In this eight minute video, Kathy uses about six minutes of it making fun of Paris Hilton. After she calls Paris "retarded," her sentences following this are these:
"I know thats a bad word, I know, I know its a very politically incorrect word, I don't care I like it I think its fun. I don't mind if you call me retarded. I might call you a 'beep'tard. I'm sorry, I'm sorry, it's a fun word."
I mean doesn't that paragraph just sound ignorant? A 'fun word.' Do you think that she knows what that 'fun' word means? Yet everyone laughs. But, why?
I think it's because the word is accepted in our culture today as a fun, funny word used to make fun of people.
Dr. Mazoue gives us this topic as a discussion point, "The descent into trivia by popular culture and the mainstream media. Why do we focus more on the lives of celebrities than discussing important issues like social and economic class, health care, and justice?"
Griffin also asks in her show why do people care about the life of Paris Hilton? She says she's everything America's tired of, yet we all still watch and make fun of her.
Does anyone think this could have a link to Moore's comments from discussion board week 2 about how our culture finds it much more important to be entertained by people such as Kathy talking about and making fun of Paris Hilton instead of discussing actual, real life stuff?
3 comments:
I think it does have to do with the reading by Moore. I feel like people would rather think about celebrities and completely pointless things for a lot of reasons. It probably takes less brain power, and because we grow up watching celebrities instead of watching important news events and government leaders. We have a tendency to stick wih what is comfortable and easy, and we've been really spoiled by those things. We like to sit back and say, "Someone else will take care of the hard stuff, I'm just going to relax for a while. I had a long day at work anyway."
I definitely think that the Moore discussion pertains to this. And the bad thing is it's not even just Paris Hilton it's all of these other reality shows as well that takes the focus off important issues. Issues such as poverty in our rich nation, teenage mothers, our economy, and etc. It's ridiculous...honestly sometimes I don't even want to turn the t.v. on because people aren't even paying attention to the shows that offer meaningful information for life. It's funny because I posed a similar question in my blog. Check it out if you can.
I think we are so enthralled by celebrities because it is a way out of thinking about our own problems. Also, it is what the media tells us our role models are. It is completely twisted for us to be obsessed with the lives of celebrities, they are normal average people just like the rest of us. Their profession is simply to entertain us. They too think about important world issues and so should we.
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