My brain is depleted...

Forgive me if I don't make any sense this week...I've just submitted my essay and I'm running low on brain power at this point.

The problem with academia sometimes is that it makes you feel so negative about everything. You're constantly problematizing life - journalism is bad because of commercialisation and they don't really report on truth anymore, just whatever sells. Images in media are really just creating a false reality, which in turn creates false needs that are resolved through capitalism. We're all living in a hyperreality, where our consciousness is duped into wanting stimuli and nothing more so we never pursue true fulfillment because we choose fantasy over reality. Monsieur Jean Baudrillard, theoretical genius, gives the example of a casino. You go inside a casino and everything is bright lights, constant supply of booze, happy people, games galore, you never know what time of day it is and the room is being pumped full of additional oxygen (betchya' didn't know that one!)...and you feel like you're in a fantasy land, where everything is a dream. They do that on purpose so that you think your money is also a part of the dream and spend it senselessly. Going to a casino becomes not about winning anymore, but just about experiencing the stimuli all at once and escaping reality.

You begin to question a lot of the choices you've made in the past. Like, are my desires really genuine, or have I just been brainwashed by what I see on tv and in movies to want those things? Especially with regards to the portrayal of women in media. I think it's something I'm so passionate about because I'm trying to find the answer myself. A lot of people don't realize it, but every day we're bombarded with such a limited view of women's roles in society and what femininity actually means. If we see ads of women at work, they're constantly in these fitted power suits with red lipstick and perfectly coiffed hair. If they're pregnant they're smiling and glowing and serene. We're constantly being defined by these roles of daughter, wife, mother, sex-object...have we come to regard women only through this small lens? And more importantly, have women come to only desire these 'accomplishments'?

Look at something as silly as cellulite. We see the ads all the time, the creams and the procedures to get rid of it. We've come to see cellulite as yet another unsightly imperfection of the female body. Do you know what feminists have to say about that? They see thinking of cellulite as an undesirable condition that needs to be treated harmful to women. Cellulite is a natural occurence in the body of post-pubescent women, and treating it would be no different than treating enlarged breasts or menstruation. It's yet another example of the pressure for women to maintain a more pre-pubescent appearance. And I'm sure at this point a lot of people reading this just felt really uncomfortable or awkward. What does that tell you about how we've been conditioned to regard the female form and its functions?

I just don't think it's realistic to look at life that way...we've created such unattainable expectations for ourselves. Correct me if I'm wrong, but last time I checked marriage, work and having children were no walk in the park - let alone trying to do them AND looking fabulous all the time! And what's worse, is I think that we get disappointed with ourselves when we don't achieve these high expectations, and then commodities are there to make us feel better. Buy yourself a new pair of shoes and you'll temporarily cure that emptiness inside (and fuel the capitalist agenda that the economy thrives off of). That is until the shoes lose their novelty and you need to buy something else.

We all do it. We live in a consumer culture. After Z and I submitted our papers today you know what we did? Went to town to do our Christmas shopping. I finished writing a paper on how images in the media drive consumerism and I decided to celebrate by making a few purchases! Oh the irony...mind you, they were mainly purchases for other people - but I'm just trying to make a point here. We satiate our true needs with fleeting material desires.

But on the other hand, we kind of need media to keep everything together. On Friday our lecture was about globalization, and media's role in the nation-state and how countries depend on a national form of media to propagate patriotism and national identity. Everything from a national newspaper to reality shows that get the country involved (read: American Idol) help to build the nation-state. I don't know how many of you know this but I found it really interesting to learn that Belgium is actually divided into two parts: the French-speaking Wallonia and the Dutch-speaking Flanders. The country has apparently been having a lot of difficulty electing government officials and maintaining national identity because of this divide. One of the things we're going to discuss next week though is whether part of the reason they can't unify as one community has to do with the lack of a national news/media outlet. There is no single governing news forum for the entire country. Maybe if they had things like reality shows or a nation-wide news channel the two regions could bond more. Of course there's an obvious language barrier that would need to be resolved first. I guess everything would have to be issued in French and Dutch (and then the 10% German-speaking Belgians would feel left out no doubt).

And I guess in a nutshell, that's why media studies is so interesting. Because there's this constant dichotomy between good and bad. In some ways the media can be seen as having such a negative impact on people - shaping our minds with propaganda, masking reality. And in other ways, it's the glue that binds us together. This blog, for instance, would not be possible without media. I wouldn't even be able to share my thoughts with you on media without this medium. Interesting, isn't it? Or maybe it's not and I'm just a big media nerd.

So my last essay for the term is officially done. I still have a week left of classes and a total of ten days here before I come home for Christmas break. And now, I'm going to sit back, put my feet up, and watch the rest of A Very Merry Muppet Christmas while I indulge in my other love-hate relationship: brownie.