Can Everyone Be Authentic?

I was intrigued by our discussion on cultural authenticity in class on Tuesday as it related to "The Rough Faced Girl" by Rafe Martin and illustrated by David Shannon. There seemed to be little argument that this picture book was not authentic. But then I got to thinking...could it ever be authentic if it was not written by an Algonquin author?

I'm sure this is not going to be a popular opinion, because no one likes being told what they are and are not able to do. But I think there's a lot of truth to the argument that cultural products cannot represent a culture authentically unless they are produced within that culture. Take a simple example: In Schuler's (my local bookstore of choice), there is an African-American literature section. As a white person, I will never be published in that section, even if I wrote a novel with exclusively African-American characters, themes related to the African-American experience, etc. Now, this does not mean that I cannot incorporate African-Americans or elements of the African-American experience in anything I choose to write. However, I cannot claim to speak for them or presume that I understand what it is like to be Black in America today; I don't, and I never will.

So--what do you think? If David Shannon had just done a little more research about how to depict the Algonquin people, he would have succeeded in creating a culturally authentic work? Or is it simply impossible to successfully represent a culture that you are not a part of?

Cinderella ate my daughter-the princess complex

While preparing my application assignment I was talking to Professor Ide and recommended a book to me called “Cinderella ate my daughter”.  I didn’t have time to read it, but I looked through a couple different book reviews about it, and thought it raised some very interesting themes.  Most importantly was the author, Peggy Orenstein’s views on the princess complex that controls almost every American girl from ages 2 to 6.

Orenstein believes that Disney and princess themed merchandise and apparel set young girls up for failure because of unrealistic expectations.  For example the idea of waiting for your “knight in shining armor” or “prince charming” to come take you away to live happily ever after is damaging because it instills the idea the women are judge on their beauty. 

The next phase for little girls is the “tween” at which time to break away from the princess she moves on to the less girlie and sexier Bratz dolls, and so begins beauty and sexy being the most important attributes.  In general the author blames Disney for all the stereotypes and stages little girls go through.  Specifically Orenstein blames the Disney starlets who play the innocent virgin angle on Disney for a couple years and then end up drunk and disorderly or slutty and sending nude pictures (ex: Lindsay Lohan and Selena Gomez)

Orenstein sees little girls as being set down the path of princess turned whore regardless of how well they excel at other important aspects of their lives.  She feels like the culture encourages this behavior from girls that it’s almost a rite of passage for girl to constantly be proving physically they are feminine.

The advice she offers to parents is to say ‘no’ more.

Chinese Poetry

This past summer I had an opportunity to go to China for a study tour program through the Global Educators Cohort at MSU. We visited Beijing, Shanghai, and Chonqing. While in Beijing I co-taught a Chinese Language Arts lesson to a 6th grade classroom. Luckily the other student I co-taught the lesson with was originally from MSU and spoke Chinese so planning our lesson was fairly easy. The lesson we taught was bases on a famous Chinese poem. Before we taught our lesson we were given the chance to sit in on a lesson taught by the teacher that was very similar to the lesson we would be teacher, only with a different famous Chinese poem. I learned very quickly just how important poems were in China. In China poems are apart of their culture and are extremely important to the elders in China. The lesson consisted of the students reciting the poem multiple times. They were given the poem beforehand to have memorized before class. Then, after reciting it, they began to analyze what the poem meant and the teacher discussed the format of the poem (which was the same for every Chinese poem). All of the well-known poems, which were discussed in class throughout the year, were packed full in Chinese culture and important meanings. So, the teacher picked the poem apart line-by-line and broke down what exactly what the poem was trying to say. After analyzing the poem the teacher finished the lesson the teacher explain to the students how important it was to read the poem with emotion, because it is such an important part of the Chinese culture. The teacher went around one by one picking students to demonstrate how the poem should be read, then they finished the lesson by reading the poem out loud with as much emotion as possible.

I felt so honored to sit and watch this lesson, you could tell by how passionately the teacher taught the lesson just how important poems are to Chinese culture. As we talked to the teacher, principle, and other language arts teachers after teaching our lesson, I realized how much I didn’t know about poems. In my elementary, middle, and high school we didn’t place much importance on poetry. But, I wish teachers had stressed the importance of poetry and how it can be very cultural.

Was there much focus on poetry in your elementary, middle, and high schools? Do you think it would be beneficial to make poetry an important part of our culture like it is in China?