UNLEARNING THE MYTHS THAT BIND US

UNLEARNING THE MYTHS THAT BIND US
BY: LINDA CHRISTENSEN

                After reading Linda Christensen Unlearning the Myths That Bind Us, I could not help but connect this text to the movie A Cinderella Story, starring Hillary Duff as Sam and Chad Michael Murray as Austin. In this movie there a girl who is stereotyped as weird or geeky who works at a diner. Through high school all of the “rich” “popular” girls and boys such as Austin and his friends make fun of Sam. She lets it slide and continues to only be herself. Then the homecoming Halloween dance comes. She dresses up as Cinderella and tries to look like someone whom she is not just to try and impress the man of her dreams who she keeps a secret emailing relationship with because he will not tell her who he really is. When she gets to the dance she meets him and he does not know who she is under disguise. At the end of the movie he finally finds out who she is and of course they fall in love and end up going to Princeton together.  So the point that I am basically trying to make is that when Christensen makes her point that everyone tries to be something they are not  to impress that boy she is right. Why not just continue to be yourself? Why is it always about having to impress someone or getting that perfect guy or the perfect lifestyle? Why is it that in all movies and cartoons they all have the perfect hair or the perfect body?  Personally I know that if someone does not like me because instead of dressing up I wear sweatpants or because I like to sit around and eat junk food once and a while on the weekends they are not worth my time.

      Christensen says that “We are not only taught certain styles of violence, fashions, and sex roles by TV, movies, magazines, comic strips” , it is everywhere. As humans we will always try to be something we are not if we keep reading and watching these things. This all relates to Safe Spaces because people are also afraid of talking about being different like they are talking about other subjects that come with being human. Everyone needs to always be themselves and not worry about what anyone else thinks no matter what the situation is.

TALKING POINTS: Why do people not like to be themselves? Why is it that TV always has to make everyone perfect with the happy ending? People should never be afraid to be themselves.