-Ma Khi Boyd
Sunday, June 23, 2019
The Significance of Beauty Within our Society (AOTD)
While reading the beginning of Amusing Ourselves To Death, by Neil Postman, I've come across a major issue that's quite prevalent in our society today. Although this book was written decades ago, I find it quite intriguing how we as people can still relate to some of the content the author mentions. The issue is the thought of self-image and beauty. Body weight limits and beauty standards are subtly hidden within thousands of corporations today and Postman does a brilliant job at putting them on the spot. When he clarifies that because of our society, fat or obese people are automatically excluded from running for any high political office, the corruption within our government is being revealed. I felt this topic the most because I've read and came across articles regarding what the "perfect body image" is doing to our world today. People of all genders are spending thousands of dollars on these beauty products that promise to help them lose weight or have a "more promising" face when in reality they're most likely harming their own mental health and well being. It's all part of the cosmopolitan's publicity, which convinces people of all ages to invest their money into these billion dollar industries.
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I agree with how you also saw the resonance of Postman's views with our modern world. It is unfathomable how a novel from 1980's could coincide so well with our year of 2019, as Postman's emphasis on superficial beauty remains relevant to this day. I have noticed how society has had transitioning values, where in the past, just as how Postman noted, priority lay with coherent, serious, and rational words and information, rather than someone's image. The introduction of the TV and visually reliant technology in the 20th century has allowed vanity to overwhelm mankind and our principles, seen in the popularity of surgery (as you indicated) and acute concern of body image. This precipitates not only a new era of appearance based mental issues and social exclusion, but also a period of trivial and often irrelevant discourse and information. I enjoyed reading your blog, as I truly now realize how much magnitude image has to our societal values.
ReplyDeleteI agree that we are constantly being told what the perfect body type is and that it affects our society greatly. However I don’t think Postman claim that the media caused this body image issue is completely accurate. Many generations were told what the perfect body should be from the toys they played with as kids. From action figures to barbies, kids learn from an early age what they should look like, this happened before they were exposed to media. I do believe that the media has promoted these body types and made them more desirable to obtain with various methods of advertisement, photoshop, etc., but I don’t think the media is the only one to blame.
ReplyDeleteYou propose a very good claim, but I don't recall saying that media is the only thing instilling the idea of the ideal "beautiful" person. It's only one of the many things, as you mentioned, toys that children play with. Media, such as commercials or magazine articles play a substantial role for the beauty and cosmetics industry. I simply just mentioned it as one of the many examples.
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