What are our Kids really learning from Disney?

I recently had to do a movie project for class. My group and I chose to do Disney for it. Not just any Disney, but the effect that it had on children. During this project we had to dissect many of my childhood favorites. Needless to say I came out very disappointed in the company I believed made magic.

We found out that not only are the majority of the songs and storylines sexist and borderline racist, but they are also very offensive to more than just one race. Disney portrays its characters in such a way that children are left with the thought that to be a good wife you must cook and clean and sing and wait on your husbands. They are also left with the insinuation that all Indians are savages, all Latinos steal cars, all black people are jazz talking cool Daddy-os’. When Disney’s songs and movies are dissected it is astounding how much they are influencing are children’s thoughts.

When we look at it seems obvious what they are doing, but when you are in the heat of the moment watching the movie with your giggling child who seems to experience every seen as if it were happening to them, we tend to over look the obvious. We tend to trust Disney so well because of their established ethos. Disney created the first animated cartoons, and they have followed us through the years. We trust them because they are the same cartoons that we watched when we were younger.  The make you empathize with every character in the movie until you are able to quote their lines. They make catchy timeless rhyming songs that are so fun to sing. So it is no wonder that we are blind to their faults, when they seem to create such joy. Even though it is false.

Forgive and Forget

Forgive but never forget this is one of my best friends’ life motto. She even went as far as getting it tattooed on to her body. She lives by this motto, and yet I don’t think she truly understands it. How can we say we forgive someone and yet not forget their past actions? IF we forgive them doesn't it mean we are willing to look pass their misdeeds or whatever they did to us. Yet if we don’t forget that is like saying we will hold a grudge forever. There will always be that one black spot in the friendship. One friend will never fully trust the other. It will always be a voice in the back of their minds reminding them of all the things this friend may have done. When life goes on the things will begin to pile up, as we are human and it is the human condition that allows us our mistakes. Ii know my friend is already starting as she continues to bring up something that happened in the seventh grade.

I am an easy going person, once I consider something done that usually settles it. So, her continuously bringing up something that I have already put behind me is grating. I feel as if once a situation is solved to the best of one’s ability we should then put that situation behind us and move on. Life has too many bumps in the road to be caught up in something that, on a large scale, doesn’t really matter. I believe the saying should be forgive and forget, because if it is something you are willing to forgive a person for, then there is no reason to remember it. If you’re not willing to forget then don’t pretend to forgive.

Know The Code

Every time I sit down in the bathroom and look up I am faced with a colorful eight by eleven sheet of paper. This paper just happens to be Stall Stories, a weekly news sheet with about eight articles on it that is placed in the Penn State bathroom stalls. One such article is the Know Your Code section.

In The Know Your Code article, the code of the Pennsylvania State School is discussed in such a way that is easy to understand. Not only is it easy to understand but it is given in pieces so that you are not overwhelmed all at once with the stories. They give it to you in parts so that you can contemplate more on what is being read then on just reading it. I believe that Kairos plays a huge part in the know your code articles. When people are sitting on a toilet there is little there to distract them. Most of us are not getting up anytime soon. The article is also placed at eye level from where you sit down, so it is directly in front of our gazes. We have little else to do in a bathroom but read the paper in front of us. I know that my eyes are immediately drawn to. The paper also has ethos as it is a paper given by the school, not something random that a student printed and taped to the door, we can trust what they are saying.

Stall Stories is a smart way to keep the students informed about what is happening that week, and the Know The Code section is a brilliant way to help students know when they are doing something they are not supposed to be doing. It teaches them the code that is otherwise unknown seeing as its normal appearance is in a large book that is written in an archaic language that is hard to decipher. I know I leave the bathroom with more knowledge than what I came in with. 

Sucky Video For Class

This is just a video we made for class its the best video ever!  ;)

Legals Only

Everyone has an opinion about the immigration issue. Either we are for allowing illegal immigrant into the country or we are against it. Personally I don’t mind either way. To me, there is no such thing as immigration. Who are we to put up borders on the Earth? I believe that no one can own land and that it should be open to any who want to settle. Humans are nomadic creatures by nature; it is what made us leave Africa in the first place. Just because most of the world is known colonized does not mean that we should stop.  Unfortunately not everyone believes the same as me.  In fact people go so far as to create ads to pull people over to their point of view, which is that immigration is bad.

The Rhetoric of these ads tends to focus more on evoking pathos then the logos. If we were to focus on the logos of these commercials then we would find that they do not make sense. They are usually filled with false information, or they do not give all the information. They make general statements and apply them to the whole of the population. The sad thing is that people believe this. They hear that someone is coming over and taking their money and jobs and they freak out. They forget that the only people who can claim the land is the Native Americans and everyone else are immigrants!

The problem is not that they are coming over and stealing the jobs that we do not want. The problem is that we are sending the jobs that we need overseas, because it is cheaper. All of these politicians who say that immigration is a huge problem and they are stealing our jobs, they are the primary ones who send the jobs away because it is cheaper.  The hypocrisy of our nation is truly astounding.