Throughout the history of human civilization, myths have been an integral part o f human society.

Myths have no cultural boundaries as they can be found in all cultural societies. The word myth can be referred to the classical Greek and Ro man mythology or a contemporary myth. Regardless of the type of myth, they are stories used to give meaning to a phenomenon or symbolic manner to the natural c ycles that surround humankind. Myths are used to explain and understand our exi stence in our world whether it is something that we can tangibly see or not. Th e saga of a myth is past down from one generation to the next. For the purpose of this assignment, I will be analyzing three articles that deal with a myth. W ith each of these articles, I will attempt to explain how the author uses the te rm within the context of the article. Finally, I will be concluding the analysi s of the articles with reference to class notes on what we have learned to date. The first article is "Phyllis Burke: Exploding Myths of Male and Female." which is a book review. The author of the book, Phyllis Burke, writes of Gender Iden tity Disorder or GIS that effects both male and female children. A child labele d with GIS occurs when the child is not confirming to appropriate gender behavio ur. For example, if a boy wants to play with dolls and dress up as the opposite sex. Burke reveals that at a young age all children in the gender socializatio n process are encouraged to play with gender appropriate toys and roles. If the child does not conform to these roles laid out by our gender conscious society, they are forbidden and discouraged to continue with their behaviour. Burke con tinues to write that GIS children may find themselves in play therapy or even in psychiatric hospitals. In analyzing the way in which myth is used in this arti cle, it is found in the way our society has created gender roles for children, t eenagers and even adults. There is no biological evidence that girls can not pl ay rough with other girls and boys. It is the gender appropriate behaviour that has stereotyped our thinking that this activity is not appropriate. Most would rather see girls playing with dolls and boys being the ones who play rough. B urke analyzed GIS cases from the 1930s through to the early 1990s and found no b iological evidence to support GIS. The behaviour that is deemed inappropriate i s suppressed not by the child themselves but by others around them. In relation to this myth as being scientific or journalistic, I would have to say it is a b it of both. Through the media, gender roles are reinforced. For example, this can be found in television commercials of toys, where boys are depicted playing with trucks while girls are shown playing with dolls. In a recent article from the Toronto Star entitled "You gotta feel sad for banke r bashed by 'myth'." by Joey Slinger, centers around the Bank of Montreal chairp erson, Matthew Barrett. The subject of the article inspires the title of Slinge r's article. Barrett claims that the public is bashing his as a result of 'ster eotypes, myths and sheer misinformation'. This comment from Barrett was a resul t of public outcry of the banks making high profit and the chairpersons of the b anks holding down a substantial salary. The article reports that the Bank of Mo ntreal profit for 1996 was $1.17 billion while Barrett made $3.9 million. This is clearly an example of a journalistic myth. There is a sense of truth that Ba rrett wants to reveal and rid of the falseness from his point of view. The third article from The Humanist entitled "The Myth of the Middle Class" is a clear example of a journalistic myth. The article written by Lynn H. Ehrle loo ks at the disappearance of the American middle class. The author suggests with changes in the average household income there is a greater disparity between poo r and rich households. Thus, summarizing the middle class is being divided with most going to the lower or poorer income groups. Ehrle throughout the article backs up in support of the title with statistics and charts and in doing so poin ts the finger at the corporate world as the one seeing the middle class disappea r. Changes in the corporate economy such as corporate downsizing, outsourcing, inflation and unemployment just to name a few. The word myth is used here is th

e sense that society wants to think that they are in the average or 'norm' group that being the middle class. However, with the changes in corporate economy me ntioned, the middle class is a growing disparity. Myths are used in all aspects of our society and culture. Examples of myths can be found in science, sports, medicine, business and religion. The general view or opinion is that myth is something that is false or not true. The journalist ic myth exposes the falsehood of myths. The living myth is a product of our cul ture is to dismiss myth. Today, humans are more reflective, philosophical and a nalytical of events placed before them. We are humans started out as mythical t hinkers, moving to a mystic, asking questions approach. Then finally moving to an analytical way of thinking. Today, it is harder to believe in myths as we ar e focused on numbers, facts and statistics. Stories were told by the word using imaginative pictures, then transgressed to words, arguments and intensive langu age and finally a reliance on numbers and statistics. Regardless of the type of myth, we the reader should draw attention to the context in which it is written . Question what is being written, who is benefiting from the information and th e power of the myth.