"Unlearning the Myths That Bind Us"
Linda Christensen
A student of Christensen by the name of Omar states after studying cartoons and childrens literature wrote "When we are reading children's books , we arent just reading cute little stories , we are discovering the tools with which a young society is manipulated." Before I took this class I would have never thought anything of the way the media depicts their characters. My eyes are now wide open to the sexism,racisim,etc. I also like how Eva stated in her blog that you barely ever see homosexuality in the media. Slowly but surely we are making progress but i feel like no matter what there will always be underlying conflicts with these issues in movies, magazines, and the media. I have to say that now thats sense of enjoyment and enteratinment has been taken away from me when it comes to watching tv, movies, and reading magazines.The more educated and open to these issues the more I am gong to becoime a critique of these issues rather then using them for entertainment. I hope some day I will not have to do that. A point was made which brought me back to my teenage years and hit home. Justine, a senior in Christensen's contemporary and literature and society class stated: "It can be overwhelming and discouraging to find out my whole self image has been formed mostly by others or underneath my worries by what I look like are years by being exposed to images of girls and their set roles given to them by TV and the media."I always had my own styles,however, I remember my first pair of NIKEs thats I begged my mom to buy for me because all the girls on the track team had them. She worked hard to get them for me despite they didnt make me run any differently or make me act any different towards the girls. Unfortunately after I had my NIKES at that point in my life I noticed the other girls talking to me more. I believe it is all subconcous and it amazes me to get down to the core like we are doing,simply amazing. I love to notice the unnoticed.

• Justine also made a statement which confused me. "True death equals a generation living by rules and attitudes they never questioned and producing more children who do the same" Is this saying death is portrayed differently in different religions or backgrounds? Or am I missing something as far as an underlying meaning?
• Also, I am wondering if anyone else believes if we make more equality within the media if you think people will still find issues to pick at within the media? Will it always need improvement? Just looking for some opinions on the issue....

I can relate this material to our first assignment which we are going over tomorrow on the assumptions. Many of us assume roles whether it be subconsciously or not. In the first class we related teens to lots of negativity which hopefully can be changed in the end. This article is very similar to the writers of these magazines, movies, tvs shows in which they are trying to make the perfect story, what they think to be perfect, which may not be in all of societies minds.