This blog is about Critical Thinking – not being critical(being judgemental) when you are thinking, but thinking critically (being analytical). For me critical thinking is about asking questions about the things we take for granted: asking about the ‘normal’ things we see. These are things that because of our culture, or society we take as ‘just being’ (not noticeable). Critical Thinking asks us to notice/take the position that this is a perspective: if we lived at a different time or place or culture these ‘normal’ things would be noticeable (not normal). Here are two presentations about body images. This topic is a good example of where within the culture of ‘performers’ we might have been exposed to a kind of ‘normal’ perspective of what is expected of our bodies. The presentations suggest this is a construction that is a result of social and cultural pressures. Jean Kilbourne* and Holly Baxter** ask us to rethink the things around us in order to explore the familiar.
As critical thinkers we often look at the familiar and tries to see it as strange (by questioning). What are your reflections on these two presentations? Are they saying the same thing? What strikes you, or resonates with you? What surprises you? What do you think of ‘Media Literacy’? This idea of ‘literacy’ through questioning (critical thinking) is important as you research and study – it is about not just accepting the first thing that pops up on your search engine!
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*Pioneering activist and cultural theorist Jean Kilbourne has been studying the image of women in advertising for over 40 years. In the late 1960s, Jean began her exploration of the connection between advertising and several public health issues, including violence against women, eating disorders, and addiction, and launched a movement to promote media literacy as a way to prevent these problems. A radical and original idea at the time, this approach is now mainstream and an integral part of most prevention programs. Kilbourne was named by The New York Times Magazine as one of the three most popular speakers on college campuses. She is the creator of Killing Us Softly: Advertising’s Image of Women film series and the author of the award-winning book Can’t Buy My Love: How Advertising Changes the Way We Think and Feel.
**Holly Baxter is the 25 year old co-founder and editor of The Vagenda http://vagendamagazine.com, an online media satire magazine for women, as well as author of the Vagenda book, (2014). She is also a columnist for the Guardian and a freelance journalist for a number of other national publications.
