**We Are All Works in Progress




**White Privilege and Male Privilege




**Homophobia: A Weapon of Sexism

"Something about the subject..."

"Something about the Subject Makes it Hard to Name"
Gloria Yamato
(Argument)

**This author Gloria Yamato argues that the problem of racism lies within out systems and institutions. This means that it is not accurate to blame the problem of racism as an individual problem because it goes way beyond that.

      "Racism is the systematic, institutionalized mistreatment of one group

       by another based on racial heritage"

**She goes into further detail when she talks about how the oppression of these groups, and the different types of racism. I found it interesting to read about different types of racism. 

• I always heard of the aware/blatant type: "outright racists will, without apology or confusion, tell us that because of out color we don't appeal to them".
• Then there was the aware/convert and over racism: "Apartments were suddenly no longer vacant or rents were outrageously high, when black, brown, red, or yellow persons went to inquire about them. Job vacancies were suddenly filled, or we were fired for very vague reasons"

• The one I found to be the most interesting was the unaware/unintentional racism: "We're gonna give you the opportunity to fix it while we sleep. Just tell us what you need. Bye!!" This stuck out me because I find it sad that some people think they are truly trying to stop racism, yet, in their own words they are truly blaming the victim. That quote shows that the intentions are there because there is help being offered, but by saying give you the opportunity to fix it, says that its the victims fault. Once they fix it, then us while folks will follow along.

**The basic idea that Yamato is trying to stress is the fact that there are so many different forms of racism that need to be addressed on a systematic basis. Going one person at a time on an individual basis will not get us anywhere in fixing the problem. Some people say "that's life"- but with an attitude like that nothing will change. In order to truly defeat the idea of racism, Yamato says "Racism must be dealt with on two levels, persona & societal, and emotonal & institutional"

**On the last page of this article (pg 30) the last two paragraphs I really liked. (I know not everyone in the class was reading this article so maybe those of you who haven't read it should!) These paragraphs were aimed at Whites who want to be allies to people of color and People of color, working through internalized racism. They are interesting because Yamato tells group one about how they can educate themselves and not to expect people of color to teach us how to become non-oppressive. She then tells the second group to expect and insist that whites are capable of being allies and can learn.

**I typed "definition of racism" into youtube and i found this video that i think goes great with this reading! Definition of Racism

Let me know your opinions on what some of these people have to say :)

Assignment # 1: Allan G, Johnson

Privilege, Power, and Difference

Allan G. Johnson
(Quotes)

I couldn't help but to highlight the interesting things that stuck out to me in Johnson's reading. Here are some of the quotes and why they caught my attention:

"It's relatively easy, for example, for white people to fall into the safe and comfortable rut of thinking that racism is a problem that belongs to people of color, or for men to see sexism as a women's issue, or for members of the middle and upper classes to see poverty as people's own fault. But such thinking mistakes fantasy for reality. It pretends we can talk about "up" without "down" or that a "you" or a "them" can mean something without a "me" or an "us".

 >>> This quote caught my attention because I never saw these societal issues in this way. It was as if subconsciously I associated sexism as an issue of women, and racism as an issue of people of color. However, by reading this quote it was as if it made it conscious. I personally have associated such topics with one another without having an open mind that it can affect others too. Johnson also mentions that a problem of difference cannot just involve one group. This is so true! 

"But these groups can't do it on their own, because they don't have the power to change entrenched systems of privilege by themselves. If they could do that, there wouldn't be a problem in the first place."

 >>> I completely agree with quote too. If as a society, we think they these underprivileged classes should be able to get themselves the help and equality they want, wouldn't that mean we have to allow them the same opportunities? It sounds contradicting because society blames these lower classes and looks down upon them, instead of helping and offering them the same opportunities that the middle and upper classes have. If these resources were available to them they would have a better chance at becoming part of a higher class. Without options, help, or resources, how will these underprivileged classes ever get the chance to be equal?

"This supposedly makes it inevitable that you'll fear and distrust people who aren't like you and in spite of your good intentions, you'll find it impossible to get along with them"...

"If we feel afraid, it isn't what we don't know that frightens us, it's what we think we do know"

>>> These two quotes go hand in hand because Johnson is describing how if we fear the differeneces, we won't ever want to be open minded and allow them to be acceptable. When a person fears something, it is an immediate reaction to avoid, or want to get rid of the situation. However, when it comes to human well being, with us being social animals and in need of love and care, shouldn't we allow ourselves the opportunity to love all? To allow everyone equal rights and opportunites? Instead of being stubborn and fearing only what we THINK we know, why not allow ourselves to see what REALLY exsists.

"A "black woman" in Africa, therefore, who has not experienced white racism, does not think of herself as black or experience herself as black, nor do the people around her. African, yes; a woman, yes. But not as a black woman"

>>> This quote shocked me. I think it is sad that someone can identify themself as a person in one country, then has a racial tag or lable in another country. This woman isn't any less of a human or a person just because she has to put up with white racism in another country.

**These are just some other ideas that stuck out to me in the readings that I want to share:

"Men's violence and harrassment aimed at women is epidemic in the United States, for example, and show no sign of letting up anytime soon"

>>> This quote kind of ticks me off a little bit... I know this is a womens studies course so I'm expecting our primary focus to be on women, but quotes like these seem to generalize. This quote is only talking about men being violent towards women...What about other women who are violent towards women? Or even women who are violent towards men? Then the part where it says it doesn't seem like it will be letting up any time soon seems to put a negative bias towards men because we are assuming all violence is committed by men and that they'll never change. How can we want women and other classes, sexes, orientations, etc... to be equal when we generalize things like that? It seems contradicting and I just wanted to point that out! :-)

"Class differences have huge effects on people's lives, but class is fundamentally different fron gender, race, and sexual orientation. The most important difference is that while we all have the potential to change our class position, the other forms of differences are almost impossible to change."

>>> Do we all really have the potential to change our class position??? If that were true, wouldn't we all be of the upper class? Wouldn't we all have high incomes, big houses, and fancy cars and graduate degrees? That particular part of that quote jumped out at me. Johnson talks about the prviliege or lack there of, but then says something about how we all have potential. I think if we all truly believed that, we would all be equal. I do understand that he goes on to talk about how you cannot change race or sexual orientation because those are not choices. I just don't agree that everyone is allowed the same potential to change class.

-Kayla :-)

My First Post!

Hi everyone :) I'm Kayla and this is my first time taking a WMST course! So far it seems pretty interesting! The main reason I registered for the early spring was to catch up on some credits so I can hurry up and graduate :) Over break I didn't do much other than work. That consumes most of my time when I am not in class! See you guys soon!

Kayla