There's a type of complaint that goes "Disney movies and many other types of story telling, particularly those aimed at children, often model forms of sexual dynamics and gender behavior that may be damaging to a child who is learning how to be a member of their gender and have reasonable and functional expectations of men and woman, both in and outside romantic relationships."

And sometimes Red Pillers make this sort of complaint and sometimes feminists do... about different things they see in Disney etc, but the form of the complaint is very similar. Don't go showing kids that, you're teaching them wrong!

Anyway, I've been thinking about this, and just recently I remembered a TV Mini-Series I myself saw in my tender years that probably had an influence on what I saw as right and desirable in the way of female/male relationships. So I thought I'd come back here and ask everyone if they'd like to elaborate on their personal experiences of having their expectations and behaviors influenced. I see these complaints made over and over, but I don't tend to see anyone actually fessing up to having been that child who was being taught wrong (or right) and pinpointing the specific movie or book, maybe even the specific scene, that reached right into their developing sense of self and changed it.

What are your early memories of wanting to be in some way like a particular fictional character of the same gender as you? What are your early memories of looking at a particular fictional character and feeling the start of the ability to be attracted? What are your early memories of looking at dynamics between male and female characters and thinking "that is so right" or "oh no never, ick"? And how have those sort of reactions worked out for you, as you progressed past childhood, through adolescence and into adulthood?