I found Monday's lecture on Chicana/Latina children's literature as sociopolitical texts very interesting. I grew up watching Disney movies and absolutely adored the heroines like Pocahontas and Cinderella. It was interesting looking back at these movies during lecture and realizing just how cliche they are. Every movie had the same happy ending with the girl living happily ever after with her prince charming. There was also a great emphasis on whiteness and heteronormativity. Nowadays, however, I feel Disney is starting to lessen these stereotypes. "Mulan" features an Asian heroine, and "Lilo & Stitch" Hawaiian-Americans.
This lecture also explained to us that multicultural literature is used to educate people about race and race relations by promoting cultural awareness and sensitivity. This form of literature sends a good message about diversity and acceptance to children that Disney and other forms of media fails to do. It addresses serious issues faced by people that need to be solved such as gender violence and sexism. Multicultural literature is very important for children because it teaches them to accept all different types of people and that there is no "perfect person". Women do not need to look like the perfect cartoon of Cinderella and men do not have to be white to be prince charming.
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