Week 7

December 25, 1999
Dear Diary,
It's Christmas! For Christmas I received the movie Pocahontas and a lot of toys I wanted that I saw on T.V. One of my favorite new toys is the Slip N' Slide! It sometimes worries me that I am being marketed toward so rigorously in the media.  Especially on stations like Kids WB.  My family doesn't have cable, but many of the stations market to kids like we are consumers and have the money to afford all these things.  It is very frustrating at times, to me and my parents, as I find many things I want but can't have due to money constraints.  Was it always this way?


January 20, 2000
Dear Diary,
We are learning about the real story of Pocahontas and John Smith in class today.  It really made me sad.  I've seen the Disney movie so many times now, yet it is disappointing to discover that it is mostly untrue.  Pocahontas was about 13 or 14 when she saved John Smith.  She also was kidnapped and kept hostage in Jamestown for a year. She was forced to convert to Christianity and eventually married John Rolfe. Unlike the ending of the movie, where she chooses to stay with her people, Pocahontas was actually sent to England where she was a spectacle for the people there.  I know it's just a movie, but why was Disney trying to enact a "history lesson" to children if it is untrue.  It seems like Disney likes to incorporate magic and romanticism to appeal to us kids.  I still enjoy the movie, but feel the effects of marketing to our uneducated minds; feeling a bit exploited.