Christopher Bell: Bring on the Female Superheroes !
TEDxColoradoSprings
Oct 2015
· 15:48 ·
Key Points: This Ted Talk addresses how our media saturated society influences how we learn what we know about other people and about the world. The viewpoint is from a father observing his daughter's desire to identify with female superheroes that are virtually nonexistent as merchandise in the toy aisles of our stores. He uses examples from Star Wars, Disney, Marvel, and My Little Pony to cause us to think about a future where boys and girls are equally respected equally valued and equally represented.
Audience: Parents, educators, students, everyone
Relevance: As educators, we need to lead the way in helping our students to make choices apart from our society's media driven public pedagogy.
https://www.ted.com/talks/christopher_bell_bring_on_the_female_superheroes
The 15 minutes it took to watch this video was very well spent. I was shocked to hear the statistic that 90% of media is ran by just six companies. It is no wonder there are so many insecurities and judgement toward the likes and dislikes of children today. Now more than ever it is important we as educators demonstrate acceptance of all students and their interests. However more importantly, we need to work to accomplish acceptance of all students, by all students. I have noticed one of the most difficult tasks is encouraging students to develop self-esteem and walk around the school campus comfortable and with their heads held high. It is important we discuss the power, influence, and source of all media and encourage students to think critically about the influences received.
ReplyDeleteSusan, I love the term public pedagogy. I was so intrigued by this TED talk. I can relate to the speaker with a little girl of my own. The fact that 6 companies control 90 percent of the media is frightening. I was blown away by how marketing affects us as a society. Christopher Bell definitely got me thinking about how we describe little girls. The terms like tomboy and feisty which I never thought of in the way Mr. Bell explains, was an eye opener. This was a great TED talk.
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