#GETREAL

Inspired by "In Defense of Disney Princesses" by Mark Tapson

So I was perusing Facebook last week and saw this article that had been shared and it peaked my interest because of the conversations we had been having about princess culture. I thought it would make a perfect blog post. Read the article here!

Mark Tapson pulls from different articles and projects to come to his conclusions in his article, "In Defense of Disney Princesses." Tapson said that the Disney princesses are supposed to be career role models, they're supposed to be moral role models. "Disney movies aren't telling girls that they should limit their aspirations to becoming princesses; they're teaching them to adopt the values of Disney princesses." When I read this part of the article, it all clicked. For me, it made so much sense and like it was the obvious blinking sign that had been in our faces the whole time and society was just ignoring it.

In our class, the aspect of Princess Culture we talked about revolved around gender norms. The article didn't address this, but in class we did talk about the good and bad impact of being a princess has on our culture. The good impact this culture has is that it is instilling a strong sense of self  by empowering young girls. It also instills that girls should fight for justice ans stand up for herself, some of the exact values that are executed by the Disney Princesses. Sure, they're beautiful, and we want to dress up like them for Halloween, but like the article says, "no little girl wants to be Helen Keller or Jane Goodall for Halloween, just as no little boy wants to trick or treat as Louis Pasteur or Steve Jobs. That doesn't mean they won't grow up to change the world. The important thing is that they are being shown moral lessons."

I didn't exactly agree with everything that was said about the princess culture in class, but I sure can identify and agree with this article. I don't expect everyone to agree with me and that's ok, but I would hope that you read the article and think for yourself. I really enjoyed the Tapson's point of view and I appreciated the points he made.

Confessions of a tv-aholic.

I was a binge watcher before that term was even used. The amount of tv series that my parents and I own are a little ridiculous. Although it's probably my fault, I am kind of a tv addict, and I tend to jump on a bandwagon a little late, so I'm forced to buy the seasons and watch them either to catch up to the current season on tv or to watch them after they're already off the air. And I don't have a Netflix account, so that helps to control my television addiction and binge-ing potential.

Back to binge-watching. I love tv. And I am going to defend myself that I am not a couch potato, I genuinely enjoy the shows and the story lines and the characters and seeing how the characters are able to evolve and grow over the course of the series. But you see, by binge watching and consuming many different tv shows, I'm able to immerse myself in the story and the lives of the people I'm watching on the screen. How different is what I'm doing from all of the fandoms with their fan fiction and immersive cultures? I'm being intentional about what I'm choosing to consume, as are they. With Stevie we talked about the difference in binge-ing and other television consumption. The main difference is that when we binge a television show, we are being intentional with how we spend our tv time. Other times when we aren't binge-ing, we flip the channels until we find something acceptable to watch. We don't have a specific show we are tuning in to see, unless you do have one.

When I was younger, I would binge-watch through tv shows like The Nanny, The Andy Griffith Show (I'm an old soul, it's fine.), Reba, and Home Improvement. Over the past few summers, I've managed to watch Boy Meets World and Sabrina the Teenage Witch on YouTube. This school year, I've watched Gilmore Girls, Will & Grace, most of Mad Men, and I re-binge-watch The Big Bang Theory and Chuck all the time. I've seen all of these shows before, but because I have a sort of attachment to them, I don't have a problem with going back through and re-living the lives of these characters in a short amount of time.

So, do I have a tv addiction? Yep. Do I binge watch tv shows? Yep. Do I have a problem with that? Nope.

Call Me, Beep Me...She's Kim Possible!

Today in class we talked about Girl Power Programming and what qualified a tv show to portray an empowered girl. I think an excellent example would be Kim Possible. I really liked this show when I was younger because she was a secret-agent-spy-crime-fighter (which is a profession I was SUPER into for a while, not sure why) and also a normal teenager dealing with the cheer squad, school, family, and a not-boyfriend. I think Kim reflects most of the characteristics to be an empowered girl. She was obviously the lead in this show, she was complicated and contradictory because of her double life as a teenager and crime fighter. (Although more exciting than Hannah Montana in my opinion. Hello? She saved the world, how cool is that?) Kim Possible was also a social person because of her other friends besides Ron Stoppable that didn't help her in her crime-fighting and because she was the captain of her cheer squad. She had other interests in her life besides stopping the bad guy. She didn't reject boys (because apparently she and Ron got together in the end? Didn't remember that.), so that does help to keep her :real" to what a normal teenage girl is like, she has crushes. So the fact that this character subscribe to one of the empowered girl characteristics helped her to subscribe to a different one. One half of her personality was pretty real. I mean come on, the first line of the song literally says, "I'm your basic average girl,"so how could she not be just like you? How could you not want her for your best friend? I did! Kim Possible is awesome! Kim was the kick ass role model for us girls long before Katniss Everdeen came along. (Don't mistake that last line for Hunger Games hate, I love Katniss.) Isn't that what every show or movie is trying to do? Portray a character for the viewer to idolize and emulate? I think Kim Possible is an empowered girl and a great role model!

Here's a throwback for you, if you're interested...Sing it with me!

Princess Culture Reading reflection

While I was reading these collections of articles and essays, I was thinking to myself, oh my gosh, was I a "princess"? Do I have the potential to become one? Surely Not. HOPEFULLY not.

Is my 4 year old niece a "princess"? Does she have the potential to become one? Yup. Absolutely.

Am I, my mother, and my sister-in-law to blame? Most likely.

Is there time to turn it around and help to mold her into a well rounded and respectable human being that knows that she should work for everything she wants and that it doesn't all come handed to her on a silver platter?

Dear Lord I hope so.

Watching Gabbey grow up, I witnessed her going through the same stages of "first crawling, then walking, and then the urgent desire to wear something pink and sparkly." Now granted, it was our fault for putting her in these clothes and shoes before she had the option to choose what she liked for herself. We were practically forcing the sparkles on her (Aunt Ray Ray, guilty as charged) because what little girl wouldn't want to wear sparkles and pink and zebra stripes? Truth be told, she looks just as cute and adorable in blue, or purple, or green, or flats or jeans.

Nana (my mom) has also had a generous helping hand in pushing the pink and sparkles. Gabbey has a plethora of pink jewelry boxes to put all of her fake jewelry in, she has many dress up princess dresses and accessories, she has the pink Barbies and all the accessories, she has the pink doll houses, she has the fake make up, she has more than her little heart could possibly desire. But she likes all of these things, so who were we, the keepers of the presents, to deny her? Who were we to deny her the things that she didn't even know she should want? Not that there's anything wrong with dress up clothes because she uses her imagination when she plays with them and that's very important. I'm just realizing now that maybe we should get her more Doc McStuffins (who is that, by the way) or scientist dress up clothes and the accouterments that accompany them to show her that there are other things out there for her to become besides a princess. Heck, I had a Barbie that was a veterinarian! Remember the 90s when Barbie had every single profession? She was a lawyer, a doctor, an Olympian, an astronaut, a teacher, a horse rider, a politician, a pilot, a fashion designer, etc.  Does Gabbey have one of those? Doubt it.

From now on I am going to work to introduce her to things that don't focus on just becoming a princess. I'm going to introduce her to the movies Brave and Frozen because those princesses focus on other important aspects of life instead of just falling in love and finding a husband. (Note to self: Focus on other important aspects of life instead of just falling in love and finding a husband.)

Now a cautionary tale for myself: YOU ARE NOT CARRIE BRADSHAW. YOU DO NOT HAVE THE MEANS TO SUPPORT YOURSELF AS CARRIE BRADSHAW. YOU ARE NOT GOING TO HAVE THE FANCY SHOES AND BAGS. ACCEPT IT.

Sorry you had to witness that folks. I have the tendency to desire the finer things in life, and while there's nothing wrong with splurging or treating yourself every now and then, I am working to learn that there are more important things to focus on and to spend money on than the fancy purse or the nice clothes. I have four purses that work just fine, when I get tired of one I'll just switch them out. I am working to fight the tendencies I have to be a "Princess" and it's going to be a constant battle. I hope that my niece and I come out on the other side.

Reaction to the Army Experience

Tuesday's class wasn't the first exposure I'd had to the Army Experience shenanigans. I had learned about it from a different class, but Pop Culture showed more videos about it, which just enraged me more. I honestly couldn't believe that the Army Experience was a thing. A place where teenagers could go and play video games for free? Seriously. That's called enabling. Or maybe the Army is thinking this is more lifestyle marketing, but still. I don't think it's ok to be offering this kind of thing to teenagers. For starters, it gets impressionable teenagers to think that war isn't a big deal and that it's just like this super awesome video game they're playing. IT'S NOT. They have no idea the kinds of repercussions that could follow from participating in a war especially if  they're not emotionally or mentally prepared. The video games don't show and tell all of the awful PTSD that soldiers suffer from, and they don't show the injuries that soldiers come back with. For my next point, I'm going to use a line from one of my favorite movies, Wreck it Ralph. "If you die outside of your game, you don't regenerate!" Which is true! If they screw up in a game, they wait five seconds and they can use their next life until they run out, then start the game over. War is not a game, folks. You don't get a second chance. The Army Experience is being really irresponsible in my opinion. Sure, they don't talk to kids under a certain age, and only if they come to the recruiters with questions, but they are still instilling a thought in these kids' heads by connecting the Army to these first-person shooter games; they are instilling the thought that war is just like these games. It's not. I would love to hear some feedback from some of the recruits who signed up because of the Army Experience and see what they had to say about war after going through it.