Many people grow up with the Disney Princess franchise as an essential part of their childhood; however, as these people grow up they find flaws they never imagined as children in the Princesses. While some of these accusations are valid, many people find it necessary to nitpick the tiniest of details, and, often, these points do not even hold ground. Take, for example, this article, entitled "4 Terrible Lessons from Disney Princess Movies." by Bailey Hemphill. This article delves into many classic Disney Princess movies such as Cinderella, Snow White, and Sleeping Beauty, along with some more recent movies such as The Princess and The Frog and Tangled. Hemphill states that these movies teach young children lessons from feminine portrayal to family structure to social interactions, but she insists these movies teach all the wrong lessons to their young viewers. However, Hemphill overlooks the many good aspects Disney movies teach children, exaggerating the bad, and even portraying good lessons as terrible ones. Overall, this article holds little validity, and delves far too deep into the Disney movies, missing the beneficial lessons the stories are meant to teach.
Hemphill begins with the first ‘terrible lesson’, which is as follows: 1. Your romantic relationship should be co-dependent, based on lies, or make you change everything about who you are. According to this author, all Disney princesses are portrayed as helpless, lying, desperate girls willing to do anything to get the man of their dreams. That’s hardly the case. Mulan, for example, never intended to fall in love. The only reason she changed herself was to protect her family, and, most importantly, her father. She was not lying or changing herself in order to ‘get the guy,’ she was desperately trying to save her father’s life, even at the potential cost of her own. Snow White is also one of the supposed ‘helpless, desperate’ princesses according to Hemphill. Somehow, taking care of the several needy dwarves all while hiding away from a murderous queen makes her “helpless” and “desperate.” 2. Having a dysfunctional family builds strong character and makes you more interesting. First of all, this author blames Disney for the structure of the families when, in reality, the stories are not a Disney original. Most Disney Princess stories are taken directly from the Grimm Fairy Tales, and then animated into a movie. Disney cannot be blamed for a family structure taken directly from a different source. Even if Disney could be blamed, Hemphill goes too far in saying that “these broken families could suggest to children that they’re not interesting or likable, unless they have dysfunctional relationships with their families”. If anything, the dysfunctional families simply evoke sympathy among the audience for the protagonists from the movies. These family structures, it could be said, are simply used as a plot device to cause the viewer to sympathize with the Princess. To take it even further, Disney’s family structures don’t teach children that a dysfunctional family makes you more interesting; they teach children that dysfunctional families aren’t a disadvantage, nor do they define you: they teach children that they can become successful regardless of their family structures or past. 3. A social life consists of spending time with animals, inanimate objects, or non-humans. There are certain defining factors of a Disney princess: sing-song soprano voices, classic facial features, and, of course, animal friends who she loves. However, some could say that the absence of human friends could lead to antisocial tendencies. I could say that "some" are wrong. Realistically speaking, having a pet increases social interaction, and it helps with social anxiety or stress or depression. So, if anything, these movies are showing kids that being friends with animals is a positive thing. It also teaches them to not be mean or abusive to animals or their own pets. Also, kids aren't going to focus on how she's "antisocial" and "only talks to animals." They'll pay attention to the cute animals and the funny remarks or motions they make. I don't even think kids know what being antisocial is, so I doubt that they will think things like, "Those animals are making the princess not talk to anyone else." Also, in Snow White, Snow White has animal frienda, but she also talks to the seven dwarfs, so your claim is invalid. 4. Bad people are always fat, ugly, old, or some combination of those traits. These disney movies were made a while ago (for example: Snow White, 1937; Cinderella, 1950; Sleeping Beauty, 1959) - before people started to realize that what they said actually hurt others. Most of which were based off of Grimm Fairy Tales that were written in the 1800s. Also, in Beauty and the Beast, the whole idea is that Belle overlooked the fact that the Beast was… well… a Beast. She taught him how to read! She loved him for who he is, not what he looked like. Hemphill tells us that “Gaston = Ugly,” “The Witch = Ugly and Old,” and “Maleficent = Ugly and Old.” The point of all three of these villains is that they’re supposed to be beautiful. And the fairy godmother from Cinderella is a kind, loving being, but she’s shown as “old and fat.” And, with the kind of people living now as opposed to the 1900s, children will know the difference between right and wrong, and they will know better than to equate being bad with being "ugly" or "old" or "fat." Let's be real: not a lot of kids these days are watching old movies like Sleeping Beauty or Snow White. They're watching newer princess movies like Frozen and Brave. So get a new topic to whine about.
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It was what everyone had always dreamed of. Well, almost everyone. For everyone to access the same network, the same information, the same world, no matter where. To be able to skip the laborious process of making the trip to the library every time one needed to verify one fact or another. The future of information. A highway for information, gleaming, shiny, and new, holding more and more cars every minute of every day. It stretched wherever one wanted to go, and back again. But this glorious network of information only claimed to be perfect. As time went on, the inevitable effects of the environment took its toll on this highway. There were drawbacks and pitfalls for every hopeful idea, a con for every pro. Vicious viruses, meddlesome malware, incorrect information, lurking around every corner, behind every flashy, vivacious advertisement. We flocked to this bumpy highway full of information nonetheless, sure we would not be the victims of its many potholes. As the cars around us fell into the ever-widening, invisible cracks, we cruised on smoothly, not a care in the world. It’s only a matter of time before our own car collapses, but until then our wheels continue to turn, picking up little pebbles and stones, churning them around for a bit, and then dropping them elsewhere. Our tires pound the pavement, and we search for a construction crew to recover the damage the many other cars have done to this once-perfect highway. But no such crew is in sight. And as you gaze out your window for the first time, marveling at the sight of the highway, you remember what it once was. Constructed and then left to crumble piece by piece, before it is no longer safe for travel without fear of damage to either the car, the passenger, or both. Thus ends the life of the highway, and only the highway knows when this end may near.
Empathy: (noun)
The ability to understand and share the feelings of another. I’m including this definition because I’m not sure many of us know what it is. I mean, sure, we understand the gist of the word, but the idea and the application of the word are very, very different concepts than the word itself. We, as a society, know how to pronounce and define, but not how to perform and demonstrate this known, yet strange concept of empathy. Empathy is one of the essential factors in the equation of compassion, an equation that defines how we live. If empathy is removed from the formula, or misapplied, the entire equation warps, and our lives are greatly impacted. And, over time, empathy has been removed, or at the very least, our standards for empathy have been lowered exponentially. We see it every day: when someone drops their books in the hallway and nearly everyone just skirts around the victim, throwing them a sideways glance, slightly embarrassed for them, though at the same time glad it wasn’t them, and mildly irritated for the inconvenience this victim of pure luck has caused them, the passerby. Or when a pedestrian attempts to cross the road, yet no car is willing to pause their precious schedule for a mere minute in order to let the pedestrian pass. Empathy is an essential part of life, but we choose to exclude that from our lives, focusing on ourselves and our own lives, excluding others, save for when we find them useful. If we cannot find it in ourselves to reach out to others even when it doesn’t benefit us, we cannot progress as a society. Ever. As you may know, a video was recently put up on Youtube titled "What Guys Look For In Girls". The video was made by Nash Grier, a 'Viner' who just recently became a part of the Youtube community, and featured Cameron Dallas, who is also a Viner who's new to Youtube, and O2L member JC Caylen. In the video, the boys talked about what they thought men looked for in women. Many, if not all of the qualities they listed were not only sexist, but just rude in general. Many of the comments they made were advising women to be something they may or may not have the ability to be or do, so they could attract men or have men attracted to them. Some of these included being able to cook for men, entertain men, and as you can imagine, their were several others that were a lot worse. The release and contents of this video enraged many feminists including Hank Green, brother of author and blogger, John Green. Hank made a comment under this video about how it was degrading and offensive to women. After Hank's comment spread throughout media, Nash was forced to take down the video, but not to his luck, it still lives on in the internet. Many other feminists made and posted videos responding to Nash's video soon after it was taken down. Some well-known youtubers who made response videos include Savannah Brown, Hannah Whitton, Ashley Mardell, as well as many other angry feminists. You can watch some of these videos below. Savannah's video: http://youtu.be/YSHnnPunShg (This video has been taken down due to copyright issues, but according to Savannah, it will soon be back up on youtube) Hannah's videos (warning: channel includes explicit content): http://youtu.be/jRpkW7IyT6U Ashley's and Hannah's video: http://youtu.be/B7GBAAKCppw
The death penalty should be abolished, yet I do not believe this for the reasons you may think. If someone truly deserves to die for a crime they committed, then death is too easy. It sets these people free from their own guilt. I know of one death row inmate whose last words were something along the lines of "Finally, I am set free." This penalty should be abolished so that those who commit heinous crimes may sit in their cell and think about it everyday for the rest of their lives, rather than escape that guilt through death.
It's no secret that NBC has been the leading producer of comedy shows on prime-time for the last two decades: with shows like Friends, The Office, 30 Rock, Cheers, and Seinfeld. All of these critically acclaimed shows - which are not the only comedies NBC has to offer - are branded "Sophisticated Comedy": smart jokes with complex characters that are easily relatable. All of these shows have won awards and had (mostly) great ratings - so great that no other channel put any comedies on Thursday nights because that was the NBC Comedy Block.
But if they were doing so well with these smart comedies, why are they refusing to make anymore - and keep the current ones on the air? The simple answer - FOX and ratings. In that past few years, FOX has introduced three new comedies that rival anything on NBC right now: New Girl, The Mindy Project, and Brooklyn Nine-Nine - funny enough, these shows star or have regular guest stars that we're on NBC's biggest comedy, Saturday Night Live. FOX has made it very clear that they are moving away from their short-lived family comedies to smarter comedies. And NBC is making it very easy for them to take over as the new leader of comedy. When Columbus sailed the ocean blue, he came upon a peaceful, thriving world located in what we would now call Central America. Through his actions, that world and the people living in it were turned upside down. Within just about sixty years, Columbus would cause over 200,000 of the Taino people to die (historychannel.com). He would also force many more people to live in slavery or under a brutal government, and trick his own seamen. Columbus should not be celebrated for these actions; he should be punished! Columbus’s first voyage began on August 3rd, 1492. It took significantly longer than he had expected. Near the end of the voyage, Columbus’s crew started to become anxious and homesick. Columbus changed the ship’s log so that it would seem like they had covered less distance than they actually had. There’s a word for what Columbus did; it’s called deception. Columbus tricked his sailors to make up for his bad estimates. We should not regard people who trick their followers as heroes. Columbus is also guilty of maltreating the Taino people because he forced them to convert to Christianity. According to Milton Meltzer, “The idea that the Indians might have a right to determine their own way of life…did not occur to him” In the United States, everyone has the right to practice whatever religion they desire. Therefore, Christopher Columbus should not be celebrated for making others convert to his religion! Not only did Columbus force the Taino Indians to convert to Christianity; he also enslaved many of them. On his first day in the “New World”, Columbus described the Taino’s as good-looking, friendly, and helpful. That same day, he captured six of them to be slaves (historychannel.com). Columbus would go on to cause hundreds of thousands of Natives to work as servants, miners, or field-slaves. He would also fuel an era of mass slavery that would last for hundreds of years. The majority of people know Columbus as a sea captain. However, in his later years, he would become governor of what is now the Dominican Republic. As you might guess, Columbus was a fierce and brutal ruler. In one attempt to stop a rebellion, he killed many natives and put their dead bodies in the streets. These evil actions are just one more example of Columbus violating basic human rights. Columbus’s life was one “of both wonder and tragedy, of bravery and savagery” (Eichenberger). Though he may have had a few good qualities, he was certainly guilty of being deceptive, single-minded, and cruel to multiple groups of people. In conclusion, if you closely examine the actions of Columbus, you will discover that this celebrated man should be regarded as a villain, not a hero. A few friends were called in for a school survey. It was about our goals for the school year. My academic goals consist of staying alive. I honestly have no academic goals. Sure, I want to get good grades. But getting good grades isn't a goal. Having a number slapped to our minds like branded cattle is just a way to divide people into winners and losers. This a slap to our faces. Waking up everyday, jumping through hoops for six hours so you can get a golden star and pat on the head. Then you go home and in a few hours it starts all over again. No wonder people cut themselves, or smoke, or drink. If someone handed you a bottle, or a test which would you choose? People just like to say that teenagers do drugs because of peer pressure, because we're not strong enough to think for ourselves. Because people can't bear to think that their tax dollars go to an institution thats robs us of our ability to think for themselves. Remember kids, always think for yourself, oh, and on the test that determines if you succeed in life or not, there's only one right answer.
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