Ilona Burton, at The Independent, published a post of interest recently. Though it wasn't perfect, in a sense she almost winds up contradicting herself, she does provide a refreshingly good finger wagging to the blame-game crowd for vilifying pro-ana websites. Indeed, she has the wisdom to provide a general criticism of those who find the source of all social ills in popular culture. It is a good point.
As I've argued at the site Celebrities with Eating Disorders, blaming celebrities in this manner is a ruse of self denial. Eating disorders, whether they're ours or those of our loved ones, are our responsibility, not that of some media conjured straw man. Whatever you think of pro-ana sites, it is baseless to accuse them as a direct cause. In fact, such sites are as much symptom as cause. A brief reminder of pop culture history reveals that this urge to blame some semi-anonymous "other" for the corruption of youth or the corrosion of society is a rather old cop-out.
Indeed, we can trace such attitudes all the way back to ancient Athens, were no less that Plato fretted over the corrupting influence of theater and poetry upon the city's youth. All through the ages examples of such attitudes pop up. In the 20th century, though, with the explosion of mass media and pop culture, opportunities to engage in such blame-game denial became unprecedented.
In the 1940s social critics condemned swing music as a morally eroding influence that would hinder the war effort. In the 40s and 50s comic books were supposedly the cause of an alleged youth violence epidemic and juvenile delinquency. Elvis Presley couldn't be shown on television form the hips down and there was deep anxiety about the libidinal blackness of the music with which he was making nice young girls swoon.
By the 60s, TV was itself a form of social decay, rotting the brains of youth everywhere. And the Beatles were supposedly causing an explosion of free love and psychedelic drug use. There was a Beatle-mania-backlash that led to angry mobs burning Beatles' records in huge bonfires, with some disc-jockeys and politicians calling it devil's music, subsequent to an impious remark by John Lennon. And in the 70s, it was the raw sensuality and physicality of disco music that was alleged to be destroying the fabric of decently modest sexual mores.
The 1980s brought us left-wing feminists claiming that pornography created rapists and right-wing moralists claiming that heavy metal music caused Satanism. And the 90s saw new panics about rap music promoting criminality, rave fatalities and the recent World Wide Web turning people into computer screen dazed anti-social zombies wasting away in their 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.
One doesn't have to peer too closely behind the curtain of all this to see what's going on: a resolute refusal to accept responsibility for our own choices and actions. Whether those choices and actions are part of an eating disorder or our own response to the eating disorder of a loved one, it's easier, more comforting, to blame something else. After all, the alternative would be to have to face that our own choices and actions, or those of our loved ones, can be disturbing, despairing and even destructive. It is so much more comforting to conjure up dragons. At the end of the day, though, no amount of self denial removes the challenges which remain before us.
We each have our own responsibility to ourselves and our loved ones. Conjuring mythical dragons, even if in the apparently easy form of insulated and inured rich and famous celebrities of stage, screen and runway, only serves to deflect attention and efforts from what really needs to be done; what really can make a difference in our lives and those of our loved ones.
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.
It creates a straw man upon which to take out our anger, disappointment and fears. But it solves nothing and only momentarily distracts us from real problems - and real solutions.
As I've argued at the site Celebrities with Eating Disorders, blaming celebrities in this manner is a ruse of self denial. Eating disorders, whether they're ours or those of our loved ones, are our responsibility, not that of some media conjured straw man. Whatever you think of pro-ana sites, it is baseless to accuse them as a direct cause. In fact, such sites are as much symptom as cause. A brief reminder of pop culture history reveals that this urge to blame some semi-anonymous "other" for the corruption of youth or the corrosion of society is a rather old cop-out.
Indeed, we can trace such attitudes all the way back to ancient Athens, were no less that Plato fretted over the corrupting influence of theater and poetry upon the city's youth. All through the ages examples of such attitudes pop up. In the 20th century, though, with the explosion of mass media and pop culture, opportunities to engage in such blame-game denial became unprecedented.
In the 1940s social critics condemned swing music as a morally eroding influence that would hinder the war effort. In the 40s and 50s comic books were supposedly the cause of an alleged youth violence epidemic and juvenile delinquency. Elvis Presley couldn't be shown on television form the hips down and there was deep anxiety about the libidinal blackness of the music with which he was making nice young girls swoon.
By the 60s, TV was itself a form of social decay, rotting the brains of youth everywhere. And the Beatles were supposedly causing an explosion of free love and psychedelic drug use. There was a Beatle-mania-backlash that led to angry mobs burning Beatles' records in huge bonfires, with some disc-jockeys and politicians calling it devil's music, subsequent to an impious remark by John Lennon. And in the 70s, it was the raw sensuality and physicality of disco music that was alleged to be destroying the fabric of decently modest sexual mores.
The 1980s brought us left-wing feminists claiming that pornography created rapists and right-wing moralists claiming that heavy metal music caused Satanism. And the 90s saw new panics about rap music promoting criminality, rave fatalities and the recent World Wide Web turning people into computer screen dazed anti-social zombies wasting away in their 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.
One doesn't have to peer too closely behind the curtain of all this to see what's going on: a resolute refusal to accept responsibility for our own choices and actions. Whether those choices and actions are part of an eating disorder or our own response to the eating disorder of a loved one, it's easier, more comforting, to blame something else. After all, the alternative would be to have to face that our own choices and actions, or those of our loved ones, can be disturbing, despairing and even destructive. It is so much more comforting to conjure up dragons. At the end of the day, though, no amount of self denial removes the challenges which remain before us.
We each have our own responsibility to ourselves and our loved ones. Conjuring mythical dragons, even if in the apparently easy form of insulated and inured rich and famous celebrities of stage, screen and runway, only serves to deflect attention and efforts from what really needs to be done; what really can make a difference in our lives and those of our loved ones.
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.
It creates a straw man upon which to take out our anger, disappointment and fears. But it solves nothing and only momentarily distracts us from real problems - and 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 reliable source of insightful and provocative articles on popular culture. If you're a fan of the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo series, his piece ripping off the cover of its hidden inspiration is an absolute must read.
