Wednesday, August 4, 2010

Oi, just pick an ideal, Society!

I am currently enrolled in summer school to take Health class early.

Health class, apart from making me Existantial, makes me realize that society is hypocritical. We need to make up our minds.

Either we encourage people to be healthy by praising the flexible, the athletic, and [big breath] the thin, OR

We tell people to be happy with themselves.

In this summer health class, the Eating Disorders unit immediately precedes the Nutrition unit. What I've learned is that as the number of obese and overweight Americans goes up, so does the number of Americans who are anorexic or bulimic.

That's not a coincidence!

I'm sick of renditions of Christina Aguilaras' "We are Beautiful" being used to convince me that I'm okay the way I am, while at the same time getting whacked over the head with messages about Getting Active and Eating Right.

By pushing these at the same time, we essentially make it a choice between obesity and easting disorder.

Why lose weight if you can resent everyone for not thinking the way you are is good enough?

How can you take the time to lose weight the healthy way when being over weight is so shameful?

I'm not even an unhealthy weight! I can't imagine what it's like for people who aren't low quality cross country runners.

Anyway, since it's illegal to advertise cigarettes on T.V why shouldn't food and beverage corporations get the same treatment?

They argue that they are not to blame for America being a bunch of fat asses because we should have personal resposibility, but let's see what happens if they can't spend billions annually to impair our ability to choose?

(Oh, by the way, the Advertisment unit came right after Nutrition.)

Amoung the many other things I was outraged to realize no one else noticed in health class (besides the trends of weight extremity and the hypocracy of Food Corps.) was how susceptiable most people are to commercials.

Appearently putting commercials on T.V, radio, and the Internet really works.

Am I the only one who resents every commercials she sees? Every time I see one I get angry that they think I'm so easy to manipulate. Products that I see Ads for get a special mental note that they can't be very good. If they were worth buying, they could get by on word of mouth.

I even play a game when watching T.V trying to spot the hidden messages.

For instance, the reason Ford commecials so often feature their cars driving through forests or deserts is that it appeals to two mindsets.

Option one: Buy our car. It allows you to go out and do the exciting things you really want to do.

or option two: Buy our car. It will keep you safe no matter where you are.

And the people. Every person in a commercial is actually you. Especially if they are your gender, and attractive. Age doesn't matter as much. "Buy our make up- it makes you mature" sells just as well as "Buy our make up- it makes you young".

Go forth, run eight miles, and egg a billboard! And a skinny person. And a fat person. And then a Lobbyist, just to be safe.

Side note: Oi, how many times did I use the words "commercial" and "advertisment"?

4 comments:

  1. You used advertisement twice, ad once, advertising once that I counted.

    commercial was used more, commercial or commercials was used 5 times...

    oh you weren't serious? oh welll....

    ReplyDelete
  2. Oh and since I'm a n00b and can't figure out how to send you a message on here, YOU SHOULD MAKE A FACEBOOK PAGE FOR IDIOSYNCRACIES.
    /sorry

    ReplyDelete
  3. If I made a facebook group then people I know might see it! (That'd be bad. I'm pretty sure.)

    ReplyDelete