This post references sexual abuse, racism, homo- and transphobia and general intolerance of other people.
Over the past month or so, I have been inundated with pop culture analysis.
Miley Cyrus is a terrible influence.
Miley Cyrus is a strong feminist.
Miley Cyrus is just bein' Miley.
Robin Thicke is a rapist.
Robin Thicke is satirizing machismo.
Robin Thicke is celebrating sexuality.
All pop music is crap anyway.
And on, and on.
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| Everybody has those days |
We live in an age where everyone has the platform to widely distribute their thoughts and opinions and use other people's thoughts and opinions to back their own up. And here I am taking advantage of it. Ain't that America?
We, the people of the Internet, enjoy thoughtful and important diatribe. And we enjoy making everything we see and hear into a lesson. A lesson in sexism. Racism. Misogyny. Homophobia. Rape culture. Religious discrimination. Body image.
For every person who types out a blog about "YAAAS LADY GAGA LOOKS SO GOOD SHE IS AN INSPIRATION" there is someone calling Lady Gaga a terrible influence, an over-sexualized burlesque dancer. And then someone else is scoffing at both opinions and saying Gaga is satirizing the pop culture industry. And then someone else is pooh-poohing all three opinions and saying Gaga is stealing ideas and inspiration from Madonna.
Maybe I'm just spending too much time on Tumblr, where people believe Tubby Custard is chicken nuggets, breeders should die, and you can't say a damn thing without someone crying foul play.
Here is what I want to ask.
Is our culture of Internet analysis making us better or worse?
Are we making valid analysis and increasing awareness of important issues? Or are we just creating a world where everything and everyone fight against us? Where we just assume the worst and take a cynical attitude towards our fellow men and women (and everyone in between)?
There must be a point where we are just fear-mongering. A point where we are bringing too much to the table and looking too deeply into the issue. And it's bound to drive us insane one day.
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| Tyra says ENOUGH |
Perhaps it may drive the ones we are trying to represent or the people we are worried about to a higher level of nervous awareness.
There are probably people out there, victims of sexual abuse, who heard "Blurred Lines" and didn't think twice. Or who never even gave it a listen. But because of the blogosphere hype, they are suddenly forced to think about every line. Every lyric. And be told how it could relate to them. And then they do remember.
If a celebrity woman thinks she should start eating healthier, some people will say she should because she needs to lose weight. Some will say she should defy traditional beauty standards and embrace her curves and be a good role model for little girls. Some will say she is being a bad feminist by conforming to our male-dominated society. And at the end of the day, maybe all she wants to do is train for a 5K--but there are five different theories about her eating habits, and she's starting to get paranoid. We could say the same for any person who wants to make a change.
Here's another example...Let's say I, a white Ohioan, put a picture of me and two of my friends on this blog. And let's say one is white, and one is black. What would people say if, in the picture, I only had my arm around the white friend? I've spent enough time online to know that someone, somewhere would say I really hate black people deep down in my heart. But if I had my arm around my black friend in this photo, or even around both friends, they might say I'm trying too hard to appear like I'm NOT racist and I think in cool because I have a black friend. (The obvious solution here is for us all to do duck face and be holding our drinks, right?)
So maybe my black friend would see those comments, and she never would have even thought of me as racist, or of herself as an "outcast" in the trio, until people brought it up. And then what would she think? That I'm trying to use her for some fake show of solidarity? That people think she's trying to be "too white?" Would she then confront me about my supposed racism?
Granted, these are all hypotheticals. But I do think that we're making ourselves more anxious than we need to be about what's out there.
It's like we are using the Internet as WebMD for our pop culture "symptoms." Some want to find an explanation, and some want to write a diagnosis. Either way, something's wrong or something is racially, culturally, socially important because WE decide it is. And it's good to have that discussion. But it can also just go way too far. Do we really need to second- and third-guess everything we think, do, and say? Everything we see, hear, read?
I don't mean to discredit anyone's experiences or tell people that their opinions don't matter. Perhaps I am not the best person to be writing this--as a white cis woman, average weight, taller than most, raised in Ohio, never been a victim of abuse or had anything glaringly sexist said to me. I'm gay but most people can't tell, so I haven't faced much discrimination. And you can't tell by looking at me that I have some anxiety problems. So by society's standards, I'm "normal." I'm privileged. I don't really have the right to tell people to take a breather.
So, discredit this if you think I'm an idiot, a hypocrite, etc. I'm part of the problem, because I'm clearly analyzing this all past the point of logical conclusions. And I'm not offering a solution, explanation, etc. I just want to say that I think we're making ourselves sick with worry.
We talk too much. We think too much. Sometimes, we need to just take the world as it comes.
