Unlearning The Myths That Bind Us Analysis

Nelson Mandela once said, “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world”. From a young age we have a strong desire to gain access to and pick up on new information. As we mature, different ideas are constantly being thrown at us, which forces us to reevaluate what we have been manufactured to believe. Although the idea is disheartening, we find that our innocence we have as children may have been used against us in a way that counterbalances all the concepts we were taught. From there on out we begin to acknowledge that there are other theories in the world that we were not considering before simply because we were not introduced to them. When we become acquainted with terms such as race, gender, and social status, it is revealed to us that some people have privilege and power over others which presents them with more resources and opportunities

In Linda Christensen’s (2001) work, “Unlearning the Myths That Bind Us” she explains, “We are not only taught certain styles of violence, the latest fashions, and sex roles by TV… We are taught more than anything else, how not to rebel” (p.8). Disney movies and literature help to maintain subsisting power even if we do not understand that concept as children. For example, as a child, I longed to be cast the role of Belle in the Disney musical “Beauty and the Beast”. When auditions were just around the corner, I decided not to audition because I came to the conclusion on my own that I would not get the part simply because in the movie Belle is caucasian and I am Mexican. Therefore, I kept myself in “my place” and was upset feeling that I would never fit in because there are no Latina princesses. Kenya, a freshman quoted in the Christensen article, argued that, “Women who aren’t White begin to feel left out and ugly because they never get to play the princess”