Saturday, July 18, 2009
Glamour vs. Capability
When reading the book, Amusing Ourselves to Death, I came across many serious points that in life many people have become used to and see as nature of the “cosmopolitan” life. Postman emphasizes the blindness that the media has proposed upon us when he states “Indeed, we have reached the point where cosmetics has replaced ideology as the field of expertise over which a politician must have competent control”(4). Talent, ability, charisma and do not forget beauty seem to be the keys to being successful these days, but what if one lacks the fill in of “good looks”. Postman believes that the person with good looks will be more likely to succeed and I unfortunately agree. This made me look back to an episode of the Tyra Banks show where two experiments were performed on the myth of “good looks over ability”. The objective of the experiment was to enter two women into the experiments, one who appeared to not care about a physical appearance and another who was on top of the latest fashion and glamorous tips. One experiment was based upon a job interview, the woman with the best looks was hired and the other experiment was based upon who would get the most people to do a survey on; again, the woman with the best looks outnumbered the other woman. Postman explains that the media has set so many wrong messages that completely corrupt the minds and ideology of people today. The idea of being known and successful depends on what people think of and what they base themselves off of. He references to the twenty seventh president, William Howard Taft, who “is multi-chinned and weighs three-hundred-pounds”, not being able to succeed if he were to “be put forward as a presidential candidate in today’s world”(7). The idea that the media has set out to people is that one has to look a certain way to obtain success. When one thinks about a model, skin-and-bone, tall and beautiful is what comes to mind, why? For the reason that over the years models have evolved into this appearance and the media has broadcasted this way of being making people believe that those qualities are ones for being a successful model. Therefore, like the twenty seventh president whose appearance is “gross”, others who lack those qualities or ways would not have a chance to succeed in such career today.
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What Ashley has stated is true. Only those that are aesthetically pleasing seem to have a place in this society.
ReplyDeleteIt doesn't matter what someone looks like on the outside because everybody has talents and gifts that can benefit our society. People judge others too quickly without even giving them a chance to say what's on their mind or share their abilities. The saying "don't judge a book a cover" may get old, but the words tell the truth. Back to Postman with his example of President Howard Taft, I agree with him when he says, "the shape of a man's body is largely irrelevant to the shape of his ideas when he is adressing a public in writing or on the radio or, for that matter, in smoke signals. But it is quite relevant on television"(7).
Susan Boyle on Britain's Got Talent may not have been the gorgeous model type, but she has got an amazing talent as a singer.
Unfortunately, the entertainment business has indeed destroyed our minds with thinking that beauty is the only thing that matters. But honestly it doesn't.