What Are Movies Teaching Our Children?
Stories are powerful. The stories we tell each other, the stories we create to help us make sense of our lives, the stories we hear or read from others. Stories are powerful because, I believe, we are narrative beings – we make sense of and share our lives through the concrete plots and characters of stories. Even though the scenes of most stories we tell or hear are not exactly the same as events in our life, the are like elements of our life, and that similarity connects us not only to the story in question but to each other.
Stories are powerful. Which is probably why film is such an incredible medium. It allows artists to take a story and cast it on the big screen, making it larger than life. It’s hard not to “enter into” the story projected on the screen, as for a couple of hours most of the things we are thinking about, wondering about, or worrying about get cast aside and we simply live in and on the terms of the story flickering in front of and around us.
But while we know stories are powerful, I wonder how often we consider the long term impact of the stories we consume. Precisely because we are narrative beings, that is, I suspect that we learn most of our values, set many of our expectations, and even create our understanding of reality through the stories we tell and hear.
And so from time to time it’s probably a really good idea to give attention to the values of the films we watch. Not just the obvious moral values about behavior, mind you, but the more subtle, implicit values of attitude and expectation.
Colin Stokes takes up just these themes in a TED Talk where he discusses his own observations of the impact of movies on his two young children. His 13-minute talk raises a number of interesting and important questions. What understanding of gender are our children acquiring via the movies they watch? What values about competition versus cooperation are they absorbing? Which narrative “worlds” would we rather have them live in? Comparing Star Wars and the Wizard of Oz, and commenting as well on the Disney princesses we looked at yesterday, Stokes invites us to give more thought to messages, values, and expectations we feed our children through the movies we share with them.
He raises a particular concern about gender roles and offers several startling statistics about the role of women in our favorite films. He goes on to ask how we, as well as our children, are being shaped by the striking absence of strong women who rely on each other, as well as on men, to solve problems together.
Colin Stokes is Communications Director for the not-for-profit Citizens Schools which extends the school day and raises academic achievement for middle schoolers in under-resourced communities by a network of volunteers and creative programming. He also writes the blog Zoom Out where he offers more insight into the media culture in which we are raising our children.
Notes 1): If you are receiving this post by email, you may need to click here to watch the video.
2) If you are looking for more resources relating to raising strong girls, check out Miss Representation and A Mighty Girl. Thanks to Siri Erickson for noting these in the comments on yesterday’s post.
Bravo! This was an excellent post for parents of girls and boys. I just watched “Brave” with my boys this past week and my 8 year old son said, “Now that was a good movie!” I was proud to see a girl be the strong one, along with her mother! Thanks for the insight and resources for us to pass on. This needs to be part of our conversation in the church. It also leads me to thinking differently about how I will preach the Narrative Lectionary text in Luke 7:3-50, on the “Sinful Woman Forgiven” this Sunday. Thank you, David.