So, this is what I would have said in class today had a been able to speak (sore throat.. Sorry!). We were talking about appearance and trending, and I thought what Christina said made a lot of sense. Shows like Dancing with the Stars try out what they think people will like, and then create focus groups to see their actual reactions. Shows will change the way they present themselves purely for ratings, and usually that means going with the latest trends, i.e. tanning, to make certain people or dances feel more authentic. It doesn’t mean it is actually authentic, it just means we have to REALIZE that it is not authentic, meaning, we have to give credit to our education system! (Yes, yes, it’s my major)
So this is a clip I used with my students to show the difference in time periods between the 1700s absolutism/Enlightenment in Europe and in the U.S. today. The two main characters are clearly upper class as you can see by the services provided for them and how they dress. And what is funny is that you can see the man changing the shades of his hair and skin to make his skin look lighter because that is what was in during that time period. It doesn’t mean all people changed their skin tones, just like all people do not tan or use tanning products, but a lot of the time if you can afford it (in whatever time period) you follow the trend and attempt to fit in/be more authentic to your culture. Like I said, maybe in couple hundred years people will change their skin tones to look purple.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4GBhKrwdqjo
I agree with your ideas Brittany, and being an education major also, understand where you're coming from :-)
ReplyDeleteI am also taking a class looking at popular culture, and I definitely see Dancing with Stars fitting the trends of keeping things popular in order to make them appear as social norms. People want to be popular, so they will follow trends that appear in the media. Producers of television shows have a lot of power to set trends; their goal is to earn a profit. The producers of Dancing with the Stars probably include tanning because they feel it makes the dancers look more authentic and is what viewers want to see which increases ratings. Viewers probably themselves go out and tan to look like these dancers as well.
As long as it is popular and socially normed that dancers should be tan to look more authentic it will continue. Until people resist this ideology and try to change it, institutions in the media will continue exerting power and tell people how they should look.