Hey, Tough Guy!

One of the first movies that I remember seeing as a kid was Top Gun. I know that I saw movies before that but that is the one that sticks out the most. Maverick and Goose, Ice man and Slider; those guys were so cool. The reason they were so cool to a young boy is pretty obvious. They got to fly in bad ass planes, they didn't take shit from anyone and they got the girls and the glory. I didn't realize it at the time but movies like Top Gun  portray what our culture believes masculinity should be. Boys have been brought up in our society to think that being tough, and often disrespectful, is the way that a "real man" is supposed to behave. This is what is being portrayed in our cultures movies, music and television and while this depiction of a "man" has certainly been around for a long time it has started to lose some of the moral lessons that the old westerns and war films depicted. The distinction between "good" and "bad" is getting harder to distinguish and social etiquette is almost non existent in movies today. While those old westerns might have been violent there was at least a clear distinction between right and wrong.

I believe that it is no coincidence that school violence and bullying are on the rise and our entertainment choices are getting darker and darker. I think that part of this has to do with the way that the role of family has changed over the decades. There is more and more independence for kids and they are seeing and listening to things at ages that were unheard of when I was growing up. These depictions of super macho men has made it very difficult for boys today to act in any other way without being dubbed a "pussy" or "faggot". Although the movies and television do perpetuate these stereotypes, the blame can not be put on them. It has to be put on us as a society. Hollywood is simply giving us what we want, which is often stylized violence where the star has a "perfect" body and he gets the girl. I don't know what the answer to help turn these views around is but hopefully it can be changed sooner rather than later.

Body by Victoria?

This week we have been looking at the relationship between advertising and our perception of beauty. What is interesting about this is that while most of the products we discussed are products for women, they seem to be advertised to men. This is particularly true with Victoria's Secret. This is a company that sells mostly to women, yet their ads are clearly directed towards men. This can only imply that women should see these ads, realize that this is what men think is sexy, and shop accordingly. This phenomenon does not only occur in Victoria Secret ads but everywhere in society. Advertisements such as these have been proven to lead to anorexia, bulimia and many other "image" disorders in younger and younger women. What makes it even worse is that advertisers are selling women an image of beauty that does not even exist in the real world. The amount of photo manipulation is astounding. In some cases the women shown in ads are amalgams of several different people. How can it be healthy for young women to base their ideas about beauty on images of women that are pure fabrication? I would say that it is not.

Oh My god! Did You See Pam's New Movie!?

Today we are going to talk about two articles written by Chuck Klosterman. The article entitled "Porn", which deals with the issue of pornography (duh) and technology. In "Porn" Chuck Klosterman talks about the first time that he realized "how prevalent the Internet was going to become". He realized this in 1994 when a friend showed him how easy it was to bring up an image of two lesbians kissing. While the Internet was still in it's infancy, and had few uses other than sending messages from nerd to nerd, you could still access porn. How cool is that! Many people may not even realize that the Internet does anything other than provide access to porn.What Chuck is saying in this article is completely valid. Pornography has long been at the forefront of technology. It is one of the main reasons that VHS won out over Beta max; pornography took advantage of all of the technology that DVD had to offer long before the mainstream movie studios.(Coincidentally, the first Hollywood movie that I remember having a TON of bonus features on it was Boogie Nights). WE would be foolish to think that when George Eastman invented modern film he didn't (almost) immediately think, "Hey, I should take a picture of a naked lady". The fact is, technology and pornography have been linked together forever. Which bring us to Pamela Anderson (sigh).

In "Ten Seconds to Love" Chuck talks about Pamela Anderson being our generational equivalent to Marilyn Monroe. I believe that this is a valid argument. Both women have been talked about greatly in all sorts of publications and households. Whether you like or dislike Pam you can't deny that she has had a huge impact on our culture, as did Marilyn in her day. The difference is, according to Chuck, we can picture nailing Pam in very explicit detail. If we so chose. With Marilyn, it is hard to get past the making out stage. Surely this has to do with our degraded values today right? I don;t think so. I would guess that if there was a film of Marilyn floating around that was similar to that of Pamela and Tommy Lee, our view of her would be totally different. After all that is the only REAL difference between the two. They were both in Playboy, they both married the "rock stars" of their generation, Pam literally, and they both had mediocre acting abilities. Hmmmmmmmmm.

Happiness

In the article "The Futile Pursuit of Happiness" Jon Gertner proposes that what we think will make us the happiest may ultimately dissapoint us. The reason for this is that we have a hard time anticipating how things will actually affect us. The term for the disparity between what we think will make us happy and the happiness that we ultimately recieve is called "impact bias". This also works when looking at how bad somthing might make you feel, like losing a leg or getting divorced. Knowing that the awesomeness of owning the newest toys is often less satisfying than we anticipate could help to reduce our culture's constant need to have the next big thing, which could lead to more responsible spending. It might also cut down on America being viewed as a "throw away culture".
A person may believe that owning over renting will make them much happier. No more worrying about parking or annoying neighbors keeping you up all night. But suddenly you have to replace the hot water heater and the roof. While the idea of owning a home may sound great people often fail to think about all of the work that goes into it.