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Picture Perfect
Culture is obsessed with beauty and image. How else could it be that every morning that girls get up, apply the makeup, trying so hard to look like the immaculate faces on the magazines? Media pressure makes the ordinary family look so plain and small. Is it any wonder that parents try to make their children look like a rock star or magazine model? Amidst all the cries for the government to fix the education system, how is it that children have time to be "world champions before they can drive" (Ryan 156)? The answer is rather simple. The American parent is irresponsible and selfish, looking for shortcuts to success and maybe fame for their child... and of course the accompanying prestige for themselves. Where are these desires in the parents conjured up? They are the product of the media and entertainment culture, which has invaded the family. Therefore, the media pressures modern parents, parents pressure the children, and children pressure each other.
The media influence of one's modern persona is undeniable. Witness the majority of teenage girls with exposed midriffs in their attempt to be clones of Britney Spears. One has only to walk by the magazine racks to observe girls, boys, men and women gazing at what the media defines to be picture perfect girls, boys, men and women. Then one goes home and turns on the television and one is bombarded with virtually the same images they see in the magazines, with the exception that they are now animated. Neil Postman realized the ever-growing preoccupation with image back in 1988 when he noted that "it would appear that fat people are now effectively excluded from running for high political office" and "we may have reached the point where cosmetics has replaced ideology..." (243). If it doesn't look good, people want nothing to do with it. In the words of tennis star Andre Agassi, "Image is everything". Unfortunately, the modern parent has bought this new gospel.
The lesson of the media gospel that “image is everything” has not been lost on parents responsible for educating their kids. Ryan notes at sporting events, "expectant fathers craned forward with video cameras" and "Mothers with scoresheets tucked under their arms clapped until their hands hurt, shooting hopeful glances at the ESPN cameras..." (152). It's not just about the activity... but looking good while doing it. Ryan acknowledges this by saying that "Makeup artists are fixtures backstage at figure skating competitions, primping and polishing" (155). As a result of this preoccupation with image and notoriety by the parents (and coaches), children feel pressured not only to conform to the picture-perfect image, but also to succeed in competition. After all, if one doesn't win, and receive with it the fame, money, or prestige, then wouldn't all of that practice, money and sacrifice of time be for naught? Ryan quotes Tiffany Chin, a figure skater, as explaining that when she did win, she didn't feel happy, but only relief. She then stated, "There's a tremendous strain on people who don't make it. The money, the sacrifices of time... I've seen nervous breakdowns, psychology imbalances" (156). Parents don't see the damage. Parents see fame and prestige knocking on the door, and in the end, succumb to a winning at all costs attitude, as well as the "cultural fixation on beauty and weight and youth" (Ryan 154).
The last chain in the ladder is the children's relationship to other children. Children interacting with each other reflects the examples learned from the media and parents. Instead of pushing themselves to be educated, children are now immersed in a plethora of extra-curricular activities; and likewise, children try to emulate the picture-perfect bodies promoted by the media and their own parents. In essence, children exhibit some of the qualities of the "Double Lives" spoken of by Stanton Wheeler. He says that “these activities may be thought of as preoccupations- things so important to the self that it is hard to get them off one's mind and out of one's thoughts” (145). Wheeler generally held "Double Lives" in a positive light, as one doing something one enjoys as "work" as opposed to the drab and dreary work for an employer. Children now engage in "Double Lives" of their own. Some children do so out of their own volition, in Wheeler's positive light. However, many are also forced or pressured into a preoccupation that otherwise would not be engaged in. Most however are forced into the "preoccupation" of making sure they present the popular image. Children have always made fun of others outside of popular image. Mass media and parents have now legitimized the concept.
In the early days of American culture, kids were influenced by the parents, who were in turn influenced by religion. Society has now been turned upside down by God's replacement, the media; and in turn, the media influences the parents, who influence the children. It is the media gospel that now permeates the culture; and the people want fame, glory, and good looks. In contrast, the Bible teaches that God looks to inside the heart of man, and that visible beauty is passing away, but what is on the inside is what is lasting. Therefore, today's children are practicing a gospel that will crumble, for beauty and image indeed pass away. Parents should accept the children for who they are and say, "you don't have to be Picture Perfect".
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Works Cited
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Morrow, Nancy and Clarke, Marlene, ed.s. Currents of Inquiry: Readings for Academic
Writing. Mountain View, California: Mayfield Publishing Company, 1998.
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Postman, Neil. "The Medium Is the Metaphor." Morrow and Clarke 242-250.
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Ryan, Joan. "Little Girls in Pretty Boxes." Morrow and Clarke 152-160.
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Wheeler, Stanton. "Double Lives." Morrow and Clarke 143-150.