Still Spot On

We have long heard from the defenders of sexual and violent content in movies, on television, in video games, and in gangsta cop-killer rap that the viewing participants can differentiate between reality and fantasy. Critics were labeled as Puritan prudes wishing to impose themselves into the bedrooms and private minds of America.

It seems as though now the tide has conveniently turned. Some people now are deeply affected by fictional depictions; namely undereducated soldiers and adolescent females. The soldiers will watch '24' and use Jack Bauer's torture tactics on prisoners and the young girls will get a poor body image from female depictions made by male dominated society.

Now "the show's graphic depictions of the torture of suspects was "hurting efforts to train recruits in effective interrogation techniques and is damaging the image of the US around the world.""

Now "As adolescent girls attempt to reconcile the reality of their bodies with the unrealistic and unattainable cultural demands for female thinness, large numbers of girls experience intense body image dissatisfaction. For a small group of girls, negative feelings about their bodies and their efforts to achieve or maintain thinness contribute to the development of disordered eating. This may include binge eating, restrictive dieting, or induced vomiting and over eating, leading to more serious disorders such as anorexia or bulimia."

Dan Quayle, most famous for his incorrect spelling of the word 'potato', is still right. It's been about fifteen years since the cultural elite ridiculed Quayle mercilessly for criticizing the glamorization of unwed motherhood in sitcoms like Murphy Brown.