One work: society
What is society? After taking high school & college-level Sociology plus Psychology, you would think I would know the answer. I believe it's best explained through you're own visions & experiences in your life. That's basically what society is. How a certain area, region, state, country, even continent (like the rumor that people across the pond don't like to shower... Kidding... kind of.) sees & does things.
Now, where does gender, race & class tie in? That's what you're all reading this for right?
Like I said before, it's everywhere. You walk down the street and you see women being portrayed as perfectly polished and poised. You see a billboard advertising beer and there's an absolutely drool-worthy guy kicking back & taking a sip. Doesn't (almost) every guy want that? Doesn't (almost) every woman want to look great?
In the case of race, picture yourself on an airplane. There's a man sitting just 3 rows ahead of you who has dark brown hair and very tan skin... maybe throw a mustache in for good measure. He might be Arabian, maybe Iraqi, or even born & raised in the U.S. But I bet most people would have their eye on him the entire length of the flight. For the sake of time (and boring you to death) just think about that... What goes through your head?
Class could fall along the same lines. (Sorry for all the scenarios...) Walking down a street in Baltimore, you see a man sitting next to a building with a cardboard sign, a thin jacket and holes in his shoes. I don't know about you, but I usually feel sympathetic because maybe it wasn't his fault that he's homeless, maybe his whole family died & he was left with nothing. What do you think?
We see this stuff portrayed on TV & movies all the time. Both heavily influence viewers. I guess we'll be learning about all of this shortly in class so I'll end this here.
Hopefully, I actually did this right!!
I agree with your ideas of what the media portrays our standards to be. I'm sure like you said most people would love to be doted upon for looking gorgeous and perfect in every way possible. Yet, in reality that's just not realistic. I think this is where the media takes it a step too far to almost make people feel unworthy. What I mean by that is, it's not good just to be yourself, you need this product for wrinkles, and this product for cellulite. Why can't we all just be perfect in our own skin? I understand that these people are trying to market their products, but they need to be a little more tackful as to not make other people feel inferior. Then again, the media industry is constantly changing their idea of what "pretty" is and what "perfect" is so who can really keep up with (all) the latest fads?
ReplyDeleteI agree that the media makes class seem completly different than what it is. I don't think that people though who are in certain classes always got their because of some tragedy. It could be the lack of opportunities our society gives to these certain people. The truth behind the economy is to get rich themselves and leave others poor. If you can't contribute to society than they leave you low.
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