How Does Art Reflect the Values of a Society?

That's right girls, plow it off.

What are they really learning from the images they lookout man?

Thoughts on this question, late at nighttime

It is an ongoing debate; does boob tube (and other media) reflect society or does social club reflect the influence of tv? It'southward one of those round questions, like the sometime chicken and egg, that seems then obvious in answer, until you stop to call up about it.

Why, you wonder, am I pondering it? Why am I writing about it? (When I should exist doing something else, it'due south true.) I'll be happy to share that answer. During i of my many coffee breaks today, I took the time to read pgrundy's excellent and much anticipated article "Bimbo bashing and other inglorious sports." It was indeed idea provoking, but no more than and then than some of the comments. Ane in particular caught my attention and sparked another inconvenient train of idea. (I am never going to get these rewrites done.)

I promise the author doesn't mind my using it here. Well, you did post it in a public identify for all to run into, but I'll take your name off.

"I'yard sorry, but the media did non create this phenomenon. It can exist faulted for not giving critical insight, which used to be the media'south gift to u.s.. Only what it does with women is merely a reflection of a civilization-wide bias which, the words of a few of y'all notwithstanding, is shared by women too equally men. In my household, the women are more absorbed past the Victoria Secret commercials than even the men."

Permit's get out the reference to Victoria'south Undercover for now – although it does bring upward a bespeak I'll come up to later – the enshrining of the nubile (pre-baby) female person form as representative of universal sexuality, and exploited as such.

It is the outset argument that deserves farther examination. Is it truthful?

Is the media the follower, the mirror-epitome of the society we live in? In one case upon a fourth dimension, it may have been. I had to do a lot of remembering. What were television's influences on my youth?

In my elementary school days, I passed the time watching expert old Sheriff Andy in Mayberry, which could accept been the town I lived in, except for the accents and lack of snowfall. Aunt Bea looked and acted just similar my Aunt Marge. I could truly relate to that 1. Then there were shows that fifty-fifty equally a young child I knew couldn't mayhap be real: Begetter Knows All-time and Donna Reid – too perfect, too clean, and besides preachy. Who does housework in a full skirted dress, high heels and pearl earrings anyway?

A few years went by and the faces I watched inverse.

I loved the Beverly Hillbillies, and never questioned why Ellie Mae was and so scantily dressed and clueless. At least she wasn't equally dumb as Jethro, who to my adolescent eyes more than made upwards for the lack with other attributes. (She would have been a bimba and he a bimbo, to quote another very clever comment institute on the same hub.)

I'll admit to the wearing of equally curt cutting-offs that summer – at least when my female parent wasn't around. Would my twelve-yr-old mind accept conceived of the thought without Ellie Mae'due south example? Probably non. Nor would I have dared.

By the age of thirteen, I was a truthful fan of Star Expedition. Once more, I didn't question why information technology was that women had to fly into outer-space in dresses that barely covered their fannies, worn with up-to-the-knee black leather boots. I accepted information technology, and my own skirts rode higher.

My father liked crime and legal dramas, and in those days, the few women represented, always equally secretaries and receptionists, wore severely businesslike attire. I call back an episode where Perry Mason chastised a woman client for not wearing a girdle – which would definitely give the jury an birthday seamy impression of her morals. I didn't question why women were only support staff, and had to cram their bodies into uncomfortable undergarments.

My mother presented me with a girdle when I was thirteen, with the order "Y'all don't get out without it." I did go out without it. I hated the matter and at the age of 13, who could tell? However, message received -- in duplicate -- from Mum and Perry Bricklayer.

The commercial content was also unlike. Some commodities, like menstrual equipment or women's undergarments didn't exist, according to the airwaves. What I remember most from commercials in those days would be a woman, dressed very nicely nether the circumstances, non able to clean her house to some unattainable standard, and this man showed up with merely the right product and instructed her on how to perform her domestic duties properly.

If I added up all the messages I received from the media in my formative years, they'd run like this: A daughter can abound up to be a nurse, not a doctor; a school teacher but non a professor; a secretarial assistant just not a lawyer; never a police officeholder (only for the occasional law matron who looked similar a refrigerator in sensible shoes and was mean) or a fireman; certainly not an astronaut (but even if she did she'd clothing skimpy clothes.) Women are to be well-groomed, made up and bejeweled at all times and that included all the uncomfortable under-riggings that made sure her mankind didn't jiggle. Women came in two forms – good girls who married, and ally they must to men who instruct them in life, cleaned their houses all the time, cooked 3 heavy meals a day for their families, didn't piece of work outside of the dwelling, and were usually blonde – and bad girls, who didn't vesture girdles, partied, chewed glue with an audible snap, were unabashed about runs in their nylons, smoked, were normally brunette and ended up needing Perry Mason.

If information technology all sounds distorted – it was, but what twelve or thirteen-year-old girl gets the whole moving picture. In all honesty, this was life for women as absorbed from the media by girls of that historic period and time. I know information technology wasn't only me thus influenced. This is a give-and-take I've had with many women of my age.

Was it a truthful reflection of society at the time? No. Many women went to piece of work, and our neighbor was a female md. Another taught at the local college. Still another was a renowned paleontologist. I knew women on ranches who spent all 24-hour interval working beside their male partners, and then came habitation to make dinner while he "took information technology easy." None of them lived by the roles as portrayed by the tv, not in attitude, and certainly not in dress and appearance. Somehow, though, the electronic messages were the stronger ones, the ones we ate upwardly, that left u.s. desperate to interruption out and at the aforementioned time, afraid nosotros weren't normal.

The sixties came forth, and for me, fifteen in 1968, that wonderfully bizarre year, everything inverse. Then I no longer wanted to be a 'good' girl – and if that meant I was headed for ruin, so be information technology. But it took a lot of work to unravel all this programming, and I still feel the later on-effects.

Scroll to Proceed

So, I practical my remembrances and theories to the girls of today, and to the media of today. And again, I enquire, is the media just a reflection of gild's true country?

What does a girl see when she turns on the boob tube? Many things have changed. Women are portrayed in all roles in society, which is good, but along with their professional success, they must higher up all be glamorous and sexy, which is non good.

Sometimes information technology's almost funny. My granddaughter, who loves to spotter Goggle box, didn't pick up on it until I pointed it out. She was watching CSI, and commented, "Nana, see the women hither are equal to the human being – yous're wrong."

"But haven't you lot noticed that all of them expect and wearing apparel like pole-dancers?" I asked. "Even the police officers are walking effectually with their tits hanging out, and pants that expect like they're painted on. And the coroner – look at her. She's dressed like she works over at the Emerald City Gentlemen's Gild. Do you honestly retrieve this is how real women in these professions look?"

After her bear witness, when I wanted to take her out for dinner, she went to change and came back dressed merely like them. She'southward a beautiful girl, with a overnice figure, but in a tee-shirt that showed non only a tertiary of her breasts but her abdomen button, and pants that barely covered her pubic area, too tight and not at all flattering considering the roll of infant-fatty above them, she looked ready to plough tricks on the seamy side of Highway 41.

"It's the fashion," she grumped, seeing my displeasure.

"Says who?" I asked, knowing her father, were he here with us, would never let her out of the house dressed like that.

"Everyone!"

I didn't argue, merely vowed we'd discuss "everyone" over dinner. One time inside the restaurant, I looked around. There were a number of girls out with parents, some older girls out on dates, and many women of diverse ages. Aside from a few daring décolletages, everyone's clothes covered their bodies.

Quite a few shot less than admiring glances at my sweet baby girl, and by the flush on her face when we seated; I knew she'd realized she'd misjudged the situation. I watched every bit she fidgeted with her napkin, trying to comprehend herself, and took pity on her. I slipped off my light jacket and handed information technology to her.

Embarrassed tears filled her eyes. "I thought everyone dressed similar this hither in Florida."

"What made you recall that?"

"Information technology'southward what you see on Television receiver."

Point made.

Not but did I raise my own daughters, but I parented a serial of foster daughters over the years and I've watched them every bit they try to emulate what they recall is society'south norm as fed to them by that electronic pimp. I've seen them diet to stick-thin proportions afterward watching Calista Flockhart, apparel like tarts because they and so loved Madonna (or whoever it is flaunting their flesh on videos at present), spend all their money on labeled dress just like Beverly Hills 90210, speak similar idiots from The Valley, and talk of implants and lipo-suction after some hideous reality show based on plastic surgery. They do it to feel normal.

They are led. Boob tube does not reverberate our reality – it makes information technology.

Young girls are and then very sensitive and unsure of themselves. They wake up one day, look in the mirror and inquire, "Whose torso is this? It doesn't feel like mine anymore. And is it expert enough? Am I normal? Do I fit in? Or am I the freak I feel I am?"

They expect to the media for guidance, considering every bit every parent knows, at a certain age Mum and Dad know nothing. And what do nosotros requite them?

Isn't that gorgeous DA, going to court in a tight black accommodate with a red teddy peeking out most as realistic as Donna Reid prancing around her immaculate firm dressed for a White Business firm reception? Little girls of eleven or twelve parade across the screen as sexualized parodies of manner dolls. Women in positions of power and prestige are portrayed as slightly aging beauty queens, not intelligent, regular, women-down-the-street. How does a girl cope?

Now I'grand prepare to come dorsum to the Victoria's Secret thing. I'd be willing to bet that while the men are ogling the parade of perfect bodies, the women are looking at the lingerie and thinking, would I measure upwards in that? The hidden message is buy this and you too will expect as sexy as me. Strange how sexual practice has degenerated into a 'look', don't you think? It would seem to me that every bit long as we worry about how we look, sexually speaking, we're not gratuitous to feel, and I thought that was what it was all about.

The nubile female torso is now enshrined as the universal symbol of sexuality, and so of grade it has come up to be equally compelling to women equally to men, but for entirely different reasons.

It is the media that has led us here, no doubt – no doubt at all.

What adds particular insult to this injury is that the men can look like anything at all. Picture Sam Waterston as Jack McCoy on Law and Society, a gifted and compelling actor no doubt – just handsome? No, I don't recollect and then. And nevertheless over the years we've seen a bevy of stunning women pass through his function as his assistants, all learning their law and tactics from this ordinary looking human being. Not a plain one in the bunch – a situation I've heard wryly described equally "eruditing to a high-mode model."

Picture David Caruso strutting about the gaggle of most-bare-breasted, beautiful women supposed to be police officers, scientists and lawyers on CSI Miami. Is he a hunk? Non in my books. (In fact, he looks suspiciously similar my grade 7 English teacher.)

There are so many examples, just I'll stop here. It'due south unfortunate, simply the media'southward lesson has been learned far too well in our society.

Some time agone, doing some enquiry, I interviewed men recently released from prison. One of them had enjoyed a correspondence with a woman for years while in prison, but had rejected her one time they met.

"She was a canis familiaris," he said, showing me her picture. She was an ordinary looking adult female, reasonably bonny, but no testify-stopper to be sure.

I looked at this overweight, barrel-fissure displaying, bald, saggy-faced loser who after a decade in prison house felt that he too, was entitled to a gorgeous matter on his arm. After ten years spent where the only women he saw were those on boob tube, I suppose his expectations probably were a little skewed. Before I could stop myself, my temper took over and I snapped, "Have y'all looked in a mirror lately? What makes y'all remember you're a ten?"

Yes, the media has much to answer for, I believe. It does non reflect our society other than in the near distorted mode, pandering to our basest fantasies. No sir, Mr. Comment-Writer, I disagree with you. The media has created this phenomenon. We have reached the age of life imitating fine art, non vice verso, where the advent of things outweighs the content.

I imagine we'll get the leaders nosotros deserve in this media age.

Information technology is important that we signal out the "bimbos" of the airwaves – for the benefit of our girls, then that they don't buy into information technology, any more than they already accept. I believe the term is calling a spade a spade.

Sanxuary on March 26, 2017:

Regular lodge is far worst. Telivision doesnt come close to how rude and stupid then people have go. Actually the Family Guy makes Peter Griffon await smarter and less like an a-hole so a lot of people I run across then most days. I would have neverv said this five years agone and that tells you how close we are to imploding equally a society. Thank God I am getting older and volition die shortly.

lmmartin (author) from Alberta and Florida on February 09, 2013:

Wow. Quite a message. Lots to think about. Thanks for taking the fourth dimension to express your views here, though I think some of your ideas would be improve stated without the second person imperative tone which comes across similar orders from a higher authority. Not that I disagree with much of what you say, only in how you've chosen to say information technology. None of united states have the answers for others, only for ourselves. Thanks over again for sharing your thoughts.

Sanxuary on February 09, 2013:

I never watched TV for xxx years and my job never allowed me to exist a office of normal gild. In the last several years I defenseless upward to both and I took up writing because I was so shocked by all this. My enquiry finds that we have been living this prevarication for a good 80 years. First of all everything on TV is distorted and most all of it is a prevarication. We are Consumers in all aspects of our lives and fond to an imaginary programme of instant gratification. This is such a shallow pool that we swim in that I no longer swim because everyone is peeing in the water. The great historic period of greed is aging and the faux imaginary life plan that people believe exist is beginning to lose its lustre. Budgetary freedom is the greatest freedom 1 can have, considering it is the new slavery. Imaginary tickets can not exist punched to provide happiness or whatsoever sense of true accomplishment in our lives. Unfortunately people have learned cipher. We are approaching a decade where all programs were exposed equally lies and holding no substance, however we circle back to the ones who lied to y'all before. Robbing us blind we yet buy the very things that stand in our way. I have yet to buy a production that provides me a sexual experience non created by me. I know my health and mental health is determined by my choices and fugitive the lies they sell. A life change is required to alter annihilation in my life. If you work in a hostile work identify cease working their. If you our heavy or in poor wellness end eating the things that are making you lot sick. Stop dating advertisements and find a real person. Discover existent people are human and carry a lot of baggage. Most of this luggage is from living a life time of lies they take been taught. If something does non present something good why practise nosotros go along buying it and supporting it. Recall of the truth and recollect of one identify that never stops doing evil and terrible things. Now ask yourself why do we keep buying at that place products? Stop supporting evil and strength some change in this World.

lmmartin (writer) from Alberta and Florida on Apr 28, 2012:

I concord -- though I've never watched the Kardassians, nor am I likely to do and so.

lmmartin (author) from Alberta and Florida on March 24, 2012:

Ah, I see. That was the point I was trying to make in this hub: does telly (and other media) reflect or affect? I lean to impact.

ofnipsdfjgdfn on March 23, 2012:

No idea how to reply to that, Immartin. I thought about it for a while before writing this comment - and came up with no answer.

lmmartin (author) from Alberta and Florida on March 22, 2012:

Hi ofnipsdfgdn. Does it merely reflect or does information technology affect us? That'south the existent question. Thanks for the comment. Lynda

ofnipsdfjgdfn on March 22, 2012:

As a child myself - I'd say that tv set does relfect on gild and play a big part in our everyday lives. It'affected my generation massively, there's no denying that. Yous made some good points though - Immartin and I agree with you for the nearly role.

lmmartin (author) from Alberta and Florida on February 23, 2012:

You're very welcome, Amelia. Happy to have been of assistance.

Hi John, I suspect you are not a parent of teenagers or you would not speak then blithely nigh "filtering" what the media feeds them. There'due south no dubiousness there are some fine programs bachelor on television, just getting your child to watch with involvement can be some other matter entirely. Nearly kids want to watch what the other kids are watching, not history, not nature, not science, not even serious drama. There is no shielding your children from the popular media. Thanks for your comment. Lynda

John on February 23, 2012:

I hope you understand that not ALL tv programs are necessarily "horrible" in a manner to put it.

Most programs on our televisions tin can empower society and brand people realize that yep, we do accept many skilful motives and messages out in that location! I do hold with you for your argument that order is existence controlled by our media. Merely, if we council our young, growing generation, we can "filter" in a manner what the media feeds to them. Thank yous for all of your opinions on this subject, they are very fascinating!

Amelia on Feb 23, 2012:

For my psychology course I have to research how media and gild is reflecting onto younger people and this piece really hit everything that I needed for my paper! Give thanks you and then much for your input.

lmmartin (author) from Alberta and Florida on February 21, 2012:

Only what are they learning, Solomon? Have you lot watched our television? Does it reflect reality? Not as I encounter it.

Solomon neo hlongwane on February 21, 2012:

Information technology doesn't touch on society because many children they get better understanding or gaining more knowledge from idiot box

lmmartin (author) from Alberta and Florida on February xix, 2012:

Why thanks, okaygrace. This was one of my heartfelt ramblings at the time. Merely so true! Nosotros look to the media to guide us as to what we should be, but what do we run into? No, more and more than I am convinced it is the media leading and nosotros the sheople following. Thanks for taking the time to comment on this old hub. Much appreciated. Lynda

okaygrace on Feb 19, 2012:

Spot on, glad I came across this as you lot did a good job conveying your bulletin and keeping me entertained at the same time. Loved the David Caruso reference btw! :P

lmmartin (author) from Alberta and Florida on October thirty, 2011:

Glad that works for you. I exercise notice some programming of value and would not give information technology up. To each their own I suppose. Commercials are fabricated for bathroom breaks and beyond that, I concur they are banal and ridiculous, especially when repeated ad nauseum every bit they ofttimes are. I also prefer commercial complimentary Television, but try to avert football game. Not an like shooting fish in a barrel job when I live with an avid fan, but I practice my all-time.

SanXuary on Oct 29, 2011:

I do not find to many documentaries on TV. I practise discover enough by other means and yes I do watch them on a television but minus the commercials I do non consider that to exist television in the same sense. I watch football and by the time it is over I am driven insane past the impaired commercials. I could list dumb commercials that accept no advertising value or purpose each week. After football I actually watch no actual idiot box programming the rest of the year.

lmmartin (author) from Alberta and Florida on Oct 29, 2011:

No argument, though at that place are many times when I've just enjoyed the mindlessness of a good laugh at Frasier, for example, and love the many good documentaries. Then I judge I take to say we should exist careful not to use likewise broad a brush in painting it all bad. Thanks so much for commenting. Lynda

SanXuary on October 29, 2011:

Television is zero but a commercial turning the states into consumers and revoking our ability to be citizens. For many people it is all consuming dictating who and what they are and what they should exist. There is very piffling reality in it and what reality there is we are slowly growing numb to information technology. Worst then sexual practice and murder on the screen is what it sells is constant greed and instant gratification of all the things y'all will probably never experience. Television can exist a very powerful tool. Serving the truth, explaining the actual decisions occurring in our lives and educating people. Instead its mindless, senseless and useless garbage convincing u.s. of lies and acts of inhumanity and stupidity nearly of the time.

lmmartin (author) from Alberta and Florida on May 26, 2011:

Hi Alexandra -- Yous're welcome to use annihilation you find here only ... a resource folio for facts? There are no facts used in this Stance piece except my own perceptions and memories. If you desire more info, you may email me through my contact under my avatar. Lynda

alexandra on May 25, 2011:

i actually would like to utilize some of you information to back upwards my inquiry paper, but i don't encounter a resources page for how u know these are good facts? can u aid me out?

lmmartin (writer) from Alberta and Florida on March 25, 2011:

Hi USCIS gov forms -- your name gives me shivers having just completed the immigration process. (shudder!) Even so, on to your comment. So you believe the media is in the atomic number 82. I agree. But I disagree that the media offers something new or fresh. What they do offer is skewed, a distortion of reality where everyone is beautiful, well-dressed, wealthy and has perfect teeth and behaves in ways that are non at all cogitating of the reality of society. In order to keep us coming back, the must constantly push button the envelope. For impressionable (or feeble) minds, this becomes reality. A dangerous situation, I call back. Cheers for commenting here. Lynda

USCIS gov forms on March 25, 2011:

living in the new age era where everything is electronic worries the hell out of me.what is shown by the media can exist seen in the society, and what yous come across in the society is reflected in the media.but i ever think that the media is i step ahead. it is the ane responsible for feeding people with stupid thoughts and ideas which people used to retrieve of as incommunicable earlier.for a medium to exist able to accomplish a big number of viewers and listeners, it usually needs to offer fresh ideas and insights. though nosotros usually tend to go to things which we are familiar with, nosotros are usually fascinated to larn something new--and this is what media will feed into.it will offer something fresh to something which is already known..and so,wham!we're all mutants!

lmmartin (author) from Alberta and Florida on February 22, 2011:

Why give thanks you aisha. And no, I haven't been called awesome a whole lot. Glad to be of help. Lynda

aisha on February 22, 2011:

Has anyone told you that y'all are Awesome lately? Because yous definitely are! I loved this hub and information technology helped me a ton on my comp paper. Thank you for your wisdom. =+D

lmmartin (author) from Alberta and Florida on Feb 01, 2011:

Sweetie, I'thou her grandmother, not her female parent. And I have my own means of teaching her a lesson, ones that exercise not include dividing young females into good,nice and decent versus not-nice, bad and indecent. Believe me, she'll remember that lesson much longer than if I had only put my foot down. I try to teach my grandchildren not to be judgmental. Also, non every girl wearing sexy dress is 'bad,' and nor every girl dressed conservatively is 'overnice'.

Not that I disagree with you at all. A mother has a different relationship than a grandmother does with a girl. Nosotros have to be devious. Cheers so much for commenting hither. Lynda

Pamela North Red from Oklahoma on Feb 01, 2011:

I agree with this and have noticed the same things over the years.

You are more lenient than I am. I won't permit my daughter out of the firm in revealing wearing apparel. She also tries the anybody is wearing it spoken communication but then I tell her that good girls aren't doing it and point out overnice girls dressing decent.

lmmartin (author) from Alberta and Florida on January 18, 2011:

Well call me foolish! Of course information technology has social reflections. Television set is a major influence, particularly for the immature. Foolishness is to be bullheaded to reality.

Shahid Bukhari from My Awareness in Being. on January 18, 2011:

Every Nation has had its Opiates ... The Chinese suffered Opium, to the advantage of their Emperors ... In modern Democracy, its the Opium of Television set ... to the advantage of politicians.

And the TV Opiate is "Entertainment" ... The merely thing, motivating Boob tube Productions, and Sponsorships, is Coin ...its foolish to think about other motivators and Social Reflections.

lmmartin (author) from Alberta and Florida on January 02, 2011:

Thanks Mr. Happy. Here's the link you wanted http://www.ThisBirdFlewAway.com and get to how to reserve your re-create. Yous could as well google either my proper noun Lynda G Martin or the book championship, as I've worked then hard to go up in that location on the search engines.

Well-nigh the Television, I concur that it has go a vehicle of drivel and the worst kind of manipulation, just information technology is hither to stay, I think. Best we talk with our children and assistance them keep information technology all in perspective.

Mr. Happy from Toronto, Canada on Jan 02, 2011:

I was trying to find a annotate of yours where you linked the site where I can sign-up for the upwards-coming volume and I came beyond this blog which I had not read. I got stuck here lol. How convenient though: the link I needed is in your concluding comment here.

Now, on the outcome of the stupid box. At that place is so much to say ...

Growing up in the dictatorial communist regime in Romania, every bit a kid I could care less about the television. In that location was just one channel and the plan started at seven PM. Until ten o'clock the programme was filled with news of what our great communist leader (the fell dictator Nicolae Ceausescu) was doing: oversea trips, conferences ... all propaganda, all tedious. At ten o'clock a pic would be played but they were so bad that I am not sure if many people watched them. Information technology was all about the communist defeat of the Nazis, the communist comrades who were always under-geared and out-numbered always won. We had our own versions of Rambo I suppose. Dull. Thus, I never watched tv set.

My idiot box as a kid was black and white too so there was very piffling incentive on always turning it on. When I was ten nosotros got a VCR (that was illegal though and tapes were traded only past people who trusted each other). And then, I did watch some Tom and Jerry cartoons, Snow White ... Disney stuff but very piffling. Can y'all imagine Disney movies being illegal? lol I can because that was the reality for me as a child.

I think I was about thirteen when my family got the first coloured TV ... that was exciting, not every bit exciting equally running around outside though, or riding the streets endlessly on my bicycle. For me the television never reflected my life. Fifty-fifty at present, information technology sits on news channels and/or the Discovery Channel.

I get very angry with the television all the time. The endless pharmaceutical commercials that have a drug for me for annihilation at someday drive me mad: if my head hurts, if I'k itchy, if I'm tired or too energetic or if I sleep too much or likewise niggling - in that location'southward ever the right drug... I want to take a base-ball bat to it sometimes.

I shall write something on commercials, eventually. Cheers for a great weblog!!

lmmartin (writer) from Alberta and Florida on September 14, 2010:

Hi tiggerinma,

The first in this planned series of three is scheduled for release Jan 27, 2011. Here is the website for the book:

http://world wide web.LyndaMMartin.com The second is in edit and the tertiary is however in pieces on my estimator and in my mind.

Thanks for the comment. Lynda

Tiggerinma from Massachusetts on September 14, 2010:

Very well written. Boys too were and still are strongly influenced by media. I'm just a touch older, simply movies too were a strong influence of the standards we were to strive for. Today at that place is not merely TV and movies, just music videos as well as personal web pages UTubes, and everything else at present out here over the Net.

I sure got a couple of not bad chuckles though from your article, probable considering they are and so true.

Expectations and perceptions!

"I interviewed men recently released from prison. One of them had enjoyed a correspondence with a adult female for years while in prison house, only had rejected her once they met.

"She was a domestic dog," he said, showing me her pic. She was an ordinary looking woman, reasonably attractive, merely no prove-stopper to exist certain.

I looked at this overweight, butt-cleft displaying, bald, saggy-faced loser who subsequently a decade in prison house felt that he too, was entitled to a gorgeous affair on his arm. Later on ten years spent where the simply women he saw were those on television, I suppose his expectations probably were a piddling skewed. Before I could stop myself, my atmosphere took over and I snapped, "Take you lot looked in a mirror lately? What makes you think you're a ten?"

Neat writing. I've read several of your other hubs besides. I call back that I saw the cover of a volume on one of them. Is it yours and is information technology now bachelor? In fact, I think y'all said that you take now written two novels that address corruption. Can you lot provide a link to where they tin be purchased?

In His service,

lmmartin (writer) from Alberta and Florida on September 07, 2010:

Thanks, Jim Rex. We tin can have the chicken and egg statement for a long time, but in the end run, what you say is correct. Lynda

Jim King, London on September 07, 2010:

rSept 7 2010

TV eflects back social club, magnified.....and then that everyman of common civilization adopts the worst, believing information technology is the right way.

lmmartin (writer) from Alberta and Florida on September 05, 2010:

Thank y'all Mark. You are and so right. Lynda

Mark Monroe from Dover De on September 05, 2010:

Immartin

A well writen hub, media, whether in the from of movies, video games, TV, net, or the writtne word has always created an illusion of reality. I know equally a parent of 4 it is a constant challenge teach my children that what people tell you though these fourms only represents a part of the story of life. That they have to go out and expereince the earth.

Again great hub

thank you

Mark

lmmartin (author) from Alberta and Florida on Baronial 17, 2010:

Thank you dChosen -- and so which did come first, craven or egg? I empathize your frustration with stereotyping on television, and playing to the everyman common denominator. It is unfortunate that a medium that could take done so much for the elevation of mankind had sunk to little more than than a burlesque barker, and the huckster selling his wares. Thank you lot and then much for commenting.

Dchosen_01 on Baronial 17, 2010:

Equally an African living in Ukraine, I could imagine what the Television had washed to them. Some nevertheless do not believe there are houses in Africa. Afterwards this earth loving cup, more than 80% of my friends finally believe me on what I tell them virtually Africa. The Telly could be one sided and streotypic. Information technology just gives you what the presenters or directors wants to fee y'all with.

Nairobi as beautiful as it is, with the luminous buildings which glows similar the skyscrapers of New York and its roads which reflects and sparkle like the high ways of Tokyo, yet, when Obama won his presidential election, aljezeera news showed a news cast live from Niarobi in a nearby village near the capital in a bush with some black people jumping up and down.

Nevertheless, it has made life easier and has made data ameliorate. The TV itself is not to be blamed. Its those using it to convey information to the Public. Finally, the Television and the society is similar the Chicken and her Egg. Think of which came outset, so you lot will meet how inter-related the Tv and the social club is.

lmmartin (author) from Alberta and Florida on August 14, 2010:

Thank you Words by Mike, and then I assume it's all right with you lot if I link your recent related article on the same subject to this 1. Will do in the next few days.

Words by Mike on August 14, 2010:

Lynda, I beloved the hub. This is what I want people to realize before they leave their children'south impressionable minds to suffer the impossible bar of Hollywood before them. I also believe that having an open discussion is just as equally important every bit you lot did with your chiliad daughter. To many people fail discussing outcome with their children leaving to their ain demise in determining what is realistic and or appropriate from the countless parade of inappropriate design on the Digital babysitter. Well written. Cheers~

lmmartin (author) from Alberta and Florida on February xi, 2010:

I don't blame yous ane bit. Even so, near of us haven't quit, and I wonder nearly all the damage done to those immature developing minds, non to mention the erstwhile ones that never did develop. Thanks for the comment Moulik Mistry.

Moulik Mistry from Burdwan, West Bengal, India on February xi, 2010:

Since the last decade, I have stopped watching TV. It is damn boring caricaturing the so-chosen reality of society...

lmmartin (writer) from Alberta and Florida on January 09, 2010:

I raised ii daughter, foster daughters and have 2 granddaughters and you're right, y'all tin't shield them from these influences, merely assistance them to understand and see through them. It's adept that you talk to her about the subject, and share your own influences, besides. She's lucky. Thanks so much for dropping past and leaving your comment, and I hope you come up back and read some more than.

kj8 from Australia on January 09, 2010:

This is the best hub I have read to date. My daughter is twelve I started talking to her well-nigh the portrayal of women in the media and ad from near the historic period of iii - when the opportunity arose and at age level of grade. I notwithstanding don't think I can completely protect her from these influences.

lmmartin (author) from Alberta and Florida on Jan 06, 2010:

Unfortunately, many viewers are too young to exist discriminating as to what choices they make. Youth is more inclined to have such influences without question, and without involving choice. Adults may make choices -- our children do not have the mental equipment. That'due south my issue.

But y'all are correct -- it is everywhere. Thanks for reading and leaving your comment.

Cathy Nerujen from Border of Reality and Known Space on January 06, 2010:

In media studies that I am studying at the moment, it's natural for the TV networks to influence real society. In the UK right now, SKY Television are running a campaign to go Gordon Brown to agree to do a TV debate with the other master political parties. Every twenty-four hours, a radio station is doing a survey and asking a question virtually a relevant topic of one kind or another. Tv set influences because it also sells u.s. things. In America's Got Talent, the judges all have a mineral drink in front of them, and the proper noun is always visible. Not so much over here in the UK, but it is coming. It can be control or it can be choice. We get to cull to what degree the control is applied. But information technology goes way beyond TV. It'southward everywhere!

pjk_artist from Turkey Point, ON on Dec 12, 2009:

I struggled using the word control too. Influence is a improve word.

lmmartin (author) from Alberta and Florida on Dec 12, 2009:

Hi pjk artist. I'm not certain command is the appropriate discussion. Control is a mandatory strength which i cannot resist, whereas influence suggest we choose to respond -- which is the example. For many of us, information technology's as well much work to recall for ourselves.

pjk_artist from Turkey Point, ON on Dec 11, 2009:

How virtually a hub like:

"Does television (and other media) Command lodge or does society Control the influence of television receiver?"

lmmartin (author) from Alberta and Florida on December 08, 2009:

Hello Mortgagestart, (interesting pen name) In that location is a fine line betwixt social change and propaganda. Beware. Be afraid - very afraid. An interesting thing I learned in my travels: nearly cultures view North American women as sexy, available, just not someone you would trust and have abode to Mama, considering of Idiot box programming and the image it projects. Interesting don't you think?

Mortgagestar1 from Weirton,West Virginia on Dec 08, 2009:

Television is written and controlled past people with agendas. These agendas once propagated repeatedly will filter into social tolerance. Television once mirrored America, at present television is a tool for social change.

lmmartin (author) from Alberta and Florida on December 07, 2009:

Thank'due south Set'due south all Set, You're right. Until someone finds the fortitude to plough the matter off and forego the glittering images, they don't sympathize how they've been affected by them.

Set's All Prepare from New England on December 07, 2009:

Sad I took so long to come back. I want to analyze. Virtually people volition reply your question but they, themselves, continue to lookout man television. Until they've quit television, they can't truly empathise the question and exist able to answer it considerately. Not watching tv set myself and having watched it in the by, I have a clearer understanding from both sides of the spectrum.

lmmartin (author) from Alberta and Florida on November 27, 2009:

Cheers for reading this hub and your comment. I'll read your hub and you're smart to quit idiot box. I don't quite understand the judgement -- most people talk with no real experience from both sides. Are there people with no experience of television or gild? Or am I missing your significant? I hope you come back and explain.

Set's All Gear up from New England on Nov 27, 2009:

to answer your question, definitely both BUT society reflects tv set more. About people talk with no real feel from both side. I wrote a hub telling my story on how I quit television receiver.

ColdWarBaby on November 27, 2009:

All stories in amerika are completely i-sided. If they tin can't be spun to make usa the good guy, they simply aren't told.

I call back the chord is struck simply considering nosotros're both hearing the aforementioned music. Correct now it sounds ominously dark and funereal to me.

lmmartin (author) from Alberta and Florida on November 26, 2009:

Hi Coldwarbaby -- your comments strike a potent chord in me. Information technology is true, that many of us consider ourselves well informed when what we are is programmed. Beyond misinformation, lack of coverage of the balance of the world continues to go along us insular and give u.s.a. no groundwork with which to judge the truth of what we are told.

Cheers for your reflections on this issue.

ColdWarBaby on November 26, 2009:

The availability of ACCURATE data is essential to any FUNCTIONAL ceremonious guild. As John Mayer put it so well, "When you trust the television, what y'all get is what yous've got. WHEN THEY Own THE INFORMATION THEY Tin BEND IT ALL THEY Want."

If misinformation is all that'due south available, most, if not all, people will remain misinformed.

"None are more than hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are complimentary."

--Johan Goethe

lmmartin (writer) from Alberta and Florida on November 25, 2009:

How-do-you-do Amanda, I know what you mean by our children accepting images equally reality. You forgot to mention the perfect teeth. I always thought everyone in the U.S. had perfect teeth, so white you had to plow the contrast on your Idiot box downward.

Hullo Coldwarbaby, Yep, you're right. And it's time we all understood that, and perhaps held the media accountable for the faux images and ethics to promote.

ColdWarBaby on November 25, 2009:

Once upon a time, when there was this thing called art, it often took its inspiration from life. There have been many variations, dorsum and forth, art imitating life and vice versa. An "creative person" might do something inspirational enough to affect the general public, to kickoff a "trend".

Since television took over the media, information technology has become null more than a tool of indoctrination and well-nigh all "fine art" has been commodified.

Amanda Severn from UK on Nov 25, 2009:

Hullo lmmartin,

There can be no incertitude that our ideas and beliefs are to some extent determined by what we see on TV. I have a 14 year erstwhile who is obsessed with visiting America. She firmly believes that American girls all look and apparel like Hilary Duff or Miley Cyrus, and that they all get their own car at 15 and alive nigh a embankment. Of grade it's e'er summer, everyone lives in enormous houses with pond pools, and all the boys are really cute likewise. Oh, if only! My x twelvemonth old boy, on the other mitt, is very keen on both the Simpsons, and the endless re-runs of Friends. I oasis't quite figured out how his mind-set is being afflicted by this, but hopefully he doesn't imagine that all American men are fatty, yellow, baldheaded and stupid, or that the women have bouffant blue pilus! LOL!

Great hub BTW

lmmartin (author) from Alberta and Florida on November 21, 2009:

Howdy Martyjay,

Nosotros are field of study to so much propoganda today, nosotros brand the by look entirely amateur. This applies in particular to those political divisions that are and so rampant, also every bit the sexual stereotyping. You are correct -- we all need to learn to think for ourselves and terminate buying into "the party line."

Thanks for dropping by.

martyjay on Nov 21, 2009:

Control the media and you will control how people think and comport. This principle goes back to WWII. The Germans with their ministry building of propaganda through films and radio. The Japanese with Tokoyo rose. The lesson taught here was passed on to our modern media.

Sex sells. I can promote my products by having them displayed in the movies, telly and advert using perfect women. The bonus that non but will men picket they will influence the women they know and date to have the appearance they are selling.

This likewise works on our local and national news levels. When news reports stopped existence virtually the news and more for amusement purposes I cannot remember. However, I exercise know that women news reporters have become more than bonny and the news more sensationalized. The nigh watched news reports concenter the most advertising dollars.

Cheers for the wake up telephone call. Nosotros every bit a society can no longer but view what is being presented to us by the media. Nosotros must stop and call back about and clarify everything that is being fed. If we accept everything that is presented to us as the truth, then we will exist certainly be deprived of the ability to think for ourselves.

lmmartin (author) from Alberta and Florida on Nov 19, 2009:

Hi pgrundy, your comments on sexual activity in the media and authority hitting yet another chord. If you recall back to before sex existed (according to the media) authorization was withal very much a theme. The helpless housewife who need the man to come up in and tell her how to solve her issues, the programing that showed all these women whose lives were controlled by men -- fifty-fifty Lucy, poor adult female e'er having to worry about Ricky. And so by the time it came to the seventies -- women were e'er the victims to be rescued past the men. Nearly every drama ran on this theme.

Hi kartika, Y'all are then correct. No matter what my reality of the world back in the early '60'south in Canada (which probably correlated to the tardily l's here) with the working women all around me, including my mother, and the professional women I did know, that electronic media, that box that was my only window out to the large world told me differently. I lived near a minor prairie town in south-eastern Alberta -- population 20,000. Conservative every bit anything yous'd find anywhere -- remember Mississippi in the late 50'due south. Girls typically got pregnant before graduating loftier schoolhouse and so married and lived happily ever after. (Uh-huh.) So, in spite of the reality earlier our eyes, that women did work, we all withal bought in to Dick Van Dyke and Lara, Ethel and Lucy, the Bradys -- "your male parent'south right."

Actually, the more than I think about this subject and this hub -- which now seems to be meliorate than when I wrote it -- I run into that my musings have opened upward a whole new way of looking at TV and its furnishings. Hmmm -- more thought needed.

And to both you and pgrundy -- yes, this feeding off one idea that takes united states of america all in different directions, and sharing that is wonderful, and I find it satisfying to exist caught upwards in it.

Nan, hello my beloved. You are correct as well. Our girls have all been caught upward in and buy into the idea that there physical country is all they are. And it is disturbing. I hope you read Kartika's annotate well-nigh how things progress -- the line is drawn simply it becomes ordinary, so it is extended, and so that becomes ordinary so it is extended. I know you well enough from your writing and the comments we take shared to know that you would find your granddaughter's attitude very upsetting. If it is of whatsoever comfort, the truth dawns on all of us sooner or later, but rarely before long enough to spare us pain. Information technology seems to be the pattern of life and your granddaughter also, volition notice her fashion through it.

kartika damon from Fairfield, Iowa on November 19, 2009:

Yes pgrundy, and as a little girl I never got the message women needed to work even though my mother worked as a school instructor part of the time considering my begetter died. But, every other mom I knew stayed home and that's what I thought I would exercise. I was non prepared to work and at to the lowest degree the young girls now get that they will accept to make their own living - that is the upside of the times considering every woman should know she tin earn a living!

pgrundy on November 19, 2009:

Hi Immartin--I similar the dorsum and forth we have going between our hubs. Not an statement and so much as an ongoing discussion. You write something that inspires a tangent in me, and vice versa. To my mind, that is 1 of the all-time things about Hub Pages, and I similar that kind of dialogue. Not adversarial so much equally conversational, if that makes any sense.

Gail Collins has a new book out I'm looking forward to reading almost how everything inverse for women during our generation, and she does talk about what you indicate out here--that the 50s were not all about stay-at-abode moms and sexism to the degree that the media suggested. Virtually 40% of mothers in the 50s worked, and that'southward no small thing. Y'all wouldn't know information technology from watching 50s Tv.

An interesting statistic in the books was that when girls of that fourth dimension were asked what they wanted to do when they grew upwards, most chose 'full-time wife and homemaker', yet only about one in ten got to be a stay at home wife--9 our of 10 had to work at to the lowest degree for part of their union and maternity. So basically, girls were not encouraged to set up for piece of work, even though statistically it was almost bodacious they would accept to work.

What I notice weird well-nigh sexual practice is how dominance is always assumed as part of the mix. Why? Sex sells, only it'due south a item KIND of sex activity--sex with the woman (sic:girl) as product, owned and operated for the pleasance of the male. I remember office of the reason so many modernistic men are homophobic is that men loving men cuts through the dominance matter and is therefore destabilizing and terrifying.

I'm rambling. Sorry. Great hub, thanks. :)

Nan on Nov 19, 2009:

I liked your article better on Heros, Dogs. They are trainable to exist reliable and undecayed, and help mankind. Society does not know where they are going. The new generation is prove your goods! My granddaughter is endowed with a wonderful body, and says she should show it. She is in competition with other women, and needs to look improve! Boob tube does not help them to be bourgeois, they show everything.

kartika damon from Fairfield, Iowa on November nineteen, 2009:

I retrieve the why is - sex sells and the more it's out there, the more than people purchase - the more television set they watch, the more than production they buy, etc. And it is likewise a fact they have to keep upping the ante - so once something becomes ordinary, marketing needs to push button the boundaries more and it merely keeps escalating - and parents do accept a harder job and I call up parents, more than than e'er, demand to exist involved with kids - and that is harder with parents overwhelmed working to make ends meet, etc. There have been times when girls and immature women had more role models that didn't rely on sex to sell themselves - nosotros thought they were absurd and they helped us redirect our thinking - I remember doting Joan Baez and Joni Mitchell! They weren't selling sex - they were making art and they were also beautiful and we looked up to them. I also retrieve Gloria Steinem was a office model and other feminists at that time. At present information technology seems information technology's Britney Spears. And then, without these images, parents accept to fight against the media and that is brutal. I'm happy I'grand non dealing with granddaughters now! And, when I think of the difference a Britney Spears could brand by wising upward, I come across she's wasting lots of leverage!

lmmartin (author) from Alberta and Florida on November 19, 2009:

Yes -- it's everywhere, but why? Again the questions remains unanswered -- is Telly a reflection of real life, or the reverse. I'thousand voting for the reverse, based on a lifetime of watching girls soak information technology up and human activity it out. Every bit for the overt sexuality -- I've overheard girls of eleven, twelve and thirteen discussing the proper techniques of a blow job. Information technology'due south expected of them -- or then they think -- to exist normal, to fit in, to exist role of what they are told is gild.

So it and then brings up questions -- how practise parents, grandparents and other adults deal with this electronic message? Just saying you lot can't lookout man isn't the answer -- and information technology won't work. Kids of this historic period don't think adults know annihilation -- and the media is there instructing them quite explicitly on how they should exist.

kartika damon from Fairfield, Iowa on Nov xix, 2009:

Well said, lmmartin! I had the experience yesterday of going to utube and watching a Carrie Underwood video - habitation grown Texan country vocaliser - I actually was in the mood for something kinda real. There was Carrie, undulating her hips and thrusting her crotch frontwards - I then took a detour to come across some of the videos of women singers I like to listen to, and again - they were selling sex as much as music - maybe more. It's a requirement - not enough to exist but beautiful anymore - you accept to exist overtly sexual - and overtly sexual keeps upping the ante. And, the preteen and teen girls are told they have to be that to be successful and successful means have friends, get guys, and fit in. So, your hub is a great assay of this distressing situation!

lmmartin (author) from Alberta and Florida on November xix, 2009:

Thanks highvoltagewriter. I often accept the Goggle box murmuring in the groundwork -- sometimes merely on the conditions channel. Why? I don't know, except that I am alone here in my picayune house with just my dogs for visitor. I remember information technology gives me the illusion I accept life effectually me. There are some programs I enjoy and piece of work into breaks in my schedule, merely very few. I used to leave the "news" on, but after three days now of Sara Palin on her book bout -- I'grand disgusted. I eagerly await the BBC news reports and accept time out for them. They exercise real reporting -- and on the entire world! Something alien to American culture -- the world.

William Benner from Savannah GA. on November 19, 2009:

You accept got "some work done" for your observations are correct on target! Even though writing hubs have you away from your other assignments, information technology is still worth the time for yous brand points worth making...I am my self, do non even ain a TV at this time, for I find it to much of an attraction. Thank you once again for an honest insightful hub!

lmmartin (author) from Alberta and Florida on November 19, 2009:

Howdy ralwus -- yep I agree with you, regular programming sucks. While you lot are mature plenty to find better things to watch, our children are not. I don't recollect it's fair to say Boob tube is merely a reflection of our society. We were the first generation to grow up with information technology, now expect at the second and third. Idiot box has get a dictator of fashion and mores.

Just an improver, I've e'er enjoyed British programming and frequently watch dramas from the BBC, considering there the actors await like regular everyday people, and information technology'due south refreshing -- not to mention real.

Hi papajack -- Yes, I've noticed that on CNN, and others. TV would give us the idea our world is populated with nobody except the beautiful people. Imagine the impact on our sensitive, insecure piddling girls. (And boys too, I'm sure.)

Thanks to both of yous for reading my hub. Today, I'g going to get some work done, I am.

papajack on Nov nineteen, 2009:

Inspired and strangely poetic :-)

How near your favorite CNN? E'er notice how all the female anchors are "eye candy" except the existent Candy Crowley who has shed a huge corporeality of weight in the last year, hmmmm? One small correction, the caput of the new CSI's grapheme was in fact a Vegas pole dancer in her prior life.

ralwus on November nineteen, 2009:

Well yous called that spade right on. Slap-up hub. So, you idea ol' ralwus was at it once again. Hehe funny. I meet in this hub yous are younger than I. I wish I could have seen y'all dressed like Ellie May dorsum and then. woo hoo Cowgirl! Back to the hub now; the Television we have today mostly sucks, I don't sentinel whatsoever prime time shows. I watch PBS, History. International History, Discovery, Science and nature stuff. Mostly I am on the PC reading or writing when I am not reading a book or painting. The media does impact our youth equally it did us dorsum so as well. Slap-up hub, CC

pearlmanbage1937.blogspot.com

Source: https://discover.hubpages.com/politics/Does-television-reflect-society-or-does-society-reflect-television

Share this post