Summary of 'Disney Princess Culture'

Princess culture still has its place in today's media and commodities, while it becomes less stereotypical. We still tend to think obedient characteristics is necessary for female characters subconsciously. The stereotypically gendered message creates a wrong preconceptions for growing children. For example, males are expected to be both physically and emotionally strong. Females are expected to be submissive and emotional. Initially, Disney princesses showed typical womanly characters, but over the time, these portrayals exhibit more manly behaviors.

                                                                                                          Yifan  [78 words]

Journal on 'Teams and Teamwork'

Link:http://www.derekstockley.com.au/newsletters-06/067-teamwork-importance.html

1. Typical definition of team and teamwork from people in a leadership training program is A group of people, contributing their individual knowledge and skills but working together to achieve a common goal/task.
2. most people agree that using teams and teamwork provides benefits to both individuals and organisations.
3. Modern technologies and new ways of doing business are changing the ways we use teams,  but the underlying principles and benefits remain.
4. Distance is no more a barrier. Virtual teams are more and more common thanks to internet.
5. They collaborate from different parts of the word through telephone calls, email, file sharing technology and other online meeting methods.
6. Team composition is critical for success. In fact, the definition has highlighted three important fundamentals.
7. Team members each contributes individual knowledge and skills.
8. Working with harmony and a positive attitude together is critical.
9. An understanding of the common goal of each member conduces to effective teamwork.
10. Teamwork as a concept has grown over the last 20 years. However, teamwork success is not automatic. Teams have to be established for the right reasons. Team member selection is very important, as is ensuring that the team purpose is clear and agreed upon.

Opinion:

I think teamwork really becomes vital in many aspects of our lives, especially for working. For example, our school's mathematics program requires students to make up teams to solve problems. However, while teamwork has its increasingly huge importance, personal abilities and achievements cannot be ignored. After all, the standard of a team is decided by the least capable member, just like volume of water a barrel can contain is decided by the length of the shortest wood block. We cannot only focus on how to foster team players because teamwork is not only relying on others but to do a better job through cooperation. For example, no matter how well primary school soccer team members can cooperate with each other, they can be easily defeated by untrained adults. Therefore I believe a personal abilities should not be underrated as they are premises of excellent teamwork.

Journal: Media stereotype

--Summary:

Alberti required for a day that her female schoolmates come to school without makeup. This is to build their self-confidence. Julia asked a magazine to promise not to beautify photos and to be honest about the process. Mass media portrays impossibly thin, barely dressed female with perfect features. This gives an impossible model for girls and continuously causes low self-esteem and anorexia. The Girl Scouts of America puts effort against mental problem caused by the model. They may better the image of girls of every ethnic. However, it takes time.

--Opinion:

The image of thin body figure is formed deeply in most girls’ mind. Mass media always chooses slim models to be presented to the public. Since people commonly  just blindly think that the models are beautiful, girls tend to admire them and thus lose a lot of weight at a younger age in order to fit the ‘traditional beauty’. For example, even Alberti still struggles against the images. When asked if she also thought of herself as pretty, she paused, then said, "I'm still working on that. It's a little harder to do it yourself." Therefore, the stereotypical way of media portraying female really affect girls and women’s opinion on what is beauty, and causes them to lose self-confidence.

--Synonyms:

1.scantily---barely

2.unattainable--unapproachable

3.celebrity---dignitary

4.traction---resistance

5.artful---skilful

http://www.northjersey.com/news/young-women-are-fighting-back-against-media-portrayals-of-b

Journal: Disney princess culture

--Summary:

Plentiful princess culture still exists in media and commodities. Princesses have become less banally ‘pink’. People are uneasy with powerful female roles without classic obedient manner. The gendered information needs female to appear beautiful and concentrate more on their appearance than intelligence. This can affect girls’ prospection and concepts of what different genders “normally” do. Men are muscular, confident and agile. Women tend to show obvious mood. Earlier films portrayed female stereotypically while later ones added muscular features.

(80 words)

--Opinion

The image of Disney princesses should not focus on the traditional stereotype of female as it may bring negative impact on girls. Some films like Cinderella tell girls that it is not how hard you work but how beautiful you are that lead to success. In this way girls tend to lose a lot of weight at a younger age and a higher amount diagnosed with an eating disorder in order to fit the traditional beauty of princess portrayed in Disney films. A study carried out by researchers from Brigham Young University, Texas Tech University and Linfield College in the US, funded by the Women's Research Initiative targeted at both parents and children found that ‘Princess culture’ in Disney films could lead to body esteem issues in young girls, as Disney Princesses tend to be slim, pretty, and often with an impossibly small waist. Thus, Disney princess should not be portrayed to be thin and beautiful which always comes into people’s mind when they think of beauty.

--Synonyms:

1.stereotype---banality

2.submissive---compliant

3.prone---tending

4.masculine---manlike

5.expectation---prospection