This Friday my excitement of the "long" weekend was quite short-lived as I realized how much work I actually had to complete by Wednesday. However, amidst the craziness I still found time to evaluate our culture industry in true WST 320 form. Special I know.
Lately I've been noticing an abundance of my peer's time being spent on blogs (not to worry, they're nothing like ours, all political and shit) that deal with celebrity gossip and other celebrity happenings (like what they wore last Wednesday for example). I'd just like to state first off that I am appalled. Even with the argument that it is meant for (literally) mindless entertainment, I find it incredibly sad that this type of activity is what our university students are spending their time on. Really. Does it affect you (or anyone really) at all what Lindsay Lohan drank, then puked up later that night? Who cares what a fashion disaster a-list celebrity was, and what a "trendsetter" b-list celebrity is going to be next season. I find as this year goes on I'm getting less and less tolerable and more and more irritated by this kind of behavior. Can you imagine what kind of world we might be able to live in if these intelligent individuals spent their time elsewhere? What if they cared less about Paris' erratic partying and more about our troop's situation in the Middle East? What if they spent less time trying to find the "Perfect Winter Handbag" and more time finding ways to get AIDS drugs to Africa? Maybe I'm being a little too judgemental (as usual) and setting my hopes a little higher than what can be expected. But hey, call me a false-hoped Optimist if you'd like, but I think that real change could be made here. I think we can take from our well-known 5 tenants of liberal feminism and actually USE what was fought so hard for us to get! Where is our reason, of what use is our education (if spent endlessly on justjared.com) and why did women fight so hard for our ontological sameness if we are simply replacing "sewing, cooking, cleaning" with "shopping, gossip and trendiness"? This topic is slowly but surely making me throw up a little in my mouth, so I'm going to finish with those questions and let everyone do what they will with them.
Lately I've been noticing an abundance of my peer's time being spent on blogs (not to worry, they're nothing like ours, all political and shit) that deal with celebrity gossip and other celebrity happenings (like what they wore last Wednesday for example). I'd just like to state first off that I am appalled. Even with the argument that it is meant for (literally) mindless entertainment, I find it incredibly sad that this type of activity is what our university students are spending their time on. Really. Does it affect you (or anyone really) at all what Lindsay Lohan drank, then puked up later that night? Who cares what a fashion disaster a-list celebrity was, and what a "trendsetter" b-list celebrity is going to be next season. I find as this year goes on I'm getting less and less tolerable and more and more irritated by this kind of behavior. Can you imagine what kind of world we might be able to live in if these intelligent individuals spent their time elsewhere? What if they cared less about Paris' erratic partying and more about our troop's situation in the Middle East? What if they spent less time trying to find the "Perfect Winter Handbag" and more time finding ways to get AIDS drugs to Africa? Maybe I'm being a little too judgemental (as usual) and setting my hopes a little higher than what can be expected. But hey, call me a false-hoped Optimist if you'd like, but I think that real change could be made here. I think we can take from our well-known 5 tenants of liberal feminism and actually USE what was fought so hard for us to get! Where is our reason, of what use is our education (if spent endlessly on justjared.com) and why did women fight so hard for our ontological sameness if we are simply replacing "sewing, cooking, cleaning" with "shopping, gossip and trendiness"? This topic is slowly but surely making me throw up a little in my mouth, so I'm going to finish with those questions and let everyone do what they will with them.
1 comment:
I too think that it is crazy the amount of time spent on fashion, celebrity gossip and the like. I agree with you, people should be more concerned with world events then Paris' antics. The reason that so many people are intrigued with this is because people do not want to face the reality of how bad things are going. Really what is more interesting to talk about, men and women getting killed in an umjust war or is blue really is the new black. I believe the term is escapism. For the same reason why we read fiction, fantasize about being millionaires or play house as kids. We do not want to partake in our own reality. However, one day we will have to face the music, but by then it may be too late.
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