RGM post 7

I absolutely love Disney. I love the stories and songs and the magic of it. But I realize that the portrayal of women anger many people. They are shown as damsels in distress many times. However, in recent years they have gotten much better in my opinion. Mulan tells the story of a woman going to war for her father. Brave's Merida has no interest in being married and wants to make her own way. In Frozen, the true love is love between sisters and the main male character isn't the hero.

While I love all of these movies, I love the older ones as well! I actually like the romantic idea of women being swept off of their feet. Maybe not in the same way as the movies show, but I am perfectly fine with the men being shown as the strong ones. Men are built stronger than we are, but that's not to say that women aren't strong too. I feel like Disney does a pretty good job of showing that women are more than just weak creatures waiting to be rescued because they are incompetent and have no minds of their own.

I think Disney has also done better recently portraying different races. Pocahontis, Mulan, Tiana, Jasmine and Merida are just a few examples, but most of the stories are set in different parts of the world. And the characters I just named are just princesses. There are other stories that Disney has told with different races and cultures.

I know and accept that there is still room for improvement, but my opinion is that they have done a pretty good job so far. The older movies have less diversity, but you have to think of the time when the movies were made.

I also kind of feel like people tend to look at the bad and focus on that, but pay little or no attention to the good things. Not just with Disney, but with life in general. I fell like sometimes people try to find the bad in things instead of looking for the good. Instead of seeing all of the good things Disney has done, people want to get upset about the characters they chose to write movies for. Honestly, I tend to feel like people are too sensitive.

Now that’s not to say that I am excusing things, because that’s the furthest thing from my mind. I want to see things change just as much as the next person. But the thing I’ve seen is people getting all mad and expressing these opinions but never acting on it. They want the change but they won’t do anything to help that change to come about.

In order for anything to change, people have to listen to each other and cooperate instead of getting themselves all worked up and nothing ever comes of it. The end of this blog has nothing to do with Disney really, but this is what I think is actually important.

RGM post 6

In class last week we talked a little bit about the Always "Like a Girl" commercial. I have loved this commercial every time I've watched it. It shows the difference between young girls' and teen girls' views of what "like a girl" means. When the older girls were asked to do things like a girl, they did the actions weakly and clearly not in their full strength. But when the younger girls were asked to do things like a girl, they did them to the best of their ability.

One thing that struck me was the little boy in the mix. When he was asked if he had insulted his sister, he was taken aback because he hadn't thought about it that way. He knew it was insulting to girls, but he didn't think about it being insulting to his own sister.

My favorite part about the ad is when the girls are given a second chance to do things like a girl. Their attitudes have changed and they want to do things better. I think that society has really played on the fact that girls are not as strong as men maybe. They've taken something true, that we are girls, and made it a bad thing. They've made it seem like being a girl means that we are weak and can't do things well. And that's simply not the case.

Being a girl is not something that hinders me in any way, but it's so easy to believe things like that when you're younger. Yes, I do things like a girl. That's because, surprise, I am a girl. I'm not weak or incompetent. I know my limitations, and my strengths. I just wish that young girls weren't so bombarded all the time with ads and shows that focus on their looks or personalities.

This goes back to the week that we watched the documentary about women and ads, and how they're all around us and how much they must affect younger girls.

Another thing that I can’t help but think about when it comes to these topics is the movie Mona Lisa Smile. The movie focuses on the fact that in that time period, girls focused on getting married and running their households. Yes, they went to college. But most women didn’t do anything with the degree they worked so hard for. And I am not at all against women who run their homes and stay home with the children. That is a noble job itself. But in the movie, it was what was expected of them so that’s what they did.

The girls who wanted to actually pursue a career were looked down upon. It was a time when having a brain meant next to nothing. We have come a long way since then, and I’m really happy that I’m not expected to be married by the time I graduate. I’m glad that I have my family’s full support in wanting to have a career and chase after my dreams.