My grandmother's aggravating antics aside, I'm writing today's post about a topic that passed my mind a number of months ago. I'm . . . I'm going to try to wash this exasperation out of my system before I begin.
[Brief Pause]
Alright, let's do this.
First off, let me admit that writing this at an earlier date would have been ideal. Social trends change, popular tides ebb and flo, et cetera. This issue is dated, but I am going to write about it anyway.
Perhaps you can conjure up a time, long ago, when Miley Cyrus, the Jonas Brothers, and Twilight were at the forefront of every (pre)adolescent's mind. Yes, this is still somewhat the case, but just imagine the time when this was at its peak.
Of course, everyone everywhere (on the internet) was aghast at this cultural phenomenon. We (a collective we) were disgusted with this slurry that had become ever teenage girl's obsession, we took every chance we could to denounce and deride Meyer's books, the Jonas' music, and so on.
In the midst of this, however, it struck me one day what we were doing. A lot of the issues that people were nitpicking were tenets that I not only agreed with, but that I lived by as well.
In Twilight [SPOILERS, I guess] Edward refuses to have premarital sex with Bella, and is adamant that if they are to go any further they must get married first. The Jonas Brothers wear purity rings to symbolize their commitment to, well, being pure. Lo and behold, both of these things were brought under scrutiny and publicly mocked.
Why is it that the one time young people (okay, girls) have role models they should actually look up to, they're ridiculed? Miley Cyrus actually wasn't half bad as someone to imitate, before she decided to grow up. Of course, back before all of this she too was labelled as childish, annoying, et cetera.
Frankly, I'm disappointed with all of us. Yes, the Twilight books were less than stellar, and yes, I read them all. No, the Jonas Brothers are not fantastic at music, but they're not awful either. Here we are, sick of the way Disney gets into every single thing, but when was the last time any of us watched the Disney Channel and saw what was going on there?
Okay, so I watch it every now and then. I have issues with them portraying kids in shows dating, I can't be down with that. What I do notice, though, is how there's this refreshing absence of sexualization that runs rampant on MTV, and on most other channels after six. I honestly don't see almost anything wrong with it.
Maybe we (okay, mostly the internet) should sit back one day and watch some of the Disney Channel (Family Channel, here in Canada) and try to look past the lame jokes and the terrible acting and just admit that it's not terrible. This isn't corrupting kids, and I'd let my kids (I don't have any yet) watch it a billion times before I let them watch almost anything out there these days.
Counterpoints are more than welcome, and even encouraged (though not necessarily anticipated).
Really though, it would be cool to see if people agree/disagree with me.
ReplyDeleteUpdate on Thursday's post about where this blog is going to go (future-wise). Tune in then, and please le me know what you think.
mmm, maybe this applies to the jones brothers or miley cyrus, but I would say Twilight (and Ive only seen the first one or two, so, maybe it gets better later on) -still seems very sexually charged.. I dont really think its a healthy thing for pre-adolescents
ReplyDeleteokay,
so what youre saying is that these "arent that bad",
-but if they arent very honourable or noble or excellent
why not search out something that IS?
You read all of the Twilight books?
ReplyDeleteYeah, it is nice that Disney is giving kidz deze dayz relatively safe things to feed on. But it's the whole artistic quality thing that bothers me....it's like there's a smorgasbord of fine cuisine from every country and time period imagineable set out for everyone, and the majority of the population is choosing the literary equivalent of a lollipop over everything else. That bothers me. Lollipops won't kill you or convince you that prostitution would be a good career choice, but...it's the whole Brave New World thing, you know? Placate, placate, placate. But it's all in the spirit of capitalism, I suppose.
@Fen: I guess I was talking more about the books, and not so much the movies (as per your comments on Twilight). As to your second comment, you're right, why not?
ReplyDelete@Elisa: Yes, I read all of them; the second and third were my favourites. I think a big part of people not accessing this smorgasbord you described is the difference between ordering-in and going out; most people just don't think it's worth the trouble.
Brave New World is one of my favourite "classic" novels.