Ilona Burton, at The Independent, published a post of interest recently. Though it wasn't perfect, in a sense she almost winds up contradicting herself, she does provide a refreshingly good finger wagging to the blame-game crowd for vilifying pro-ana websites. Indeed, she has the wisdom to provide a general criticism of those who find the source of all social ills in popular culture. It is a good point.
The excellent Celebrities with Eating Disorders site astutely argues that this fad for blaming celebrities with eating disorders, or any other kind of celebrity or media figures, for our own ills or those of our loved ones, is a total cop-out. Those with eating disorders make their own decisions. Pro-ana sites and emaciated celebrities, whatever anyone thinks of them, are no more the cause of the problem than they are a symptom of it. Yet, for those who know their pop culture history, this kind of foolishness has long run rampant. At one time or another music or movies or comic books, and other pop culture media, have been accused as the corrupters of youth and corroders of society.
Indeed, we can trace such attitudes all the way back to ancient Athens, were no less that Plato fretted over the corrupting influence of theater and poetry upon the city's youth. All through the ages examples of such attitudes pop up. In the 20th century, though, with the explosion of mass media and pop culture, opportunities to engage in such blame-game denial became unprecedented.
The 1940s witnessed social condemnation of swing music as a source of moral corruption, which, it was feared, would harm the character of young men, making them poor soldiers and thus hurt the war effort. (This, remember, was the same bunch of swing dancing youth who decades after WWII would be memorialized as The Great Generation!) In the later 40s and 50s it was comic books that were the scourge; they were alleged to be responsible for an epidemic of youth violence and juvenile delinquency. (And that damn James Dean wasn't helping, either.) Meanwhile, Elvis Presley couldn't be shown on television below his hips and there was much anguish about how his primal, libidinal (dangerously black-sounding) music was causing proper young girls to swoon.
By the 60s, television itself was rotting the nation's brains and the corrupting influence of the Beatles was widely discussed. This included allegations that their music promoted the use of psychedelic drugs. The Beatle-mania-backlash culminated in mass bonfires of their records, following a rather innocent remark by John Lennon. By the 70s, disco music was supposedly ripping at the fabric of sexual mores and common decency.
The 1980s brought us left-wing feminists claiming that pornography created rapists and right-wing moralists claiming that heavy metal music caused Satanism. And the 90s saw new panics about rap music promoting criminality, rave fatalities and the recent World Wide Web turning people into computer screen dazed anti-social zombies wasting away in their basements.
So, you can see, it's an old, old story. Mass media and popular culture have gotten blamed for it all: apathy and violence, social conformism and social deviancy. No surprise then that now we find them being blamed for causing both anorexia and obesity.
At the core of all this is a resolute refusal to either take responsibility for one's own actions or to accept that other's (including those we love) can choose actions that we find disturbing, despairing and destructive. Invariably, of course, such passing of the blame leads to all sorts of exaggeration and distortion. Even if that were not the case, though, the core issue would still confront us.
We each have our own responsibility to ourselves and our loved ones. Conjuring mythical dragons, even if in the apparently easy form of insulated and inured rich and famous celebrities of stage, screen and runway, only serves to deflect attention and efforts from what really needs to be done; what really can make a difference in our lives and those of our loved ones.
Failing to take responsibility for their own choices and actions, including our interaction with and care for our loved ones, and instead blaming the media or pop culture, is conjuring dragons of the mind. It places us in a fairy tale world in need of magical feats. Such resorts to magical thinking though do nothing to address the suffering of real life.
Otherwise, we may indeed conjure up a straw man to beat out all that anger, disappointment and fear. No solution to the suffering of us or our loved ones though comes from conquering make-believe dragons. That requires confronting the real problems - and finding real solutions.
The excellent Celebrities with Eating Disorders site astutely argues that this fad for blaming celebrities with eating disorders, or any other kind of celebrity or media figures, for our own ills or those of our loved ones, is a total cop-out. Those with eating disorders make their own decisions. Pro-ana sites and emaciated celebrities, whatever anyone thinks of them, are no more the cause of the problem than they are a symptom of it. Yet, for those who know their pop culture history, this kind of foolishness has long run rampant. At one time or another music or movies or comic books, and other pop culture media, have been accused as the corrupters of youth and corroders of society.
Indeed, we can trace such attitudes all the way back to ancient Athens, were no less that Plato fretted over the corrupting influence of theater and poetry upon the city's youth. All through the ages examples of such attitudes pop up. In the 20th century, though, with the explosion of mass media and pop culture, opportunities to engage in such blame-game denial became unprecedented.
The 1940s witnessed social condemnation of swing music as a source of moral corruption, which, it was feared, would harm the character of young men, making them poor soldiers and thus hurt the war effort. (This, remember, was the same bunch of swing dancing youth who decades after WWII would be memorialized as The Great Generation!) In the later 40s and 50s it was comic books that were the scourge; they were alleged to be responsible for an epidemic of youth violence and juvenile delinquency. (And that damn James Dean wasn't helping, either.) Meanwhile, Elvis Presley couldn't be shown on television below his hips and there was much anguish about how his primal, libidinal (dangerously black-sounding) music was causing proper young girls to swoon.
By the 60s, television itself was rotting the nation's brains and the corrupting influence of the Beatles was widely discussed. This included allegations that their music promoted the use of psychedelic drugs. The Beatle-mania-backlash culminated in mass bonfires of their records, following a rather innocent remark by John Lennon. By the 70s, disco music was supposedly ripping at the fabric of sexual mores and common decency.
The 1980s brought us left-wing feminists claiming that pornography created rapists and right-wing moralists claiming that heavy metal music caused Satanism. And the 90s saw new panics about rap music promoting criminality, rave fatalities and the recent World Wide Web turning people into computer screen dazed anti-social zombies wasting away in their basements.
So, you can see, it's an old, old story. Mass media and popular culture have gotten blamed for it all: apathy and violence, social conformism and social deviancy. No surprise then that now we find them being blamed for causing both anorexia and obesity.
At the core of all this is a resolute refusal to either take responsibility for one's own actions or to accept that other's (including those we love) can choose actions that we find disturbing, despairing and destructive. Invariably, of course, such passing of the blame leads to all sorts of exaggeration and distortion. Even if that were not the case, though, the core issue would still confront us.
We each have our own responsibility to ourselves and our loved ones. Conjuring mythical dragons, even if in the apparently easy form of insulated and inured rich and famous celebrities of stage, screen and runway, only serves to deflect attention and efforts from what really needs to be done; what really can make a difference in our lives and those of our loved ones.
Failing to take responsibility for their own choices and actions, including our interaction with and care for our loved ones, and instead blaming the media or pop culture, is conjuring dragons of the mind. It places us in a fairy tale world in need of magical feats. Such resorts to magical thinking though do nothing to address the suffering of real life.
Otherwise, we may indeed conjure up a straw man to beat out all that anger, disappointment and fear. No solution to the suffering of us or our loved ones though comes from conquering make-believe dragons. That requires confronting the real problems - and finding real solutions.
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Follow us for all the scoop on all manner of controversies over Celebrities with Eating Disorders . Mickey Jhonny is a reliable source of insightful and provocative writing on popular culture. If you're a fan of the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo series, his post ripping off the cover of its hidden inspiration is an absolute must read.
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