Christensen reflected briefly on her own childhood but primarily on her efforts in the classroom to challenge her students to critique popular childhood mediums and texts that enforce and perpetuate racist, sexist and classist behaviors and feelings.
She used older cartoons and movies that demonstrated more clearly for the students examples of racism and sexism and classism. Segueing from these unfamiliar cartoons to contemporary Disney films and popular television cartoons, the students began to notice patterns: fat women were the antagonists, men were valued for their valor, or their good-natured humor if they are older. Many characters reflected white males. Poor characters were dirty and servile.
A few criticisms/misunderstandings:
- Christensen seems to oversimplify the roots of the evils she discusses, as if they were manufactured in a particular place at a particular time by the powers that be at Disney, Mattel and Nike. .."
- On page 33, the author discusses the fantasy objectives involved in many of the films and stories. I agree wholeheartedly that the fantasies can be misguided but I think the purpose of fantasy in the world is to create a myth of non-representation - imagining a place or time or new person that you could be... that's a vital resource humans have, particularly the ones that aren't fortunate.
I do agree strongly with a statement on page 131 describing how non-white girls can easily see examples of racism but the gender inequities remained more invisible.
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Clearly you have your head around Christensen. But say a little more. You have a tight summary in your first section -- given that, what is her argument in this piece? Say more!
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