Everyone seems to blame the media for everything nowadays. Some kid murders someone, it's the media's fault. People idolize skinny people, it's the media's fault. I mean, can we not take ANY responsibility for the way the world is today? I'm not saying the media is entirely innocent, but I would like to point out that, hey guess what! the media is made up of...wait for it... real live people!!! People belonging to our society!! A shocker, I know! The media isn't doing anything to help our society with the extreme amount of violence on television or portraying the anorexic waif as the ideal woman, but my point is, this is as much the average persons fault as it is the media's. They wouldn't be showing our society this stuff if we didn't want to see it. If we didn't go out and buy the clothes after seeing them look so good on a skinny model, or tune into the TV shows that have obscure amounts of violence, they wouldn't be on there! I may be prejudiced because both my parents are involved with the media, but I also think that it gives me an insiders look at the way things operate. I'm not saying that we're all bad people and that everyone does the aforementioned things, but the truth is the MEDIA is influenced by US. Maybe when we take a little more responsibility for the condition of our society, we'll be able to help shape it up. But until then, we're kind of screwed. -Katy Feb. 18/00 ...I think that there are some good points that were just mentioned, such as how we do indeed feed the media by buying the clothes that they say are in, and watching the violent shows that they put out, but why would we do that? I'll get to that question a bit later on. I disagree with some of the aforementioned arguments, too, though, such as the idea that it's mainly the every-day person's fault the world is the way it is, although this is just my opinion. Just to clarify something in my current writing, when I mention "media", I'm not speaking of the information/news media, I'm speaking of the entertainment media, meaning the one that puts out movies, magazines, ads, TV shows, etc.... the way I think about it is, the media wants to make money, and the way that they do that is by getting us hooked on what they produce. And how do they do that? They shove images in our face until we think that they're normal and cool. I agree with what Katy said about us needing to take responsibility for our actions TO SOME EXTENT, but here's an example to prove my point: a little kid grows up watching violent shows, reading violent comic books, as a lot of children do, because that's very accessible to everyone nowadays, and then grows up thinking that violence is normal and kills someone. Is it the kids fault?? To some degree. To the degree where it comes down to diferentiating between myth and reality, but not where what they've been exposed to is concerned. I mean, can we really say that it's the child's fault for not shutting the TV off when a violent show comes on? No. Why would they want to? Everyone else watches it... that's how the whole cycle is started. And in relation to the ideas about what's the ideal way to look, is it my fault that I've grown up feeling really bad about the way I look because I've never seen anyone weighing over 85lbs portrayed in the media as looking good? Uh, not really. I was thinking about this the other day. I'm not an unhealthy person; I exercise, I eat pretty well, so why would I have aquired this idea that there's something wrong with the way that I look? Probably because in every single fucking TV show and every single magazine, the only "beautiful" people are the one's who are skinny and wear tight clothes. It's really really sad to think about. And can you really say that it's my fault that I don't like the way I look?? Once again, it is to some extent, because I guess I'm not able to see the difference between what society says looks good, and what is actually a perfectly normal way to look; but that's way easier said than done, because it's very hard to do that when you have images of half-naked anorexic-looking waifs shoved in your face every single day. -Delia Feb. 19/00 ...I think Delia made a good point and I hadn't thought to much about it like that. There is one thing I neglected to mention in the first article, we all seem to think that "the media" is actually made up of real people. And yeah, our kids don't know that this isn't right, but most people reading this can probably think for themselves, so if we don't stop feeding into it, it'll never stop. And yes, I do blame myself. I buy the clothes and watch the movies and feed the media moguls ego's. But I am going to stop, because I don't want my kids growing up thinking they're fat or making light of murder. But it won't work if only some of us stop, billions of others have to to. -Katy, Feb. 20... I agree that it's very important that we stop feeding the media, but that's extremely hard to do, otherwise it would've been done long along. What I'm trying to say is: how can we possibly revolt against an idea that's been ingrained in our lives since day 1? It's not like one day we make the conscious decision "Hey, I think I'm gonna let the media control the way I think about how I look [among other things].", it's a very subtle idea that's been impressed on us for all our lives. Therefore it's not as easy as just saying "I'm gonna stop feeding into the media." because it's not even a conscious matter. And a good example of how we're not even aware of the influence the media has on women is make-up. Most - or at least a large number - of women wear make-up nowadays, probably because they want to change or hide something about their appearance; and our society has given women in particular the idea that it's perfectly normal and good to be dissatisfied with your appearance, and even made people believe that they're altering their appearance "for themselves", not so other people will think they look good. What I'm trying to say about this is, if someone says something like "I'm gonna start throwing up everything I eat so I can lose weight, but I'm doing it for myself, not so other people will think I look good." Is that really a valid statement? Does anyone really REALLY want to put their body through so much just so they feel good about themselves? I really doubt it.... And about the whole violence in the media issue, it's also pretty hard to just cut out that aspect of our lives. I mean, it IS technically possible to stop renting or going to see violent movies, but who does that? I know that I think it's horrible that violence is portrayed so casually now, and I don't want to encourage that at all, but I still can't deny that, say, "Pulp Fiction" is a movie that I really like, and I don't want to boycott it or movies like it, because I enjoy them. But I guess that's the real issue, the fact that we're taught that it's cool to like that shit. -Delia, March 8 (I really hope that all made sense!)...
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