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Cultural Impact On Boys Meets World

Decent Essays

In the 90’s, a widely popular youth television show was “Boys Meets World,” which was greatly acclaimed for its cultural impact. The show was a simple sitcom about a young boy going through life with his troublesome best friend. Despite the initial simplicity, the show was popular due to its controversial topics such as child abuse, sexual harassment, religion, and interracial dating. Despite the high popularity, the show did end but managed to gain a spin-off years later. The spin-off “Girls Meets World” is a continuation of the old, now regarding the daughter of two main characters from the original show and how she survives life with her troublesome best friend. However, despite the growing anticipation, the show greatly lacked popularity …show more content…

Many now see Disney as purely juvenile and overtly sentimental in comparison to the borderline controversial topics that Disney Channel Originals had touched upon in previous shows and movies. Examples are “Motorcrossed,” that dealt with feminism and females being seen as male equivalents, “Miracle in Lane 2,” which was about a handicapped child and his questions to God, and most controversial “The Color of Friendship.” “The Color of Friendship” went on to win Emmy’s and NAACP awards in regards to its plot about a white female in racially segregated South Africa doing a homestay with an African-American family when racial segregation and racism was still relatively common. Current shows seem to do their best to avoid such topics as has been the trend with most youth media. In Donald Barthelme’s satirical version of Disney’s “Snow White,” he points out this current trend and makes suggestions of the over sentimentality of the new generation. Modern society has made a point to shelter youths to the point in which the “new generation” has become accustomed to an over-romanticized and overtly-sentimental culture, a detrimental state of …show more content…

The confusion and slight awkwardness that comes from reading this modern re-telling just further emphasizes the values and morals of society. Despite the liberalism, America has a very rooted sense of conservatism. Historically, the conservatism was supposedly originated by Puritans and their culture becoming the founders of the New Land. Those conservative views are brought out by Barthelme with this perversion of a classic fairytale, which are full of sexual innuendo, gender typical stereotypes, and the concept of predestination. This conservative way of thinking is only exaggerated with the over romanticisation of media that is streamed to the younger

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