Argument:
Linda Christensen argues that "Our society's culture industry colonizes their minds and teaches them (children) how to act, live, and dream." She discusses throughout her article the affect that analyzing children's cartoons and movies has had on her students. They took the time to discover how racism and sexism are woven into the subtexts of children's films. With this came the idea that these underlying messages have had an affect on us since before we realized it. The media has fed us ideas and shaped us as individuals without us realizing it. One example Christensen gave was the idea of body image. She references Tinkerbell in Peter Pan. Tinkerbell seen criticizing herself in the mirror. Unknown was the implanted idea in young girls minds that their bodies will never be perfect. Christensen mentions how she wants her "students to question this accepted knowledge and the secret
education delivered by cartoons as well as by the traditional literary canon." Gender and Race have been depicted in similar manors for years and to think that it hasn't affected anyone would be naive. I believe that Christensen's main point is to question what the media presents to children and be aware of the underlying messages that come forth through analysis.
Christensen's point of view is not new to me. I was lucky enough to take a seminar class that presented Disney's role in the corruption of America. I studied the views that were presented in
children's films and read articles explaining different points of view. At the end of the course we had all been changed by the idea that our thoughts weren't necessarily ours and had been implanted over time by the Disney Corporation. It is important to question the world around you.
Below is a link to an article that contains information on the affects of animation on children:
https://www.bmj.com/content/349/bmj.g7184
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