I was having a discussion with my roommate, and we came to the conclusion that so many things are perpetuated in a vicious cycle, and that this contributes a problem in the sense that if you don’t know where the problem is starting, how can you attempt to fix it?
This makes so much sense when regarding the media. Certain values and norms are portrayed through media messages, and then adopted into North American society, and perpetuated through the citizens. And then, since the message has become more “real” within society, it is again portrayed as such through numerous mediums.
It seems that so many topics in our class this semester grew this way. One major example being body image (namely breast size), and sexuality. Obviously these notions didn’t come out of thin air, so at one point this image of a thin, beautiful woman with large, firm breasts became the ideal image of a woman. Then once this image was portrayed through the media, it became the desired image for women in our society. And with different unnatural methods, also became attainable. Then, with numerous women achieving this look, and flaunting it around our towns and cities, this image became a reality. So now, when the media portrays this type of message about women, they may not see it as a constructed or created form, but rather a representation of what people can see in everyday life. So then where do we target as the source of the problem? These messages, or the “reality” that is portraying this within society – ideal women? And if we attempted to stall it during media exposure, would it make a difference since these ideas are already trapped inside our minds as what is beautiful? I think it’s become such an epidemic that it would literally take generations to reverse this idea of what perfection is in today’s society regarding women’s body image.
Another example I had was guns. I know this doesn’t reflect the media (or I guess it could if you were talking about exposure of gun usage through the media), but it seemed to fit as a good example of this perpetuation.
American citizens feel the need to own a gun, to protect themselves with others who have guns. But when they become one of the statistics who own a gun, they then become the population which they were trying to protect themselves from in the first place. So if nobody owned a gun, no one would feel like they needed one to protect themselves. But as soon as one person owns a gun, everyone else feels the need to, in order to protect themselves against gun owners. A vicious, vicious cycle.
So again the issue is to first of all decide whether this is a problem or not (anything from gun owning to unrealistic body images being portrayed). If so, a targetted area needs to be found… and then the problem is, where did this begin? It has been so wrapped up in our society for the past few decades that we no longer know when it started, but that it is cyclical.
I think that the media is a good place to start. Because we know that these messages are being exposed with unrealistic expectations being placed on women. If these images are removed from our every day exposure of these mediums, then we are left with the reality of unrealistic women. But at least now we can see the realism associated with trying to be perfect. The botched plastic surgery, and leaking breast implants, the results after a decade of this abuse, rather than the next week. And then we can ask ourselves if it’s worth the real experience to be “perfect” and “natural” and “beautiful”. What is the price that we’re willing to pay to mimic these unnatural images that we see?
