Can you imagine viewing the world through a drinking straw? How sad it would be to only see a fraction of a sunset, only a portion of a loved one's smile, only part of the starry evening sky? Imagine how difficult it would be to do a simple thing like read a book with the narrow scope that the straw would allow. If your vision was limited to the restrictive view of a straw hole you would inevitably miss out on many of life's beautiful offerings.
Unfortunately, when we use the media's standard of beauty to view ourselves and others we are using this same kind of "straw hole" vision. Through the straw hole of popular entertainment we only define ourselves in physical terms; we examine and compare our height, weight, complexion, hairstyle, and clothing, but because our view is circumscribed by media standards we neglect to see the entire picture. If we view ourselves outside of this restrictive lens we are able to see that who we are is so much more that what we look like. I feel strongly that magazines, TV and movies teach us "to judge a book by its cover." We need to recognize that the characteristics we identify as beautiful in nature and in other people are complex, and there is no way to see or fully appreciate their beauty without the full picture. So likewise, don't look at yourself through a drinking straw, because when you do you miss the real picture.
Monday, May 12, 2008
Seeing The World Through a Straw
Posted by Megan at 10:56 PM
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3 comments:
Great post! Too often our society is leaving its indelible misclassification of beauty on our loved ones. It is truely distructive. I love how artfully you are proclaiming the truth.
i love how you analyze the way we see thing is this blog. every word you say is true. at firs i disagreed with you when you said the world wants us to judge a book by its cover. and i htought of ways to argue against that. but then as i started to analyze that statement i realzed that maybe what you meant was like how media and out world make it seem like being skinny, driving nice cars, and living in big houses is PERFECT life style! and if we were to see someone totally different than that, then their not PERFECT. and thats judging them by their outside appearance instead of how they are on the inside. idk if i made any since but in the long run...this blog was great (:
I think that no matter how hard we try, we cant stop looking through a straw. We hate our media, we love our media, and we just cant live without them. When we see an ad on TV, for a certain product, we suddenly have a need to buy it. Next time when u go shopping, and u see it you will definitely pick it up. Many parts of our society can be perceived as seeing through a straw. Let take health care; how only certain people are qualified, and other are not. Each one of these representatives are looking at this potential client through same set of rules.That is how our health care system function, and not much could be done about it. They have a set of rules, and condition that have to met before the client can even get accepted. Another example would be, when u here a rumor in school. Lets say person A breaks up with person B. Person B come and tell you that she was treated bad, and that you as here friend should not talk to here bf. You have now begun to look at this situation through a straw. Surely media play a big role in how we perceive ourselves. The day the fa6ther of our nation wrote the Constitution, this perspective was brought in play. I am not say rules are not need, they help society function. The only flaw is, it helps us look at everything through a straw.No matter how much you try, a part of u will always be looking through a straw.
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