Thursday, February 21, 2008

Christensen reading: "Unlearning the myths..."

We didn't have time in class to do justice to the question of what is gained and lost when one reads traditional folklore vs innovations ("fakelore").

In particular, I'm curious to hear people's responses to the Christensen article. What do people think? Does mass media create and maintain stereotypes? If so, what should be our response? What questions or dilemmas does the article raise for you?

2 comments:

Rosemary K said...

I thought that the Christensen article brought up many good points that I have never considered before. She wrote about many stereotypes that the media plays in to and makes it evident that many books play in to it as well. For example, she wrote about how in many classic books, men are portrayed as strong, women are passive, and minorities are evil or absent. As teachers I think that it is so important to have books that portray every race, sex, class, etc., so that every child in the class can relate. Though I think there is nothing wrong with having these classic books we all grew up with in the classroom, I do think we have to be aware of not feeding into the stereotypes.

Valerie W. said...

I like that she even extends the argument to say that we need to "unlearn" stereotypes through critical reading and being exposed to particular types of representations that complicate stereotypes.