Chapter 2 of Reading, Writing, and Rising Up

There are so many things I love about this chapter – it’s hard to know where to begin. First of all, it’s very interesting to read the critiques on cartoons and Disney movies not only because we don’t always think about them in a critical way, only in a nostalgic one. Secondly it’s interesting to me because I’m just coming out of Adolescent Literature, where we looked at books like Anne of Green Gables and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, taking critical looks at gender roles and race roles in society. Just as literature not only reflects society, but shapes it – movies do the same. Especially movies and literature geared towards a young audience. These movies and books targeted toward the young are enforcing, or attempting to enforce, certain ideologies about our roles in society.

On the Praise Poems, I find them a really good and positive idea. Although I’m not sure how I’ll be able to easily write one myself. In a society that is plastered with photos and images of what we are supposed to look like, it’d be difficult for anyone to get past that and talk a bout what they really value and embrace about themselves. I feel like I can write this poem, but I’m really not sure how much I’ll want to share it with the rest of the class. I mean what if I write about something about myself that no one else finds interesting or relevant? I’m sure every student Linda Christensen had write a Praise Poem had this exact same worry.