Caricature

(Google)

The Story of Luke and The Sea Inside are movies about people that are in a struggle to be “normal”.  There is a problem with being “normal”. The state of being normal is a social construct and is different depending on the perspective. Both the main characters of these movies have a disability. Ramon and Luke were not portrayed as typical caricatures of disability. The plots of the films were based the perspectives of people that have a disabilities. In both films the “normal” people were made into the caricatures. In many ways Luke’s and Ramon’s modern day lives resembled the Freak Shows of the past as described by Robert Bogman in the chapter “The Social Construction of Freaks”. The modern day Freak Shows are more subtle, but people with disabilities are still made into socially constructed caricatures that do not reflect who they really are.

The Story of Luke (2012) is a film about a young man with autism that is striving to navigate his way through the “normal world” in pursuit of his dreams.  Luke’s mother left him with his grandparents when he was young. Luke was sheltered by his grandmother. His grandmother took him out of his special school because they treated Luke like an idiot. She taught him at home at his own special pace. After his grandmother’s death Luke was thrust into the “normal” world and went to live with his uncle’s family. The so-called “normal” people in Luke’s life had many of the same struggles to fit in that Luke had. It seems that Luke was surer of himself of his purpose in life than they were of theirs. Luke’s family, friends and even the institutional systems that were set up to support Luke didn’t expect very much from him. But Luke had dreams. His dreams were to get a job, a girlfriend, and to screw like the other boys his age. For Luke this was what living a normal life was like. Luke would not be stopped until he was free to pursue his dreams. Luke said, “Uncle Paul, it is good that I have dreams (The Story of Luke).”

The Sea Inside (2004) is a film based on the real-life struggle of Ramon Sampedro. He fought for nearly 30 years for the right to control his own death. Ramon lived a “normal” in life in Spain until a diving accident left him without the ability to move his arms and legs. Ramon was totally dependent on others for his care.  “When you depend on others you learn to cry with a smile (The Sea Inside).”   He did not like being dependent on other people. A priest that was also quadriplegic said to him, “Freedom that costs a life isn’t freedom”. Ramon responded “And life that costs freedom isn’t life.” Luke and Ramon lived very different lives yet the threads of disability and the idea of the “freak show” tied many of the aspects of their lives together.

When Luke first arrived in his Uncle Paul’s family, they did not know what to do with him. In their minds he was not normal like them. Over the course of the film it becomes apparent that they are more like Luke than they thought. Luke’s family was struggling just as much with fitting into molds that society has deemed normal. Luke’s aunt had trouble playing the role of a housewife that cooks. Luke was supposed to be the idiot yet he received a certificate from the Advanced Cooking Technic School and was an accomplished cook. Luke was reading a book titled Making Friends Fast. His cousin commented that her guidance counselor gave her that book to read. She was having many of the same social difficulties Luke was having.

The stereotypical view of people labeled with autism is that they have difficulty communicating with people. Luke seemed to be the only one communicating effectively in his family. Luke shared his dreams with his family and discussed ways he could achieve them. His family was able to also share their dreams with Luke and he was able to return the favor and help them figure out ways to achieve theirs. That was an accomplishment that they were not able to realize with “normal” people.  

Another stereotypical belief about people with autistic tendencies is that they have meltdowns and scream often. Luke’s aunt and angry coworkers exhibited more of the autistic tendency to yell and have meltdowns then Luke ever did. Luke was even able to give advice, “I scream sometimes too. I shouldn’t but I do. Breathing helps, and pancakes too (The Story of Luke).” 

Labels like autistic, retard, normal, and freak are social constructs that do not really define who a person is and what they are capable of. Robert Bogdan writes about a very tall man that was asked to join a freak show. The man can be measured and his height can be quantified. His extreme height is a matter of physiology. To be a Giant in a Freak Show this tall man must be turned into a “human oddity” or a “freak”. “”Freak” is a way of thinking about and presenting people---a frame of mind and a set of practices (Bogman,14).” Luke was referred to by his cousin’s girlfriend as the retard. His cousin corrected her and said that Luke is autistic. Luke did not accept either of those socially constructed labels. He answered them by saying that his grandma told him that he defies clinical classification. He is just as special as anyone else. Maybe a little more special than most.

Luke did not like labels being put on him. For Luke labels were debilitating. He was not a retard because he knew that he was smart. He proudly told everyone that he has a high school diploma and that he received a certificate from The Advanced Cooking Technic. Luke commented “People who call me that are ignorant fools or retarded themselves.”

In the film The Story of Luke, the characters were chasing the illusion of fitting in and being normal. Ramon, in The Sea Inside, did not believe in chasing the illusion. He could have used a wheel chair to get around. For him there was no dignity in this. Ramon thought using a wheelchair was like accepting the scraps from the life he had lost. Being normal for him would only be an illusion. It was only in his mind--- his dream that Ramon would allow himself to feel normal. He would fantasize about being able to walk or fly to where he wanted to be. It was all or nothing for Ramon. No illusion of being normal. He wanted to be what he considered to be whole. Anything less would be less than normal. Luke fought for his right to live a normal life and Ramon fought for his right to remove himself from life because he felt that he would never be able to be normal again.

The title of the movie The Sea Inside is appropriate on many levels. Ramon said that the sea gave him life and then it took it away. Before his accident he worked on a sea boat and traveled around the world. Ramon would define his experiences at sea as living the ultimate life. While diving into the sea Ramon injured himself and the sea left him a quadriplegic. For Ramon his “real” life ended that day. I believe that Ramon thought of himself like the “made freaks” that Bogman referred to in his writings. Ramon was not born that way. He felt that he turned himself into a quadriplegic because of the accident (Bogman, 24). Ramon chose to put himself in the “freak show” exhibit when he started fighting in the courts for his right to die. Ramon’s life had become marginal and precarious and he joined the freak show not because of what he got out of it, but rather what he would be able to get away from (Bogman, 35). He wanted to get away from the life and the broken body that had become his prison. Ramon wanted his freedom back.

Luke worked in a company’s mail room through the SMILES jobs program for people with disabilities.   His direct supervisor Zach also has labels put on him and is not deemed to be “normal” by society. Zach was secluded in a padded room away from the “normal” employees. Zach was put in charge of “other” employees like him from the SMILES program. Bogdan wrote that during the time when the freak shows were popular, the general public thought of the amusement world as degenerate and morally repugnant.  The general public thought that it was fitting that “freaks” were a part of the amusement world. “…they belonged with their own kind and were not competent enough to prosper in the larger world (Bogman, 35).”

Zach had become very cynical and gave up on his dreams. In a raging rant he said to Luke:

What are you doing here? Do you know your purpose to society? You are here to make people feel sorry for you. To remind people what a sad world we live in. Where somebody like you can be born. A living breathing example of everything that they don’t want for themselves. Nothing you can do to try and please them can make it better (The Story of Luke).

Zach had become like the freaks that were placed upon the platform to be gawked at by the “rubes”. He looked down on the other workers in the office. Many times he played up his role as the “office freak” by purposefully displaying random bursts of freakish behavior like screaming. Zach would laugh at and mock other people’s reactions.

As freaks sat on the platform, most looked down on the audience with contempt---not because they felt angry at being gawked at or at being called freaks, but simply because the amusement world looked down on “rubes” in general. Their contempt was that of insiders toward the uninitiated. For those in the amusement world the sucker that came to the show was on the outside, not the exhibit (Bogman, 35).

The freak show concept was also present in The Sea Inside. Ramon was visited by a local woman who had seen him on television. She was intrigued by his crusade for his right to end his own life. She thought she could give him a reason to want to live. Ramon told her that she was just a frustrated woman who woke up that morning hoping to give her life some meaning. She had many struggles in her own life. She thought she was coming to see if she save the poor lonely cripple. Ramon knew who was on the platform and who the real sucker was. Too often well-meaning individuals that take pity on people with disabilities assume that they know what is best for them.

Normal society often tries to take the freedom to pursue their dreams away from people with disabilities. Most are well meaning. Ramon’s dream was to be normal again.  Normal was the way he was before the accident. The way he is only in his dreams and fantasies. Ramon felt that the only way he could reach his dream was to leave his broken body. Luke’s dreams were to live a normal life.  Society does not believe that people with disabilities are capable people that can decide for themselves what is “dream worthy”.  

 There were also cinematic elements that the directors employed using camera angles and lighting that support the Freak Show angle.  Luke and his aunt were sitting on coach together when she was trying to control him for his own good. The camera angle panned away and she appeared to look very large and powerful compared to Luke. When Luke stands up for himself against labels, the camera angle is looking up at him. This makes him seem more in control. When Ramon is killing himself, the view from the camera is angled a bit upward and no one else is around. He is in total control of his destiny. Even the lighting suggests that he is alone. He is lit and there seems to be darkness around the edges. This scene reminded me of the “freak” on the podium being gawked at by the “rubes”. Ramon was really the one with the power in the end. Whether a person agrees with euthanasia or not is not as much an issue as whether people with disabilities are treated like they have their own hopes and dreams and allowed to reach for them. Many people believe that we have evolved so much since the days of the Freak Shows. But are the “normal” people really just still suckers? 

References: 

Bogman, Robert. "The Social Construction of Freaks." Freakery: Cultural Spectacles of the Extraordinary

            Body. Ed. R. Garland-Thomas. New York and London: New York University Press. 23-37. Print.

"Google." Google. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Sept. 2014.

            <https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#safe=active&q=caricature>.

Mar Adentro The Sea inside. Dir. Alejandro Amenábar. Entertainment in Video, 2005. Netflix.

The Story of Luke. Dir. Alonso Mayo. Perf. Lou Taylor Pucci, Seth Greene. Gravitas Ventures, 2012. 

The Value of Human LIfe

In the world we live in today, profit is a driving force. As selective abortion becomes more and more routine, parents might be forced into aborting their “defective” children. The insurance companies will say to parents that they are on their own when the decision to bring a disabled child into the world is made and will refuse to pay for health care. At this present time the screening is concentrated on searching and destroying Down syndrome. Eventually it could be for blindness or even brown eyes. The termination of the lives of people with disabilities in any form, even suicide, has many negative ramifications. When a society sanctions the termination of the lives of people with disabilities the lives of all human beings are cheapened and devalued.

Human life begins at conception and all human life should be valued.

For the sake of not writing an entire volume on the subject of selective abortion, only one argument will be explored in this text. A pro-choice stance differentiates between the concept of personhood and the concept of human life. Human life occurs at conception, but personhood occurs when a fetus has the ability to exist independently without the aid of the mother’s placenta and the umbilical cord. Therefore the human fetus has not yet achieved personhood and is not entitled to the same rights and protections under the law.

The rationalization that a fetus cannot exist independently outside the mother’s womb is not a practical and constant argument. The problem is that with advances in medical technology the point at which a fetus can live on its own has become earlier and earlier during the gestation. At first glance the pro-choice argument seems to be limited to unborn children. Even a full term baby cannot survive on its own without supports. Should the independent existence test be then applied to young infants? During every stage of development humans need supports to thrive. This interconnectedness is part of what makes human beings human. People with disabilities can survive and thrive when they are given the proper supports that they need.

One never knows the potential that a person has. All fetuses and infants have potential. When parents abort a fetus they are in danger of extinguishing the life of a person that could have grown up to be of great importance to society. Even when humans are still in utero, they are still humans in a different stage of development. Whether a human being is young or old, it is about personal development and leaving a positive footprint on the world. People with even severe disabilities are capable of doing both of those things. 

            The assertion of the Supreme Court in the Roe vs. Wade decision was that viability occurs at about seven months or 28 weeks. This assertion has been challenged by medical improvements over the past 38 years.

A Swedish study in 2009 found that preterm babies born late in the second trimester who

are given intensive care survive at surprising rates: 53% of those born at 23 weeks live, 67%

at 24 weeks, and by 25 weeks, 82% of the babies survive (Osler).

There are so many examples of people that have disabilities that have been totally dependent on supports to live yet they were still able to leave a positive footprint on the world. I personally had the privilege of knowing one of those individuals. My friend could not walk, talk, or even breathe on his own. But with the supports of a motorized wheelchair, computer, and a ventilation devise he was able to survive and thrive. He managed to positively change the worlds of everyone around him. His biological mother was very young and decided that she could not provide for all of his special needs. His foster parents adopted him and I was able to witness how he transformed them into better people. He was expected to only live till he was 10 years old. Just after his 21^st birthday I was able to meet and talk with a chapel full of people attending his funeral that he was able to touch in his short life. My friend could not live independently of supports yet he was able to leave an enormously positive footprint in this world.

The value of a human life is not determined by the degree in which a person fits into the socially constructed boundaries of normalcy.

The people that support selective abortion and terminating the lives of people with disabilities are not monsters. Most have good intentions. The belief is that terminating the life of a human that has a disability is a humane act that is what is best for the child and for society as a whole. There is an argument that a child with a disability will never lead a normal and productive life. It is cruel to subject anyone to the pain, suffering, and hardship that accompanies living a life with a disability. People that take this position believe that it is hard enough to succeed without a disability. The thought of not being “normal” is terrifying to them. Many of the people that support termination believe that they would rather die than become a person with a disability and they find it hard to believe that anyone would feel otherwise. There is a prevalent belief that their lives would suddenly have no meaning and no value. The question that cannot be fathomed is how could anyone live like that? The argument that people with disabilities have nothing valuable to contribute and are a burden to society is also a predominate argument given in support of the termination of fetuses that have disabilities.  Although I do not agree with the contention that fetuses diagnosed with a disability should be aborted, I concede that the argument for it has a compassionate, socially conscience background.

People with red hair fall outside of the statistical norms of society. Even in the countries with the highest populations of red-headed people, there are between 10 and 30 percent. There is only one percent of the total population that has natural red hair. This small representation of the general population qualifies the genetic traits that cause red hair to be labeled as an abnormality. Mutations in the MC1R gene deposits more melanin (eumelanin and pheomelanin) in the hair and skin which causes both red hair and freckles. Redheaded people almost always have lighter skin than most other people. The lighter skin leads to a higher risk for sunburns which leads to skin cancer. There are some advantages to being a redhead. The countries that have higher populations of redheads have rainy climates and sparse sunlight. Fair skin allows for better absorption of the essential vitamin D from the sunlight. People that have red hair are more sensitive to thermal pain. They also need more anesthetic for pain relief than people without red hair do. In short, people with red hair live shorter lives and experience more pain than “normal” people do.

Historically redheads have been labeled as having hot and short tempers. Those are traits that are not valued in some societies. "Red hair, a red beard, and ruddy skin - separately or combined - have been considered suspect, impure, and dangerous because they did not meet the standards of the normal... (Mellinkoff, 147)” During the middle ages in the Christian dominated portions of Europe considered people with red hair to be untrustworthy. Even more dangerous was the predominate belief that red hair was a sign of witchcraft which lead to the lives of many red-headed people to be terminated.

What does being born with red hair have to do with aborting fetuses that have disabilities?  Similar to the genetic mutations that cause red hair, Down syndrome is a congenital, chromosomal abnormality/defect that makes people look different than “normal” people. Down syndrome can be found in less than 1% of the population which places them well outside the protective confines of normalcy. People with Down syndrome can also expect to have an increased risk for disabilities and diseases that cause pain, and shorten their life span. There are many misconceptions that people with Down syndrome impose a great burden and pose a danger to society. Diagnostic in utero screening for Down syndrome has become a common practice. At minimum 85% of fetuses diagnosed with Down syndrome end up being aborted (Will, 1). Their parents believe that they are doing the kind, compassionate thing and that they are lessening the burden to themselves and society. Recognizing the similarities between hair color and having an extra 21^st chromosome makes me wonder if the people of the Middle Ages had the technology to screen for abnormally redheaded fetuses, would they have aborted more than 85% of them too?

Deborah Kent’s mother realized that Deborah was blind when she was only a few weeks old. Deborah’s parents were frequently described as “wonderful” for raising her “like a normal” child. For other people being normal meant not having a disability like blindness. For Deborah being blind was normal. Deborah Kent wrote “Blindness presented occasional complications, but seldom kept me from anything I wanted to do (Kent, 57).” Deborah does not fit within the statistical norm yet she leads a very productive happy life. Being “normal” is a social construct that changes depending on the vantage point. Redheaded people are still a minority, but society no longer subjects them to witch hunts and it is believed that they can also lead very productive and happy lives. Has the genetic makeup and potential of redheads changed or has societal viewpoints changed? Prenatal screenings for Down syndrome are the modern day witch hunts that hopefully with the passage of time and enlightenment will be abolished.  

Jon Will was born with an extra 21^st chromosome and is diagnosed as having Down syndrome. He has outlived and outperformed the expectations of society. The value that society places on a humans that are different changes with enlightenment.  The life expectancy of people with Down syndrome has more than doubled in the last 25 years. Jon’s father George F. Will attributes that growth to the increase in the care and acceptance of people like Jon. No one really knows the potential of people that have disabilities like Down syndrome. Who really is in a position to say that Jon’s life is of any less value than any other’s?

Jon experiences life’s three elemental enjoyments—loving, being loved and ESPN. For Jon,

as for most normal American males, the rest of life is details (Will, 2).

Effects on human beings-

Many people that support the termination of people with disabilities believe that nobody is hurt by it. There is a belief that everyone involved, including the person being terminated, is better off for it. Society is better off because disabled people are not capable people that can contribute to building a better world. People with disabilities are liabilities that drain already scarce resources. If there are fewer people with disabilities in the world then there could be more resources allocated to support special education and other programs designed to help those who need it. The families benefit because they are no longer yoked with a heavy burden. It is financially, emotionally, physically, and spiritually burdensome to care for a person that has a disability. This type of burden causes a lot of stress that destroy families.  Finally it is the humane thing to do. People with disabilities should be spared from the pain, ridicule, and frustration that comes from the struggles they face. 

Societal definition of what it means to be a capable person that contributes to building a better world is a person that can successfully navigate their way through the school system and go on to make money and provide others with the opportunity to do the same. With that narrow and shallow view of what it means to be successful, people with disabilities do tend to fall short. But is that really fair? There are a myriad of different ways that any person, even with severe disabilities, can benefit society.   

            Twelve years ago a friend of mine had a stroke that left her without the ability to speak and think clearly. She had a very difficult time with changes in her life and how people treated her differently. She felt like a burden even though she continued to work out in the fields with her husband on the family farm.  Her family did not feel like she was a burden. They loved and valued her. Her family grew and became closer because of her disability. Her oldest son was involved in an accident that resulted in a head injury. He struggled with some of the same communicative issues that his mother did. He commented that his mother inspired him to work through his difficulties. Recently my friend veered off the road while driving, hit a tree, and shortly thereafter passed away. At first it was thought that she had another stroke, but it appears that she committed suicide. Living with her disability inspired and brought her family together, terminating her own life has divided and devastated them.

Many individuals with disabilities do experience pain, ridicule, and frustration. That is a part of the human experience. Each individual experiences all of those things over the course of a lifetime. For people with disabilities it is not the disabilities that are the problem, the problem is the lack of supports available to them.

            The termination of lives of people that have disabilities sends the message that having a disability is undesirable.  “Those” people who have disabilities are not valued and have nothing to offer (Kent, 59). Deborah Kent’s doctor after telling her that she could pass her genetic blindness onto her children added some wise council that contradicted society’s view of bring children with disabilities into the world.

“You have a good life, don’t you?” he asked. “If you have a child with Leber’s, it can have a good life too.

Go home and have a dozen kids if you want to!” (Kent, 60)

Those words from Deborah’s doctor made her feel like a valuable human being that had worthwhile traits to pass on to her children. Lisa Blumberg also writes about how allowing Baby Doe (Bloomington baby) to die just because he had an extra chromosome sent a chilling message to all people that have disabilities.

The Bloomington baby lived our collective nightmare in more ways than one. His parent, regretting that

he had even seen the light of day and choosing to doom him, declined to give him a name. So he became

Baby Doe, and then later a baby doe as the media adopted that shorthand term to refer to a whole underclass

of babies, the value of whose lives were speculative. Conundrum: If a baby doe is allowed to grow up,

do we have an adult doe?

           

A society that sanctions or promotes the termination of the lives of people that are “different” or deemed not “normal” denigrates the value of all human beings.  Just not participating or condoning such practices is not enough. There needs to be a society-wide shift in how people with disabilities are viewed. That daunting task can happen if people will stop sitting idly by and boldly stand-up to “sing” for the mockingbird that is in the place where nobody thought it belonged (Kent, 63).

Reference List:

Blumberg, L. (July/August, 2000). The natural destiny of the Bloomington Baby. Ragged

            Edge Magazine.

Everybody is a genius. Digital Image. All Inspiring Quotes: A blog about Inspirational quotes and

            inspiring stories. Web. 10 October2014. http://allinspiringquotes.blogspot.com/2013/06/everybody-is-genius-but-if-you-judge.html.

Kent, D. (2000). Somewhere a mockingbird. In E. Parens and A. Asch (Eds.). Prenatal

testing and disability rights (pp. 57-63). Washington, DC: Georgetown University

Press.

Mellinkoff, Ruth. Outcasts: Signs of Otherness in Northern European Art of the Late Middle

Ages. Vol. 1. Los Angeles: U of California, 1994. Print.

Osler, Mark. "CNN.com - Breaking News, U.S., World, Weather, Entertainment ..." CNN. CNN, 1

Feb. 2012. Web. 27 Oct. 2014. <http://www.cnn.com/2012/02/01/opinion/osler-abortion-viability/>.

"The Genetic Causes, Ethnic Origins and History of Red Hair." Ed. Eupedia. Eupedia. N.p., n.d.

            Web. 26 Oct. 2014. http://www.eupedia.com/genetics/origins_of_red_hair.shtml

Will, G. F. (January 29, 2007). Will: The attack on kids with Down Syndrome.

Newsweek.

  

                        

Visual Symbols in My Life 2

At first I thought that visual symbols in my life only related to things like stop signs and the American flag. Since taking a visual literacy class I have learned that it is so much more. I find myself constantly evaluating visuals to uncover what the author/producer was trying to say. I look at what type of font was used, camera angles, background, etc. I am more cognisant of the message I am sending with the symbols I choose to use in projects. This will all help me when I become a teacher. I am an Early Childhood major and especially young children are susceptible to subtle messages conveyed in images. Below are a few hidden images that I was oblivious to before and now I see them everywhere.

 When the Big Ten conference grew to eleven teams, they did not want to change their logo. They creatively added an "eleven" to it instead.

Look carefully and you can see two people sharing a bowl of salsa and chips.

 

 

 

Baskin Robins included a plug for their 31 flavors of ice cream.

 

 

 

 

For more hidden images, click here.

 

Reel Injun

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1484114/

Reel Injun trailer -Reel Injun is a documentary that examines the depiction and history of Native Americans in films. I found it interesting that in the beginning Indians were represented authentically in films. It wasn't until later that Hollywood began the flat portrait of bloodthirsty or supernatural Injun characters. Real American Indians did not recognize themselves in the characters. They would root for the (good guys) cowboys. Among the interesting things I learned watching this movie was that Iron Eyes Cody, the crying Indian featured in anti-littering ads was really an Italian with a Sicilian heritage. He grew up in an Irish Catholic community that was lynching Italians. American Indians had become "in Style" so he changed his name and re-created himself.

 

Along the same lines is this very interesting book

 by Sherman Alexie.



American Dreams

I attended an event at Carver Middle School where sixth-grade students presented their photography projects documenting their concept of an American Dream. Attendees got to tweet about their experiences by using the #AmDream2012 hash tag. 

Sammy used a picture of a stop sign to visually represent her American Dream of stopping hatred and oppression. She wrote that the Declaration of Independence says "All men are created equal". So people should not be denied opportunities due to race or gender.

Many others wrote about how access to education and hard work will help them reach their dreams to become policemen, doctors, and teachers. A pretty little girl with a bow in her hair named Aubree wants to be a mystery writer and an actress. In her picture she had watering cans and garden shovels. She said that they symbolize life. Watering cans deliver water which gives life to plants so they can be healthy and strong.  She said that staying focused at school and working hard are things that will keep her dreams healthy and strong. The shovels represent digging through the barriers that would keep her from her dreams.

These children have inspired me to help my future students attain the tools that they need to be able to realize their American dreams.

Are We Really in Control of Our Own Decisions?

“If you ever go bar hopping, who do you want to take with you? You want a slightly uglier version of yourself. Similar … but slightly uglier.” -Dan Ariely

That statement definitely falls under the heading of "If I only knew then what I know now". I hung out with the pretty girls in my high school. Most of my friends were the homecoming and prom queens. When we would go somewhere out for the night, I did not stand a chance. Dan Ariely in a video on TED Talks discusses how the mind can play tricks on you when objects or colors are next to each other. Look at the first picture and decide which table is longer.


Dan Ariely asks, Are we in control of our own decisions?

The red lines measure both tables.

And when the lines are put together we see that they are exactly the same length.

So if I stand next to a similar, but slightly uglier version of myself, I will appear more attractive than I really am. Does this all really matter? Yes it does! Manufacturers, politicians,spin doctors, advertising agencies all have a good understanding of how to manipulate our perceptions. If we do not understand ourselves and our cognitive limitations, we will be at the mercy of forces outside of ourselves and will not be in control of our own decisions



The Danger of a Single Story

Chimamanda on TED

What harm could it be for an elementary school teacher to have her students in the class make African masks? Surely making Indian headdresses while discussing American Indian culture has been an accepted practice in schools and is harmless, isn't it? In a TED video called Chimamanda Adichie: The danger of a single story, Ms. Adichie cautions that if only a single story about different individuals or cultures is presented, there is danger of developing misconceptions.
 


http://contentcafe2.btol.com/ContentCafeClient/CoverImage.aspx

 

An example of this is the book Brother eagle, sister sky : a message from Chief Seattle. This book has been criticized for depicting a very flat American Indian culture. The reality is that each tribe has their own unique culture and beliefs. This books alienates the people it portrays and breeds the misconception that all Indians are alike.