Monday, November 8, 2010

Materialism and Pop Culture

Materialism is what makes culture, pop-culture. Materialism according to Susan Bordo is simply that we are not satisfied with ourselves. Bordo quotes "...we can 'choose' our own bodies." Either by diet and exercise or by surgical alterations, we can make ourselves into whatever we like. But how does that happen? How do we have such a disgust of ourselves? Culture. The life we live and the things we surround ourselves with tell us how we should be. Television, magazines, movies, and our peers all influence what is perceived as "beautiful." An interesting comment was brought up in class, the student inserted that when perms were all the rage, it seemed as if all the girls with straight hair wanted to perm it so it would be curly and all the girls with curly hair would spend hours straightening it. And it was so true. When I was little, I wanted to perm my hair curly because I thought it was so cool to have curly hair. I didn't end up doing it, and I am so thankful. The culture was telling me that that was what I should do. The American culture has ingrained in us the idea that we need to be dissatisfied with what we have. It has also told us that even if we are dissatisfied with what we have, it's ok because we can buy our way to happiness. It's sad, but it's the truth.

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