A recent piece by Ilona Burton at The Independent caught my attention. She gives a good finger wagging to those who decry the pro-ana sites as the cause of the eating disorder problem. And in general she criticizes the critics of celebrity culture as the source of all evil.
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.
Such ridiculous attitudes go right back to ancient Athens, where none other than Plato fretted over the corrupting influence upon Athenian youth of theater and poetry. Throughout the ages the same theme appears over and over again. The explosion of 20th century mass communication media has though really thrown open the flood gates for this kind of pop culture blame-game.
The jaundiced eye of some social commentators regarded the swing music of the 1940s as a morally corrosive force, which ultimately would undermine the character of the soldiers necessary to carry out the war effort. (The same crazy swing dancing youth who, decades after the end of the war, would be celebrated as The Great Generation?) In the 40s and 50s comic books were accused of breeding an alleged epidemic of youth violence and juvenile delinquency. Television shows refused to show Elvis Presley's swiveling hips, for fear of feeding the frenzied libidinal blackness of his music: it suggested things dark and immoral. Meanwhile teenage girls continued to swoon.
By the time we reach the 1960s it is the TV itself that becomes a purveyor of social decay, supposedly rotting the brains of the nation's youth. And worst of all were the Beatles, whose music was accused of promoting free love and the use of psychedelic drugs. A backlash against what came to be called Beatlemania came to a head with mass bonfires to burn their records, subsequent to an impious remark by John Lennon. By the 70s, it was the raw physicality and sensuousness of disco music which was accused of tearing at the fabric of sexual mores and undermining common decency.
Throughout the 1980s and 90s we heard from the anguished voices of left-wing feminists lamenting that pornography created rapists and right-wing moralists warning that heavy metal music caused Satanism. Rap music supposedly caused criminality, raves were hotbeds of social decay and drug induced fatalities, while the recent World Wide Web was accused of turning young people into trance like computer zombies wasting away in their parents' basements.
This is all old stuff. Mass media have been blamed for apathy and violence, teenage pregnancy, social conformism and deviancy. No surprise that today it's blamed for both anorexia and obesity.
All of this, though, makes perfect sense when you recognize what's really going on under the surface of this endless blame-game. It is a resolute refusal to take responsibility. Whether it is responsibility for our own actions or for how we respond to the actions of our loved ones. It's very difficult to accept that those we love may make choices that we see as disturbing, despairing and yes even self-destructive. Hand in hand with such blame deflecting denial comes all the exaggeration and distortion typical of such social panics. Even without the exaggeration and distortion, though, the central challenge still confronts us.
Each one of us is uniquely responsible for what we do, with our own lives, and in response to the choices of our loved ones. Turning others into our punching bags or scapegoats may provide some momentary relief from the burden of personal responsibility. It ultimately solves nothing, though. The celebrities of stage, screen and runway, are easy targets, but that can't (even if they wanted to) make anyone choose how to live.
It is up to us to take responsibility for their own choices and actions, including our interaction with and care for our loved ones. To blame popular culture is conjure dragons of the mind, in need of magical feats. If someone you love is suffering from an eating disorder better to squarely face reality than escape in to the magical thinking of blaming the media.
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.
Such ridiculous attitudes go right back to ancient Athens, where none other than Plato fretted over the corrupting influence upon Athenian youth of theater and poetry. Throughout the ages the same theme appears over and over again. The explosion of 20th century mass communication media has though really thrown open the flood gates for this kind of pop culture blame-game.
The jaundiced eye of some social commentators regarded the swing music of the 1940s as a morally corrosive force, which ultimately would undermine the character of the soldiers necessary to carry out the war effort. (The same crazy swing dancing youth who, decades after the end of the war, would be celebrated as The Great Generation?) In the 40s and 50s comic books were accused of breeding an alleged epidemic of youth violence and juvenile delinquency. Television shows refused to show Elvis Presley's swiveling hips, for fear of feeding the frenzied libidinal blackness of his music: it suggested things dark and immoral. Meanwhile teenage girls continued to swoon.
By the time we reach the 1960s it is the TV itself that becomes a purveyor of social decay, supposedly rotting the brains of the nation's youth. And worst of all were the Beatles, whose music was accused of promoting free love and the use of psychedelic drugs. A backlash against what came to be called Beatlemania came to a head with mass bonfires to burn their records, subsequent to an impious remark by John Lennon. By the 70s, it was the raw physicality and sensuousness of disco music which was accused of tearing at the fabric of sexual mores and undermining common decency.
Throughout the 1980s and 90s we heard from the anguished voices of left-wing feminists lamenting that pornography created rapists and right-wing moralists warning that heavy metal music caused Satanism. Rap music supposedly caused criminality, raves were hotbeds of social decay and drug induced fatalities, while the recent World Wide Web was accused of turning young people into trance like computer zombies wasting away in their parents' basements.
This is all old stuff. Mass media have been blamed for apathy and violence, teenage pregnancy, social conformism and deviancy. No surprise that today it's blamed for both anorexia and obesity.
All of this, though, makes perfect sense when you recognize what's really going on under the surface of this endless blame-game. It is a resolute refusal to take responsibility. Whether it is responsibility for our own actions or for how we respond to the actions of our loved ones. It's very difficult to accept that those we love may make choices that we see as disturbing, despairing and yes even self-destructive. Hand in hand with such blame deflecting denial comes all the exaggeration and distortion typical of such social panics. Even without the exaggeration and distortion, though, the central challenge still confronts us.
Each one of us is uniquely responsible for what we do, with our own lives, and in response to the choices of our loved ones. Turning others into our punching bags or scapegoats may provide some momentary relief from the burden of personal responsibility. It ultimately solves nothing, though. The celebrities of stage, screen and runway, are easy targets, but that can't (even if they wanted to) make anyone choose how to live.
It is up to us to take responsibility for their own choices and actions, including our interaction with and care for our loved ones. To blame popular culture is conjure dragons of the mind, in need of magical feats. If someone you love is suffering from an eating disorder better to squarely face reality than escape in to the magical thinking of blaming the media.
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.
About the Author:
Keep tabs on us for all the scoop on all manner of controversies over Celebrities with Eating Disorders . Mickey Jhonny is a super source of thought provoking and stimulating articles on popular culture. If you're a fan of the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo series, his post tearing off the cover of its hidden inspiration is required reading.