Disney movies have a reputation of being generic happily ever after fairy tale narratives that leave their audiences euphoric. Unfortunately beneath face value, there are underlying implications in these Disney films that encourage morals that are questionable at best, and downright shocking at worst.

Take for instance Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, Disney’s first mainstream hit. Snow White is portrayed as a kind, lovable young lady who enjoys singing to her bird companions, yet she lives a tormented life. Trapped in the evil grasp of her jealous stepmother, Snow White spends her days mindlessly on the castle grounds, singing and awaiting the day her prince will rescue her. This routine is interupted by her stepmother’s betrayal, and when she’s forced to flee for her life, she finds herself at the dwarves’ cottage.

There are two major flaws with what this plotline implies. The first is that a person living in a difficult situation should wait to be rescued, instead of trying to help themselves. Courage and strength ought to be much more desirable traits than weakness and helplessness.

The second flaw makes a profound appearance when Snow White arrives at the dwarves’ cottage and begins to immediately clean up the house. What kind of sense (or lack of sense) would tell a person running for their lives just the day before to drop their predicament and scrub floors or dust cobwebs? At this moment, Disney’s sexist women-are-meant-for-housework face shines as bright as Geppetto’s star.

Then again, Snow White and the Seven Dwarves was made in 1937. Sadly, it’s not the only victim of Disney’s highly idealized, radical view of true love. In a failed 1990 attempt at improvement, most famously known as The Little Mermaid, Ariel falls in love with a human man at first sight. Desperate, she exchanges her voice for a pair of legs so that she may romance him on land. Purposefully or not, this twist in the storyline suggests that women are valued for their physical qualities, not for their personality or opinions.

So far, there’s been a continuing theme of helplessness, a sexist opinion regarding a woman’s cleaning role, and a sexist opinion of a woman’s true points of value. Of course, no line of offensive content is complete without a crack at racism.

In Aladdin, a quick contrast of the characters provides valuable insight on how Disney characterizes its villains. Interestingly, the hero of the story, Aladdin, is a pale-skinned, boyish-looking character, lovingly referred to as “Al” by the Genie. It is curious how somebody who has supposedly spent his entire life in Arabia can have a countenance so much like an Anglo-Saxon’s and bear an Anglo-Saxon nickname.

Jafar, on the other hand, is the premier villain of the story and Aladdin’s opposite in more ways than one. He wears the traditional Arabic dress, complete with a turban wrapped around his head, yet he is portrayed as the misfit smudge, the evil counterpart that needs to be removed in order to have a happy ending.

Through all the bubbly face value themes of Disney cartoons, there lies darker morals. If not careful, such films will breed children with the entitled mindset of a love-struck princess or with pre-programmed assumptions about a racial hierarchy. Close your eyes and imagine the last time you saw a brat throwing a tantrum at the supermarket, hoping to get their way. Unfortunately for them, their true love isn’t going to come swooping done to save them, and neither will a genie pop up to grant three wishes. Idealism is part of the magic of movies, but when carried over to real life, it becomes something of an illogical nuisance.

By Valerie Garner

A fun little trend called planking has become quite popular among teenagers. To plank, one lies face down, stiff as a wooden board with hands at his or her sides. While posing like this in a random location while, someone may snap a photo of the planker to commemorate the moment.

Some consider these planking photos offensive. Upon examination, it has been discovered that some people relate planking to slavery. During slave trade, hundreds of African American slaves were chained to plank beds, stacked on top of each other and shipped in large cargo ships.

It was a horrendous time in history. However, there are several other things that could be related to slavery, but aren’t discussed. For instance, slaves were shipped in large cargo ships that we still use to this day, but people don’t seem to be too offended by that.

Digging even deeper, it was established that there is no relation between the game and the history. The term planking was not used by slave masters. The people who invented the trend did not intend to mock slavery. It was meant to be a game. Planking is also referred to as The Lying Down Game, according to its originators, Brits Gary Clarkson and Christian Langdon.

Sam Weckert, who named the game planking, chose the word because he and his friends were imitating a plank of wood, lying stiff, straight, and lifeless. He insists that there is no deliberate connection between the term and slave trade.

Students shouldn’t have to live their lives walking on eggshells; their purpose is not to offend. Imagine the effect on society as a whole if everyone had to edit themselves constantly because one person might be offended. Nothing would ever be accomplished because no matter what, someone will always be offended.

Consider the following:

• http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/blogpost/post/is-planking-connected-to-the-slave-trade/2011/07/08/gIQAz1aj3H_blog.html
• http://iamplanking.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=46&Itemid=58
• http://www.techopedia.com/definition/25757/planking

   Up in the starry night sky, a reindeer-drawn sleigh alights on the rooftop, followed by the scraping of heavy black boots. At that point, St. Nick slides down the chimney and leaves gifts under the sparkling Christmas tree.

   Around the world this Santa Clause story is the highlight of the Christmas season, as boys and girls from around the world look forward to receiving Santa’s gifts, which are supposedly hand-crafted by his mystical elves. The Christmas story-telling tradition is backed-up by many different kinds of excuses, but none of them can justify why it is right for parents to lie to their children about Jolly Saint Nick.

   Good parents teach their children desirable morals, such as “do not tell lies.” These same good-intentioned parents will then make the claim that Santa Clause lives at the North Pole and brings presents every Christmas Eve to good little boys and girls.

   Such assertions take advantage of the malleable minds of young ones by feeding them obvious lies, and they demonstrate parental hypocrisy at its best. The Santa Clause myth amounts to ordering one thing, then turning around to do quite the opposite.

   Fabricating Santa Clause also speaks volumes about one’s parenting techniques – techniques that include bribery and threats to achieve the ultimate goal of good behavior. All too often, children are warned that acting up will cause Santa to gift them a lump of coal for Christmas. However, they are told that commendable behavior brings good presents. In fairy tales, lying, bribery, and threats are common traits associated with the stereotypical villain that readers will root against. Such traits should not be incorporated into parenting tactics.

   By supporting the Santa Clause myth, parents are supporting objectionable morals through their actions and teaching their children behavior that is quite frankly wrong. Although the fable is meant only for a bit of fun, it is counterproductive to creating in children the moral framework accepted by modern society.

   As educational standards in college admissions become stricter, parents are expressing concern for what they believe to be unreasonably high college admission standards. However, this parental protesting has become more of a popular fad than a meaningful argument. Students are suffering through piles of papers and hours of testing because success must be achieved through hard work.

   The popularity of Advanced Placement (AP) courses is on the rise. As more and more students enroll in college level classes it seems as if everyone is taking three AP courses and it no longer looks special on one’s transcript. As a result, students will start taking four, then five courses, to try and get ahead of their peers. This upward trend of demands is not wrong. It is only sensible to assume that standards will progress, and people will have to challenge themselves to stay ahead.

   Even so, concerned parents have reached out to the public through the media, as evidenced by the documentary film Race to Nowhere. Race to Nowhere features several students throughout their school journey, focusing particularly on the grievous pressure to stay within the top 10% of class rankings. According to the film, grades, trophies, and test scores have become king in the lives of students.

   Stress level isn’t a factor that institutions consider while looking at applications, and it shouldn’t be. High school isn’t meant to be filled with lazy days and fun times, but should serve as intense preparation for entrance into the real world. Every great success in the world came at the price of hard work.

   Take, for instance, Thomas Edison, who burned through over 3,000 failed designs of the light bulb before finally getting it right. Nobody else received credit for simply trying to produce the light bulb. Thomas Edison worked the hardest and was successful first, so he was able to land his name in the history books.

   Students are, by no means, obligated to slave away over school work. In fact, students with low standards create an easier time for their hard working peers by diluting the applicant pool and boosting the rankings of those above them. No matter how many complaints and activist media emerge, education will always consist of a hierarchy where students struggle amongst themselves to outperform each other, because all successes spawn from dedication and work.

   Set in the Swinging Sixties, the TV show Pan Am is purposefully degrading towards women in order to make a point about the price of women’s freedoms today. Although critics rail the show’s producers for favoring a sexist society, Pan Am actually brings the importance of women’s suffrage to light.

   Stewardesses in Pan Am’s cast are subject to weigh-ins and a strict girdle-enforced dress code before they can even board a flight. Each female employee is assigned with a “personal weight limit” that, if breached, could lead to suspension or even dismissal.

   Before viewers raise an uproar to complain about the show’s injustices, they should first realize that the real-life Pan American World Airways, the inspiration for the series Pan Am, was the same way. Stewardesses were expected to maintain a standard of corporate grace and beauty, a discriminating practice that would lead to legal infractions in the United States today.

   However, Pan Am is not set in a modern time period, and the rights women have today did not come free; rather, tedious steps were taken and painful inequity was endured to achieve modern end-result. In fact, looking beyond Pan America’s prejudice towards women, it was actually quite amazing that the stewardesses were able to have the rare opportunity to escape expectations to marry young, start a family, and trade in the dull gender roles of society for an exciting adventure to take flight all around the world.

   Furthermore, it can be argued that Pan Am, actually holds more negativity towards men.  Men may have been running the Pan American operation, but Pan Am’s stewardesses defined the Jet Age. The men portrayed in the TV show were hardly glamorous, possibly even laughable. One of the stewardesses’ boyfriends is a writer who criticizes her for having to leave for another flight, but it should be noted that she was leaving to see the world, while he stays behind.

   The two male pilots of the show are also fillers, jokers at the helm, and superficial at best. They seem to be perpetually confused, running at the beck and call of their supervisors and getting dumped (painfully) by their women.

   Through the chauvinistic girdle-checks and weigh-ins these women endured, the Pan-American stewardess was a revolutionary step in the direction towards women’s independence. A round-of-applause goes to the show’s producers for putting a spotlight on the lives of 4 women who saw the world in a way most people had never seen it.

   Intolerance has become an extremely prevalent issue. We’ve begun to hear tragic stories of teenagers killing themselves, due to bullying, daily. We’ve witnessed it. It is no longer just a national issue, but a personal one.

  It starts mindlessly. People throw the word “grummit” around like nobody’s business, but there’s honestly no excuse for calling people names. Bullied children are told to keep a stiff upper lip and ignore the perpetrator. By making someone else feel bad, this person is making themselves feel better about their sad, pathetic lives. But that no longer seems to be the case. Name-calling is just accepted. It’s part of the adolescent way of life.

  With no malicious intentions apparent, people have begun insulting each other, calling each other fat, stupid, etc. High school is a rough period of one’s life without having all of a person’s insecurities and then some laid out, clear as day, in front of them, making them weak and vulnerable. How is someone supposed to ignore that? How can a teenager, let alone a child, be expected to not listen to someone who feasting upon the thoughts that eat them up inside.

   And unless things get physical, very little can be done to stop the monstrosity that is bullying and even then, who is going to run to a teacher and play tattle tale? So we’re left with a blanket of depression falling over our peers. It feels as if we’re losing the fight.

  Student groups such as FCA and C₂ have taken this dismal opportunity to offer a source of light. Succeeding in bring the school closer than it has ever been before, FCA hosted “Family Time” in front of the PAC in the two days following Meagen Allen’s death. Serving as a place for students to vent and be surrounded by people with similar emotions and thoughts, FCA’s idea, advertised on Facebook, brought hundreds of students together.

  C₂ hosted a spirit week type event where students had a theme for each day to promote equality and acceptance of our peers. Posters were placed all over the school reminding students that they were loved and everyone was encouraged to complement each other.

  Though the efforts of these two groups were incredible for a couple of weeks following these heartbreaks, school wide unity has appeared to drop back down. Acceptance should be a constant way of life, not just a rare occurrence in the wake of a tragedy.

  As members of the Leander High School family, we should consider it our duty to build each other up, not knock each other down. Derogatory terms need to completely exit our vocabulary and a moratorium should be placed on bullying of any sort, even if the perpetrator claims to be “joking.”

  No one should ever have to feel so miserable that they consider taking their own life. School should be a place where one can walk into a room and feel safe, a place where it is easy to remember that someone values their presence. Because everyone deserves to be loved. Everyone deserves to feel valued.

   For over half a century, Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn has been listed as required reading and has since remained a staple for summer reading lists as well as advanced English courses. Huckleberry Finn chronicles the developing friendship between Huckleberry Finn, a white country boy, and Jim, a black slave seeking northern freedom. Despite being published in 1885, it is still widely read the world over, and the book is cited as a great American novel, a perfect and reflective snapshot of an era. Because of this, an upcoming censured edition of the novel has shaken the literary world straight down to its roots.

   Ever since Huckleberry Finn’s introduction to the American masses, it has been called inappropriate and remains today on the American Literary Association’s list of most challenged books. While initially the outrage was due to Twain’s use of such foul words as “itch”, “scratch”, and “sweat” the controversy now gets most heated in regards to the ever shushed “N” word, which appears in Huckleberry Finn over two hundred times.

   NewSouth publishers have produced a version of the book that switches the “N” word out in favor of the term “slave”, and the word “injun” has been removed as well. The intention is to make the book more accessible to those uncomfortable with reading the original; and therefore, reintroduce it to schools that have previously cut it from their curriculum. As recently as March, 2003, high schooler Calista Phair and her grandmother Beatrice Clark, both of African descent, led a campaign to have Huckleberry Finn banned from their Washington school district. The new edition should eliminate the need for so much outrage because it offers another, more “politically correct” option.

   But is that really a good thing?

   Huckleberry Finn is a classic because of its accurate portrayal of a southern antebellum society, one which included the “N” word and was clearly not “politically correct”. It provided and still provides a glimpse into a world long since superseded, and to alter its text does little more than lessen its historical value. In addition, the book’s literary value would become diminished because it’s with Huckleberry Finn that Twain masters the use of dialect. The foregone words are just as key to the setting’s natural dialect as they are to history, albeit they may be a dark stain on the latter.

   The “sweat”ing and “scratch”ing that had initially blacklisted the book were at the time a part of humanity that few thought acceptable. It was believed that such things should be glossed over for the sake of “decency”. A parallel can be drawn between that past and the present, and it should be noted that were it not for Twain’s barefaced portrayals of man, his book would never have achieved its critically acclaimed status.

   The “N” word conjures an entire history that can make anyone uncomfortable, but it’s this precise connotation that forces the reader to acknowledge all the more Huck’s revelation in the fortieth chapter: “I knowed [Jim] was white inside.”

   It is despite the word’s prevalent use and a society saturated by its ideology that Huck comes to the conclusion that Jim and by extension other black Americans are no different from him and other whites. We’re all people, and that such a moral was written at a time when slavery was still only recently abolished, when racial tensions remained high, was groundbreaking. It elevated Huckleberry Finn, and today that moral is only highlighted by the “N” word’s use. That history needs to be conjured in the reader’s mind so that the book can leave an impact, and not a soft one, but a hard one most similar to the one it made over a hundred years ago. The word “slave”, so general, is a poor replacement for what is so specific and key to the nature of the America’s bygone south.

   To switch out the “N” word is to cover up a history from which we can all learn. To switch it out is to lie to readers for “Slave Jim” is not how the world once was; it was not what Twain wrote, and it was not what made Twain great.

   As Mark Twain himself said, “The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightening and a lightening bug.”

[Author’s Note: Huckleberry Finn’s censored edition is grouped together with The Adventures of Tom Sawyer to form a single volume and is scheduled for release in February.]

   As children, many kids dream of growing up to be policemen, astronauts, doctors, or firemen. Without fear of being different, I was one of those kids. Rarely do these dreams become reality because a new career interests them, or they just don’t know where to start. One of the best ways to accomplish these dreams is through a ride along.

   Growing up, I would picture myself as a soldier in the military. With a father who was a former marine in the Vietnam War, and a brother-in law in the army, I was hard pressed to steer clear of this career. So I was driven into the aspect of criminal justice, completing 24 hours (6 hours shy of completing my freshman year in college,) in CJ credits through ACC before my senior year. I thought I had my path after high school figured out.

   When my brother graduated top five percent of his class at the fire academy, and I learned the benefits, hours, and lifestyle of a fire fighter, I found myself questioning the path I was about to for take, questioning my childhood fantasies.

   I had always pictured myself as the one getting the bad guys. But now at 18, I question whether or not I want to catch the bad guys, or save the bad guys; not just saving bad guys, but saving the good guys as well.

   Just recently I was given the opportunity to ride out with the Leander Fire Department, and let me tell you, it’s an experience I won’t soon forget. Every job has its advantages and disadvantages. For me, aside from saving and helping those in need, the hours, lifestyle, and friendship are all just a plus.

   The way they interacted was just fascinating; in public, in the firehouse, in the truck, and on scene. Although the day was slow and the station I was at did not make any calls while I was present, I could sense the camaraderie.

   While on a run to the local HEB for chili supplies for lunch, (yes I am lucky enough to say I helped cook, serve, and eat a true fireman’s chili,) it was countless how many people came up to start a friendly conversation with the men in their uniforms. Some people just simply said thank you. Many children came and asked for pictures.

   It was a feeling that I am proud to say I was able to experience. Is it always like this? Sitting around, waiting, talking, checking equipment, I asked. “It’s not that we choose to sit around, but it’s really all we can do. We have to be ready and able to go right away,” said FF Eric Petty. I found this to be true, as every time a call on the intercom came across, the demeanor in the station would instantly change.

   If firefighting is a career you are thinking about going into, I strongly suggest that you participate in a ride-along. Although it seems like just anyone can do it, Petty told me, “You have to have it in you; we’re the guys that respond on the worst days; unfortunately, it’s that first call that can make or break you.” 

   The Leander Fire Department was great. I had a great time and great experience. It also helped me in my decision with my career after high school. I would like to think Kirke Phillips for giving me the chance to ride out with the fire department, and Lt. Anthony Pryor for allowing me to ride with his station, Stephen Sullivan for showing me around, and FF. Petty for welcoming me and showing me around as well.

   Jack-o-Lanterns twinkle in the moonlight. Young boys dressed as ninjas and pirates hit each other with their plastic swords. And young girls, looking like something that just walked out of a brothel, strut down the sidewalk and ask for candy with the other children. There is something devastatingly wrong with this picture.

    Halloween is supposed to be a time of fun, frights and excessive amounts of sugar. Children and adults can dress up as almost anything. It’s a time for creativity and self-expression, but more and more it’s turning into a chance for young girls to wear provocative costumes that some would consider completely inappropriate.

  Everyone deserves the right to dress up as whatever they want, within reason. There is a social etiquette that needs to be observed. If a seven year old wants to dress like a ladybug, then she can. By all means. However, if that ladybug costume entails fishnet tights, four inch heels and a skirt that threatens to expose unmentionables, then perhaps there should be costume reconsideration.

   Some will argue that Halloween is one night a year and these costumes are exactly that, just costumes. But what is not being observed is how comfortable these young girls have to be with exposing their skin to even pick these costumes out in the first place. If they are allowed to dress provocatively for Halloween, can they dress the same way for Christmas or Thanksgiving?

   Adult costume stores such as “Trashy Lingerie” sell Halloween costumes for a purpose: to stimulate their adult customers. This is not what Halloween should be about for kids and family Halloween stores should not be producing children’s Halloween costumes that emulate garments that can be found in a back-alley “costume” shop.

  Giving these downsized adult costumes sassy names, such as “Candi Korn” and “Cutie Pirate” hardly makes them appropriate for young girls to wear. If they begin wearing provocative clothes at age seven, then what can they be expected to wear at age seventeen?

   Self expression aside, highly sexualized costumes are for adults in the privacy of their own homes, not children wandering the streets asking for candy. Other kids and their parents should be able to enjoy All Hallows Eve without worrying about witnessing a costume malfunction.

For most students high school represents a time in their lives that will go down in their minds as “the good ol’ days,” their various escapades will earn their rightful places in history as they gain the ears of acquaintances to come and friends yet to be made.

For me, high school has meant gaining the friendship of some of the most amazingly fascinating people I will ever meet. We could fill volumes with the sheer quantity of inside jokes and double entendres in our arsenal.

It is both a gift and a curse, cliché fully intended, being surrounded by the same 40 or so students every day for two years. It has meant unwavering friendships and a constant support system through the treacherous journey that is the International Baccalaureate Program, but it has also meant being trapped by what is accurately referred to as the “IB bubble.” Without the occasional AP class thrown in, a student in the IB program can go through their junior and senior years knowing only fellow IB students, virtually caged off from the general high school population.

None the less, I owe a lot to the journalism program for forcing me to mix with the student body and keeping me from being a total recluse. Apart from the number of commitments that go hand in hand with IB, I have really only invested my time in one other pursuit: journalism.

For me, writing for The Roar has been a life changing experience. I started high school with no expectations, an unassuming freshman with little to go on but the iconic films of the eighties. Needless to say The Breakfast Club does not quite prepare one for all that a secondary education entails. Journalism became my port in a squall. When my heavy course load became unbearable I could rely on the newspaper to be the one place I didn’t have to try. Not that it isn’t hard, just that it’s natural. The Roar feels right; it feels like a home; it is a family. I have seen this family soar to new heights under the protective wing of a remarkable teacher and I have been privileged to tag along for this amazing ride.

I would be lying if I claimed to be deeply saddened to be saying goodbye, due in part to the fact that it simply has yet to sink in, but due primarily to my knowledge that this is anything but an ending. I am moving forward to the promise of an incredible future and The Roar will continue on its journey to becoming an even more incredible student publication. With such happy sights ahead, being sad makes no sense. This is not goodbye, this is a glimpse at a vibrant future and an excess of opportunity.