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runningbear “ You nailed it. They have the time and resources to pour into the shaping of their bodies, and their livelihood depends on it! They hire nannies to watch their children, train intensively for specific acting roles (which is when they make sure photographers are present to capture their perfect bodies), and GASP have unflattering photos retouched. They in no way represent real life or, for the most part, true fitness. And they're not immune to struggles with weight issues, body image, and imperfections. So on the one hand, it's totally unfair to compare ourselves to them; but on the other hand, if we look beyond the facade, the "image" we might just see people, real people, who have to work as hard as we do to reach their goals. ”
-  runningbear on 7/2/2008
Dorian “ I was perusing the site, and read your piece. I think getting that message out is important. People today have no true comprehension of the entertainment industry, they merely assume these products are a benevolent, cheery part of "culture". Most of all, marketers are not merely drawing on "focus groups", and are not concerned with selling. Marketers draw on a huge body of scientific literature, invest in studies of mammal/human behavior/nerology, and pay organizational/industrial psychologists huge sums of money to create desires, anxieties, and needs. Most of these things are benign, as all it does is part the fool from his money, and we need recreation and fantasy----but, too often, we replace fantasy and desire with actual needs and real desires.

People ought to know that the product they see, in say, Brad Pitt's body on film, creates anxiety and reinforces codes of authority and passivity-----but also simultaneously presents a challenge that they would do well on exploriing in themselves. Of course, it is a Platonic ideal, but, then again, don't "good folk" subject themselves to an impossible ideal every sunday in churches, all while promising to make the changes necessary there?

They don't see Pitt sweating out bench presses, because they don't want to-----they don't want to bring the real life into the fantasy, though the fantasy has much to teach them, if they would put it in context, and made it useful, rather than just consuming it----and being left with more desire.

And doesn't ”
-  Dorian on 6/18/2008
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