Understanding the meaning behind Invisible Narratives

Understanding Invisible Narratives

Learning about invisible narratives has changed my perspective on the things I come across with like movies, adds, articles, politics, culture and religion. Before taking this class, I would kind of criticize the way in which social norms wanted to manipulate people. For example, how magazines show a lot of skinny models and all types of accessories that make them “look” pretty just so women will buy that to also look pretty. I would notice that these type of images were intentionally put together to brainwash people. The message behind adds was somewhat clear to me but I did not seem to put an effort on learning more about it because it just did not appeal to me. However, it never occurred to me that such visuals would have an impact on me just by taking a glance on it. I would think of this things but not deeply, nor I would look for the reasoning behind my thinking when I happened to find an invisible narrative.

Learning about invisible narratives has taught me a whole new level of analysis. Even though may be sometimes complicated to identify invisible narratives, I find it so mind blowing to learn what there is behind something we are so used to seeing, hearing, reading and more. 

For example, one of my classmates wrote a blog about how Disney movies associate good with light skin tone and evil with dark skin tone. I grew type of movies watching these type of movies and it never crossed my mind to question the ways in which the characters were portrayed. I think the tradition of associating groups of people with characters in American movies has continued to scapegoat groups of people waiting to have the audience take it as entertainment.

So why pay attention to invisible narratives?

First, because they reveal a lot about our gender, social norms, the way our ethnic group is viewed on a social level and what is expected of it and so on. Second, decoding a text can be complicated but in the end you will feel powerful and no one can take that from you. After you begin to question why things have to be a certain way you will begin to automatically look for invisible narratives. In the end you will be a lot more knowledgeable about the way people act based on what they constantly hear, see, smell etc. You can even check yourself and make decisions based on what YOU want and believe, not what others want you to believe.