What do you first notice about this magazine cover? Is it the article titles? Is it the images?
For me it was the largely printed word 'No'. From there I automatically looked at what the article would be about. It seems to be that it would be about not saying no to children and still getting good behaviour. What I did not notice until it was discussed in class, was the child in a Native American headdress on the ottoman. This is a normalized action it seems for society these days. Many people are so used to seeing these types of stereotypes on a daily basis that they do not even register until observed critically.
As we analyzed this image in class many issues were brought up surrounding it. Some even said, "So what, it is just a young girl playing dress up" or "We don't know the circumstances of this photo shoot. The girl may have been given options and put this one on herself". This raised quite a discussion in class about how we normalize the dressing up as other cultures without realizing what they are about.
I personally applaud all of the people who went on to social media to get the magazine for this month removed from shelves. After spending about half of a class (when we only had 15 minutes planned for it--which is not near enough time since we could have discussed this in both of our classes this week) critically analyzing the cover and why it was removed, we realized that most of us who did not notice the little girl in a headdress or that she was wearing a headdress are normalized to this. We are so used to seeing this type of "dress up" in our society and as we have grown up we have accepted that it is ok for people to do this. However, when after discussing people dressing up in these "costumes" and seeing this in our own community, it is clear that we have to educate those around us about the implications that dressing up in "theme costumes", like that of a headdress on a child, will have on people within our society.
As we analyzed this image in class many issues were brought up surrounding it. Some even said, "So what, it is just a young girl playing dress up" or "We don't know the circumstances of this photo shoot. The girl may have been given options and put this one on herself". This raised quite a discussion in class about how we normalize the dressing up as other cultures without realizing what they are about.
I personally applaud all of the people who went on to social media to get the magazine for this month removed from shelves. After spending about half of a class (when we only had 15 minutes planned for it--which is not near enough time since we could have discussed this in both of our classes this week) critically analyzing the cover and why it was removed, we realized that most of us who did not notice the little girl in a headdress or that she was wearing a headdress are normalized to this. We are so used to seeing this type of "dress up" in our society and as we have grown up we have accepted that it is ok for people to do this. However, when after discussing people dressing up in these "costumes" and seeing this in our own community, it is clear that we have to educate those around us about the implications that dressing up in "theme costumes", like that of a headdress on a child, will have on people within our society.