Critcal Thinking Blog #4

So, we watched 'the merchants of cool.'

I was fascinated.

Guilt money is a concept i understand, but have never dealt with, i guess my parents just never felt guilty enough, or never had enough money. Although some of the items presented within the ideas of the dcumentary were outdated, the premise behind all of them, i believe, still holds strong today. Parents still feel badly for not being with the children often enough, so they work harder to make more money so they can give their children more money to ease their unease about the situation. instead of working less, easing the guilt (which is the main problem), and not having such a vicious circle. i was lucky enough to have my mom at home when i was growing up. she did phone sales. so, my sister and i, and eventually even my brother, were never put in daycare, and rarely felt neglected. plus i had sibling to keep me entertained, or perhaps i entertained her.

i always thought of my sister and i as trendsetters. my mother always dressed us well, and we were conscientous of what we were wearing. not so much brands and expensive, but we were wearing vans before they were a phenomenon, and later converse before they made their global comeback. i had purple ones, they were quite awesome. we were made fun of at school for having colorful, out of the box shoes or clothes, but we always got the last laugh. a few years later, everyone else would be wearing exactly that.

reality television is an epidemic. what isn't to like about everyday people creating and living through drama everyone secretly wishes to be apart of. and we get to watch! MTV is ridiculous, though. and other stations. i just don't know why everything is about sex. everything. you can't get away from it. it's bullshit when they say, we're promoting alternatives, we might as well bring it up. bringing up sex and discussing alternatives is different than focusing on all aspects of it and condoning it. even if the demographic is high school, or even college, you ahve the dumb kids who think they are better than their age, 'more mature' (bullshit), who think that to be cool, they must partake in the same things as their older siblings, or what have you. so, while inappropriate for their age, they watch it and expose themselves to sex drugs and rock and roll to be cool. but i suppose that is the problem with television.

"Flaunt your sexuality, even if you don't understand it." horrifying. my 87 year old grandma would tell my mom in the sixties, girls who dress like that (short shorts, low cut blouses, not nearly as bad as they are now, but scandalous at the time) are asking to be raped. i wonder if the statistics for rape have risen in the last 40 years, 20 years, a decade? i will look into that. in my humble opinion, the girls who have been raped should be able to sue the media industry for billions. without their planting the seeds of slutty attire and positive feedback from sex, perhaps women wouldn't be as driven to come across as scandalous, slut-tastic, ho-rific.....

apparently firms are getting 'smarter'. they don't want their marketing to show. but if what you are doing is marketing a product, unless you don't put it on their air or obnoxiously brand every spare space on the street, you are marketing a product. it isn't possible to walk around campus without being bombarded. it isn't possible to watch anything, anywhere, because advertisements are rampant. it is obscene.