Critical Lenses

Image source: Wildflower Preservation Society, Illinois Chapter circa 1920 

Confession: I've been watching a certain Japanese Anime (Girls Bravo, 2004, Mario Kandeda), in my spare time. It's a vapid show, mostly about these alien chicks from a planet with no men who keep finding themselves in unintentionally titillating and sexy situations. I recognize how sexist, objectifying to women, ridiculous, inappropriate, etc, it all is. In one episode, an innocent alien girl (probably high school age), winds up through various shenanigans on Earth in a sexy panda outfit, with a very cartoony stampede of men groping and photographing her against her will saying "will you wear a maid suit for me?" I mean, we're talking serious presque-rape, but slapsticky, as if these situations are hilarious. It's horrible. But I still love it. I guess because it's entertaining and goofy, and just a good story.

I could say the same for books like Falling for Rapunzel by Leah Wilcox, where it's all too easy to deconstruct it into a "what do you know, another woman as an object which a man has to go and retrieve because she has no will of her own" sort of thing. I could tell some of my classmates were pretty bummed after we had enjoyed the cute cleverness of it together one moment, then were picking apart its message about gender the next. I would like to cheer my classmates up and tell them how I feel about such layered pieces of literature: that just because it can be looked at critically in this way, doesn't mean I can't also think it's adorable, love the rhyme scheme, and find it to be SMACK on the interest level of some of my kiddos. Books come from a time and a place, which is why antiquated ideas like in Mark Twain novels can make us blush, yet we still read them in schools today. I think we continue to enjoy these stories because they are fascinating slivers of life from a time past, and often because they are just good stories. Our own literature that we produce now can be viewed in the same way, but they're slivers of OUR lives, which is probably even MORE important to understand than Huckleberry Finn's life. Falling for Rapunzel might be said to propel gender stereotypes that I disagree with, but so do lots of Shakespeare plays, and I would still value their artistic value. Being able to recognize the secret, unofficial messages lurking in stories by putting on my critical lenses, I can choose books with full intention. Maybe we'll talk about what this book assumes about women this time, and maybe we'll stick to funny words that rhyme with "my dear". Knowledge is power, right? Having different lenses to put on when looking at literature or picking out classroom books is totally a form of power.

Sometimes I worry that every little thing I say or do is somehow warping girls of the future. Better not compliment their looks, put down my own looks in front of them, or encourage too much Disney Princess fever. But then I remind myself that I used to love all that stuff, too. Which means, eventually, if their teachers have done their jobs, these girls should have their own pair of critical lenses just like mine! And they can put them on when they need to be smart about messages they're being fed, and take them off when they just want to relax with a good story, just like I do.