Wednesday, February 4, 2015
Fairytale vs. Real life
After reading both articles, Twilight vs. Hunger Games by Noah Berlasky and Escape from Wonderland: Disney and the Female Imagination Be Deborah Ross. I tend to notice that both of the authors talk about similar things. Both of them talk about these fictional characters that most of us have seen before in movies and how we idolize them in different ways. Such as in Twilight vs. Hunger he mentions Katniss being able to "beat-the-tar-out-of-bella" because Katniss is seen to be more muscular and as a fighter. But on the other hand Bella is seen weak and not a good "role model" for the women in this society. Therefore most of us girls see Katniss more as the hero type and we tend to idolize that from her because she is seen to be independent and is able to fight her own battles. The only similar thing that they have in common would be that they are both in love, fictional and get what they want at the end. In Escape from Wonderland: Disney and the Female Imagination, Deborah analyzes how Disney movies such as Alice in Wonderland, Beauty and the Beast, and The Little Mermaid give a false imagination on what womanhood should be. After seeing these movies, girls have been living in this fairytale type of life instead of drawing a line between a fairytale and reality. Even though I do think it is not wrong to show these types of movies to young girls because they should use their imagination instead of seeing the harsh truth at such young age. Eventually they will know the truth about the real world, instead of seeing it off of a fictional movie with fictional characters. I do believe both readings have a good meaning and I do agree with some things that they say, women/young girls should not be idolizing these fictional characters as role models in their everyday life.
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After reading Twilight vs. Hunger Games by Noah Berlasky I agree with her that many women view Katniss Everdeen as more of a role model than Bella, but why? I get that Katniss is strong and people like strong people, not going to lie I like Katniss better too. However, Bella is more relatable to most young girls. Most young girls do not kill people, they sit on their bed and cry about boys. Normally people are drawn towards people we can relate to so why in Bella vs. Katniss is not the case? Deborah Ross in her essay, Escape from Wonderland: Disney and the Female Imagination, talks about how Disney characters are not always the best role models for young girls as they show girls who do not even want to be girls themselves. Honestly I think many adults are reading too much into movies and shows that kids watch these days. Children understand that movies are not real, for example that mermaids do not exist and brush their beautiful long hair under the water. I agree with what you said that children will eventually know the truth about the real world, so why not let children watch these great movies that encourage imagination and are just plain fun to watch, that is the best thing about being a kid. That is what movies are for anyways, right to escape the real world. Also I do not think these kind of movies result in girls living in a fairytale type of life instead of the real world, some girls will be lucky enough and truly live a life that you may see in one of these movies and no single person can define what the “real world” is so anyone who chooses not to live in it, more power to them.
ReplyDeleteI Agree with you Andrea, I don't think these fictional characters should be idolized. Disney has always had the storyline of the girl waiting (almost always in a castle or asleep in a coma) and the prince or knight rescuing her, then they fall in love. This teaches young girls that they have to wait for boys, wait for them to decide who they want and whenever they feel like it.
ReplyDeleteI disagree with you Andrea on something else: "children understand that movies are not real" I disagree with that completely. They are children, with fresh innocent brains and absorbing information every minute. That's why children have games to identify colors and letters because it gets their brains involved and processing what is right, wrong, and correct. Movies have the same effect because they absorb the behaviors of these characters. They see the pretty girl wearing a big dress waiting for this handsome price to come take her away. It's that easy, wait for the boy to come. It's these women who are terrible role models.
My role models are people who made themselves who they are and didn't give a damn about who said they couldn't achieve their dreams. So to contribute to Noah Berlasky's "Twilight vs. Hunger Games" I would say Katniss is the better role model. She didn't get pregnant with a vampire baby, she didn't sit and sulk about a boy for about a year (that's a really long time wow), and she didn't drop all of her friends and family just because she got dumped. Katniss stood up for her district and family, she stayed loyal to herself, and she kicked ass because she had to in order to stay alive. She was humble, forgiving, understanding, and the entire series of novels was not about her love life. I considered this to be more of a "real world" role model than the series about vampires.
After reading the article Twilight vs. Hunger Games by Noah Berlasky as well as the article Escape from Wonderland: Disney and the Female Imagination by Deborah Ross, I must say that I agree with what you have to say a lot. I get when Noah Berlasky says that Bella is not a good role model when being compared to Katniss because Katniss was portrayed as a much tougher and maybe independent character, while Bella was portrayed as just the sort of emo girl in school who rarely talked with scarce friends. I also tend to agree with you more when you say that it is not wrong to show young girls these kinds of movies as explained in the article Escape from Wonderland: Disney and the Female Imagination. I really liked how you stated that girls at a young age should use their imagination to figure out what things are like at the beginning rather than finding out what the real world is like right off the bat. This is why we still tell kids to be good during Christmas and Santa Clause will bring them lots of gifts, even though we know down right that no such man exists and anyone who tells that to a kid is thought to be the Grinch. When I have a kid of course I am going to let them watch these Disney movies and cartoons, rather than putting it on the news and making them figure out what is going on themselves.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading the assigned material, Twilight vs. Hunger Games and Escape from Wonderland, I have to agree with both authors on their point of view. In Twilight vs. Hunger Games by Noah Berlasky, he analyses both movies and comes to the conclusion that Katniss is the more dominant, aggressive female and Bella comes off to be a bit more passive. With the rise of the feminist movement, Katniss’s character is more preferred because she portrays strength, intelligence, and determination. On the other hand, Bella is looked over as most feminist women are disgusted with her boy crazed ways and only wanting to find. In my opinion, both character accurately portray a female’s desire. Being able to fight for what you believe in, protecting the people you love at all cost, but also having a sensitive side and being gently enough to love someone with all your heart. In Escape from Wonderland: Disney and the Female Imagination by Deborah Ross, Ross express how she doesn’t believe fairytale like movies such as, Beauty and the Beast, The Little Mermaid, and Alice in Wonderland are not the best examples to show young girls because they don’t acutely depict “real-life”. Though she may be right that not all girls are going to be saved by their knight in shining armor out of a deserted castle, Ross and many other parents that have the same views have to understand that it’s just a movie for children’s entertainment. The reality and harshness of the world can wait, but for now I think it’s important to just let little kids be kids and for them to enjoy their freedom of imagination while they still can and live freely.
ReplyDeleteAndrea, I agree with you that both of these authors are talking about similar subjects. Female figures in movies are idolized left and right by young girls, but often times these characters aren't exactly the best role models. You stated that the reading suggests Bella is a bad "role mode" because she is weak. In part, this is true. But the author cites her bad decisions as to why she shouldn't be looked up to. This could be because of her emotional weakness, but not the frailness or lack of athleticism that Katniss has. I agree that young girls should not be idolizing these characters. Rather, little Sally should take away the lessons portrayed in Alice in Wonderland, instead of simply wanting to be Alice in her entirety.
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