Hi everyone, after finishing Amusing Ourselves To Death by Neil Postman, one of the topics that really caught my attention was the importance of appearances. He talks about how television has put an emphasis on a persons appearance rather than who they are as a person. I found myself thinking how this is so true, I always wondered why people on television or magazines were so attractive but now I can see why. When we flip through channels, we stop when we see an really "cute" guy or girl engrossing us to continue watching.
In today's society, the emphasis on appearance goes beyond television. All media encourages the "good looks" of a person and if you are not society's "beautiful" then you are excluded. Before television and other social media started to advertise the importance of appearance, people cared about other people's virtues. I believe that we should go back to that when people's personalities were of greater importance not what kind of body they have. Thank you and please leave a comment.
My first reaction when I read that part was just how sad it is that our society is basically superficial. As a teenage girl, I'd love to see celebrities with no makeup or fancy clothing because I still feel insecure from time to time that I don't look as good as them.
ReplyDeleteI'm not going to lie and say that I never cared about looks when it comes to movies and shows when I've made dumb comments in the past about actors "not being THAT good looking" so "why did they get that part?" despite them being much more talented. Needless to say, I'm deeply ashamed of myself for being like the majority of the population. It was more or less pointed out that sometimes, looks play a large factor in getting hired for a job, and it's not always about a person's capabilities now. Also, I agree with you that the emphasis on appearance goes beyond television these days. Ms. Fletcher posted about people posting on social media, asking if they're good looking or not, and it's just not right that society has allowed it to affect us so much. Anyway, we really need to bring back the saying that "It's what's inside that counts," and "Don't judge a book by its cover."
YES! Society basically excludes someone if they are not "beautiful". But who's to say what is "beautiful"? We are all created equally. All humans living on the same earth breathing the same air. I feel insecure about how I look a lot of the times when I see celebrities on TV because they look so flawless and perfect. Also, magazines and TV commercials are always advertising the newest make up to make your skin more flawless and not age as fast and other nonsense. When was it established that only make up can make me beautiful? The only way to be beautiful is to feel beautiful yourself because once you have confidence in yourself, it won't matter what the media or anyone else says! I wish I could be a little kid again when I didn't care about how I looked. Anyway, I like your post (:
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DeleteThank you! Why do we all of a sudden need to wear make up to be beautiful? Because the media tells us to? You're absolutely right when you say that we're beautiful when we are confident in ourselves and FEEL beautiful. Societies definition of beauty is definitely flawed and this is because of the way media portrays beauty. I looked up the definition of beauty and this is what it said:
Delete" the quality or aggregate of qualities in a person or thing that gives pleasure to the senses or pleasurably exalts the mind or spirit"
When I read this, I could not believe this what the internet believed to be the definition of true of beauty. So we're only beautiful if we please the senses? True beauty should not be measured by our appearance. Women should be considered beautiful because of the person they are