What would the world be like without media. I spent some time imagining it today. No magazines on the grocery store tills, no TV commercials, no Facebook ‘available singles in your area’, no movie or rock stars. No more fake perfection. There are no magazines glorifying the one with weight related high blood pressure, acne, large nose syndrome and ears that would dwarf those of Dumbo’s. No more “I was ugly but now I’m so beautiful” adds. When was the last time you saw a lead character in a movie who was ugly. Granted there are some such as Ugly Betty but the entire move is then hinged around the fact that they aren’t beautiful, the lack of beauty is the story line. I was reading an article the other day that was explaining the extreme sexualisation of media. Almost all media is designed to attract one or both genders in a sexual way.
Another article I was reading hit perhaps a more sensitive subject. It said that so many people are influenced and steeped in pornography that they can no longer carry on real relationships with the opposite sex in a respectful manner. Relationships, for both genders, are increasingly becoming a means to an end.
But it doesn’t end there. Don’t forget the fact that we must have our nice cars and nice houses. Pool is pretty much a must if you really want a really nice place. The grass must be nicely cut and trimmed and free of dandelions. Why?!?!? Because the actor/actress has a nice house and an Aston Martin?? Who said that grass isn’t a weed anyways?!? It is everywhere and you always have to be watering it and fertilizing it to make it look green only to find as a result that it grows faster and needs cutting AGAIN! Why? Who said that grass isn’t a weed and everything else is? That one thing is beautiful and accepted and the other is simply not.
So here is what I’m thinking. Without all these rehearsed and perfected media forms and all their computer edited and perfected people, would our lives look different. Would we begin to care less and less about the clothing style and size. Would we begin to realize that no one really has perfect skin and not worry about putting on makeup to feel better about ourselves or to hide the fact that we aren’t perfect either. Would we begin to treat each other as people to serve and not simply tools of gratification and pleasure.
I’m not saying that makeup is wrong. What I am doing is pointing out what I think is misplaced focus. We worry so much about things that simply don’t matter that much. We place so much attention on the things that are, at the end of the day, simply subjective preferences. It’s time to find something more significant and worthwhile to focus on.
Check out the pole on the right side!
ReplyDeleteHey Matt, to follow up on my vote, I think the fact that make-up is far older than mass media says something. Our current media has certainly aggravated the need for make-up, skin care, anti-aging products, dieting pills and such, but I wonder if the media doesn't play a little different role than a direct causal one.
ReplyDeleteWhat do you mean by a direct causal one?
ReplyDeleteI imagine you have heard that many years ago when food was scarce and life was hard that to be fat was seen as attractive. It was a sign of wealth, popularity, and power. Now it is seen as unattractive at the very least. Perhaps the same will occur 100 years from now with makeup and other cosmetic products.
By resisting a direct causal relationship I mean that I don't think media has a direct -- and singular -- relationship to our conceptions of cosmetics and such. It certainly is a shaping influence, but is one mediated through what we think of aesthetics, the body, beauty and sexuality. It just seems pretty telling that makeup was around in the times of the Old Testament. I agree with you that our culture's obsession with bodily perfection (attempting to live up to some dubious ideal)is pernicious, but I wonder if the cause of these trends are not a little more nuanced.
ReplyDelete