The Old Myths And The Views Compared To Today's Myths And Views (Essay Sample)

Name Instructor: Course Date New Myths, New Future The power of an individual’s opportunity and gender in the United States has had a very strong effect on society for a long time in our history such that they have been held responsible for shaping our morals and the way we behave for centuries. The outcomes of these myths, however, are not necessarily agreeable or positive. With time people start doubting the myths as a result of “disillusionment” and questions arise: is the United States really a land of freedom with equal opportunities distribution? Should gender of be used to define an individual? The aim of this paper is to answer the above questions through analyzing ancient myths through conducting a “thought experiment” and transforming the myths to be more realistic and visualize how they could affect us and what they might tell of our future. In a bid to come up with new myths, there should be a need for one, and this needs us to understand the old ones and have a reason to change them. Looking at the myth of opportunity, based on the picture created in movies that United States is an ideal land of freedom and equality, every person is equally entitled to be successful no matter of their socio-economic status, therefore no individual “ is guaranteed to success or doomed to failure” (Colombo 243). Gender myths bring out a clear difference between men and women, for example, women’s definition is based on her purity, housekeeping ability, and her ability to comply with the man while, all men should be “emotionally controlled, powerful, and successful” (Colombo 277). It is clearly evident that these myths are somewhat justifiable. For example, the individual opportunity myth appreciates an individual’s dream for success, effort and informed decisions should be appreciated. This has been an inspiration to generations to pursue success and pleasure which is now part of American identity. The disadvantages though are more than the advantages leading to erosion of morals and blinding people not to see it as is. For example, the experience when the black girl and her friends in “The lesson” are taken to F.A.O and find the toys in Schwartz Toy Shop and find the toys unaffordable show us how unfair the socio-economic status makes life (Bambara 253). This shows how it can make a difference in a child’s life not only being unable to afford better toys but also lead a better life. A journalist Barbara Ehrenreich wrote in her article “Serving in Florida” about how it is to be a waitress and housekeeper and living on minimum wage. Her scenario is a clear painting of the life and working conditions of a low income individual who works in poor conditions under low salary “for six to eight hours in a row, never sit except for pee” (Ehrenreich 268). From this article it is evident that the low income class, illegal, uneducated, or people whose native language is not English form the large part of the society. These two cases show how disadvantaged you class, race, family and education level among other aspects we cannot control can reduce the chance to land a better job. Myths however put these people to blame for their lazy nature and lack of ambition where else the poor power distribution and advantage rarely is mentioned publicly. Myths lead to misconceptions by the society regarding is normal, restricting one’s ability to accept or make a change. In Jean Killbourne’s “Two Ways a Woman Can Get Hurt: Advertising and Violence” he writes about gender perception can be altered involuntarily through media to show contents rich in sex and phonographic materials and concealed information which was all in front of them always (Killbourne 420). Many advertisements portray women as objects and sexual thus making them an easy target and submissive who have to be subjects to men. Such advertisements have a small effect by their own but lead individuals to making assumptions based on gender collectively- women are always inferior to men and men are unemotional and not committed in relationships. In Michael Kimmel’s “Bros Before Hos: The Guy Code” shows how men experience the society’s description of manhood and masculinity from a tender age (Kimmel 461). In connection to real life, this information is encouraged by male figure in both society and family through their remarks and dictation, which makes men refuse to ask for help as this belittle their manhood status. From Kimmel and Killbourne’s works we are able to see the aspects of gender as womanhood, manhood, masculinity and femininity as well as victimization of both genders as depicted by the myths. After looking at the negative side of the old myths, the question is how to change peoples’ mentality to harmonize this with the diversity and society’s inequality. We are going to conduct the thought experiment through construction of new myths and see their effects. We start with the individual opportunity myth and the new myth will encompass various aspects that impact our professional achievement: the idea of equal opportunity is non-existent not even in America. All factors including hard work, family, education, culture, race, gender, sexual orientation, self-presentation, physical appearance and fortune all are important in one’s opportunity to success. Success thus, is a matter of how hard you work. This new myth is not as assuring or colorful as the old one therefore acknowledging inequality would make us know and realize that could let us exercise authority and influence to ourselves and others. This will help in help in approach injustice openly and with honesty instead of being ignorant about policy makers, social media, celebrities or hiding injustices. With public awareness resurgence, the push and cry for social change would be a public affair not just for the minority or activists. Nancy Kranich, the president of American Library Association said: “In order to maximize opportunities for access experienced by certain groups, a good society commits resources in order to level the playing field” (“Equality and Equity of Access”). This indicates that action should be taken like schools should offer English as a second language and foundations give scholarships to students from poor backgrounds. The myth of classifying people based on background, economic status and race should be a cliché and not blame it on ...