I just read an article by a Croatian writer saying that paparazzi pictures showing Kate Moss’ underpants as she is exiting a car prove how our society is becoming more and more prude. She claims that we watch paparazzi pictures of drunk, half naked or messed up celebrities because we are shocked about their behaviour. I see it opposite. We look at paparazzi pics not because they shock us but because they calm us. The world of celebrities went so far to become a parallel, virtual universe. Through plastic surgery, private fitness trainers and Photoshop, the celebrities look too perfect, even plastic. Never in the history have actors and celebrities earned such amounts of money. And lately, they also manage to have perfect families. The pictures of Kate Moss’ underwear and drunk Britney help us remember (or realise) that they too are only human. So first one part of media earns by making them seem über-human, then the other part of media earns by showing that they are human after all. That makes double profit. And we are the idiots who gladly pay for all of that. And then we also pay for plastic surgery and designer clothes, hoping that we too can look the part…
And as for the prude, just look at a few videos on MTV or a few ads in magazines. You can also go to galleries and see what sells as art. No, we are far from becoming prude.
Tags: Feminism, Media, Men, Relationships, Sex
Agreed. Celebrities and their behavior/sex/drugs have nothing to do with sexuality but rather with bad behavior as you pointed out.
I rather think we are getting numb to erotics. Everything is advertised with sex anyhow today. I wonder how far we can go away from our animalic draw to the other sex by being over-exposed to stimuli.
But as I read now again in reports about the economy, porn sales are up again because of the recession… so no signals there yet…
No, the bigger the recession the simpler the pleasures…..
It´s both – the pictures calm us (as you explained) AND they shock us. Especially in times of increase of contradictions in society people act as an echo of the contradictions. human can manage contradictions even when they are inside of us. The danger: in those times it´s quite difficult to keep balance and people easily fall into extreme positions. Those who are sitting at these positions, are harvesting a lot of irritated people, unfortunately.
Let´s write against…