23 November 2019
Posted by Charlotte Waugh
Mirror, mirror- Reflection on self image
20 in attendance
The Young Writers ventured outside the walls of The Mayflower Theatre on Saturday, as we took part in the ‘Hands on Humanities’ day in the Sir James Matthews building. The session was open to the general public and so we had some lovely new faces (and bright pink t-shirts) join us in our activity this week!
What adjective springs to mind when describing a Princess, a Prince or perhaps an Ugly Step-sister? Using our previous weeks expertise on fairytales, we used the common archetypes present in The Cinderella Story to discuss our own views on body image- concluding our fairytale topic with an interactive and prevalent twist.
The Young Writers mind mapped these adjectives and discussed as a group their findings, discovering that there was a large overlap and many similarities in the descriptive words they had selected.
The Princess was universally described as ‘perfect’, ‘skinny’ and ‘pretty’ whereas the Ugly Step-sisters were portrayed as ‘repulsive’ and ‘ugly’.
This lead us to think about why we are programmed to use these adjectives and whether we often place people in stereotypical boxes based on looks. The Young Writers agreed that the media enforces these ideas, despite personal perceptions of beauty continually varying.
Milly defined perfection to be “without flaw”, which got us discussing how our flaws can be negatively viewed by ourselves but they ultimately make us who we are.
The groups came up with their own quotes regarding their personal perception of beauty, such as “A princess is whoever she wants to be” and then worked with this general idea. Popular magazines were then used to cut out relevant images and letters, creating a unique collage to battle and satirise the false idea of beauty portrayed in the media.
We displayed our collages as a collective, showing our own understanding of body image in an attempt to combat the preconceived, stereotypical adjectives we discussed at the start.
Archive
Junior & Young Writers Week 3: Return From The Magical World
Junior & Young Writers Week 2: African Mythology
Problems, Problems, Problems...
Cautionary Tales & Christmassy Opening Lines
You've Gotta Have Pace, Pace, Pace
Junior & Young Writers Week 1: Alien Encounters
Junior & Young Writers: Week 5 - Play on Words Pt. 2
Junior & Young Writers: Week 11 - end of term showcase [build a bard workshop]
Junior & Young Writers: Week 10 - Greek Theatre - chorus stories
Junior & Young Writers: Week 9 - Greek Origin Stories - Spring
Rubber Ducks & Writing Festivals
Junior & Young Writers: Week 7 - Greek Hero Stories [the 12 labours of Hercules]
Junior & Young Writers: Week 12 [Wild Words] - Stuff & Things
Junior & Young Writers: Week 11 [Wild Words] - World Building 2
Junior & Young Writers: Week 10 [Wild Words] - World Building
Junior & Young Writers: Week 9 [Wild Words] - Mystery & Choose Your Own Adventure
Junior & Young Writers: Week 8 [Wild Words] - Spooky Sequels & Potion Poems
Junior & Young Writers – Week 10 (Writers’ Inspiration) – Final Showcase
Junior & Young Writers – Week 9 (Writers’ Inspiration) – Editing & Performance Tips
Junior & Young Writers – Week 8 (Writers’ Inspiration) – Cuteness
Time goes on by Tavinder Kaur New
Junior & Young Writers – Week 7 (Writers’ Inspiration) – Natural Solutions
Junior & Young Writers – Week 6 (Writers’ Inspiration) – The Language of Fruit and Veg
Junior & Young Writers – Week 5 (Writers’ Inspiration) – Adventures In Space
Tinklebobs and Bedraggled Angles
Junior & Young Writers – Week 4 (Writers’ Inspiration) – Our Environment
Fortune Tellers & Future Letters
Junior & Young Writers – Week 3 (Writers’ Inspiration) – Home
Young Writers - Week 10 (The Art of Writing) – Final Week Showcase
Junior Writers - Week 10 (The Art of Writing) – Final Week Showcase
Young Writers – Week 9 (The Art of Writing) – Choose Your Own Adventure
Junior Writers – Week 9 (The Art of Writing) – Choose Your Own Adventure
Young Writers – Week 8 (The Art of Writing) – Sequel Stories
Junior Writers – Week 8 (The Art of Writing) – Sequel Stories
Young Writers – Week 7 (The Art of Writing) – Picture Prompts
Junior Writers – Week 7 (The Art of Writing) – Picture Prompts
Young Writers - Week 6 (The Art of Writing) - Script-writing & Dialogue
Junior Writers - Week 6 (The Art of Writing) - Script-writing & Dialogue
Junior Writers – Week 5 (The Art of Writing) – Poetry
Young Writers - Week 5 (The Art of Writing) - Poetry Potions
Edward The Martyr - A Competition!
Mood Boards and Postcards from Space
Young Writers - Week 3 (The Art of Writing) - PLOT
Junior Writers - Week 3 (The Art of Writing) - PLOT
Moomin Stories and Hollywood Pitches
Young Writers - Week 2 (The Art of Writing) - Genre & Setting
Junior Writers - Week 2 (The Art of Writing) - Genre & Setting
Prompts, Dialogues, and Cliché
Story Structure Part One: Exposition and Beyond...
Young Writers - Week 1 (The Art of Writing) - Character
Young Writers - week 4 - Nature Writing [animals & wildlife]
Junior Writers - week 4 - Nature Writing [animals & wildlife]
Young Writers - week 3 - Nature Writing [trees/plants/flowers]
Junior Writers - week 3 - Nature Writing [trees/plants/flowers]
Young Writers - week 2 - 'fractured fairy tales'
Junior Writers - week 2 - 'fractured fairy tales'
