Finding the middle of the road without the help of the mass media.
Created | Updated Jan 28, 2002
Just a quick glance at the headlines on the shelves in any local newsagent would probably be enough to convince you that GOOD journalism is stone dead. Watching prime-time television in any amounts would certainly bring you to a similar conclusion.
The biggest problem that I see with this, is that the masses seem to have a positively voracious appetite for the sort of moronic, materialistic, claptrap that is peddled on street corners and across the airwaves throughout the western world in the name of journalism.
Alas, all too often, I find my own eyes drawn to the lurid banner heads adorning the multitude of periodicals offered up on the newstands. Women's magazines, men's magazines, adult magazines (ie : men's magazines), hobby magazines, blah de bloody blah. The only publications which come across with even the slightest inkling of integrity or intelligence are the comics, which are at least presented in good humour and (usually) taste.
Now I don't think that I am a moron. It has even occured to me that I am ever so slightly (but not notably) intelligent. I always tell myself that I read the glossies for a bit of light-hearted titillation, and a few saucy photos. I am a huge advocate of anti-censorship reform, and therefore have no problem with nuddy mags, and will gladly 'fess up to all and any that, yes, I do enjoy looking at naked ladies, even if they happen to be up to naughty stuff at the time. Censorship, morality and all the things that go along with that whole debate is always going to be just that....a debate. East is east and west is west, so to speak and peoples opinions are always going to differ in these matters.
Let pornography run rife I say. Please leave children and animals out of the equation, but other than that, go for gold! Do it in private and don't force it on anyone else and no harm will come of it. What is more dangerous and worrying than the saturation of the net, and the media, with sex, is the increasing number of specifically targeted men's and women's magazines, which, apart from being about 75% perfume and fashion advertisements, do nothing but pander to peoples insecurities, reinforce them, play on them, and all the while claim to be doing a service, or providing helpful information.
I'm sure we all know the magazines I'm talking about, and they may be more prevalent in some countries than others, but in my, albeit limited, travels throughout Europe, the UK, Asia, and the US they are omnipresent on the front stands at all the airport book shops and newstands.
The headlines prey on peoples' innermost fears, and fleeting impulses. Mens magazines ; mostly sex, women, how to get more sex, how to have better sex, how to attract women, how to get women into bed (as if it were some sort of sport, requiring them to be tricked, cajoled, convinced or bribed), preposterous tricks or secrets and other advice on what to do with a woman once she is in your bed, how to boost your confidence, ineffectual lists of the HOTTEST/SEXIEST "babes", fitness, with the remaining few percent of the pages taken up by more padding, usually involving sport, electronic goods, bawdy jokes, alcohol, cars, or "supplements" or "sealed sections". Womens magazines ; ditto, just swap "get women into bed" with "get men to commit", body image, plastic surgery, dieting, fashion, and cooking. Omit the electronic goods and sport.
There is VERY little departure from these guidelines, and it seems that mens magazines are beginning to get more and more like the soft porn magazines with increasing nipple counts and full frontal nudity quite acceptable in all but a few. The ever present sealed sections in the ladies magazines are getting more risque in accordance with their male counterparts. Both display nothing but the most improbable, implausible and unattainable body types for both men and women and consistently fail to pass on the ridiculous degree to which these pictures are doctored.
At least porn comes to us (no pun intended) warts and all, with no pretence of being anything like the way real people behave or look. Although I have just had an interesting thought. Perhaps pornstars, the women with their bizarre inflatable breasts, surgically enhanced grimaces, close cropped pubic hair, sexual fanaticism, and tendency to take themselves FAAAAR too seriously, and the men with their above average todgers, sexual athleticism, free range facial hair, and prodigious seminal output, perhaps this is the ultimate product of this sort of youth indoctrination. Sex, fashion and body image. All these women (and incresing amounts of men too) with hideously mutilated and malnourished bodies. Surely their priorities are just completely buggered......to be continued, this has started me thinking now......
The biggest problem that I see with this, is that the masses seem to have a positively voracious appetite for the sort of moronic, materialistic, claptrap that is peddled on street corners and across the airwaves throughout the western world in the name of journalism.
Alas, all too often, I find my own eyes drawn to the lurid banner heads adorning the multitude of periodicals offered up on the newstands. Women's magazines, men's magazines, adult magazines (ie : men's magazines), hobby magazines, blah de bloody blah. The only publications which come across with even the slightest inkling of integrity or intelligence are the comics, which are at least presented in good humour and (usually) taste.
Now I don't think that I am a moron. It has even occured to me that I am ever so slightly (but not notably) intelligent. I always tell myself that I read the glossies for a bit of light-hearted titillation, and a few saucy photos. I am a huge advocate of anti-censorship reform, and therefore have no problem with nuddy mags, and will gladly 'fess up to all and any that, yes, I do enjoy looking at naked ladies, even if they happen to be up to naughty stuff at the time. Censorship, morality and all the things that go along with that whole debate is always going to be just that....a debate. East is east and west is west, so to speak and peoples opinions are always going to differ in these matters.
Let pornography run rife I say. Please leave children and animals out of the equation, but other than that, go for gold! Do it in private and don't force it on anyone else and no harm will come of it. What is more dangerous and worrying than the saturation of the net, and the media, with sex, is the increasing number of specifically targeted men's and women's magazines, which, apart from being about 75% perfume and fashion advertisements, do nothing but pander to peoples insecurities, reinforce them, play on them, and all the while claim to be doing a service, or providing helpful information.
I'm sure we all know the magazines I'm talking about, and they may be more prevalent in some countries than others, but in my, albeit limited, travels throughout Europe, the UK, Asia, and the US they are omnipresent on the front stands at all the airport book shops and newstands.
The headlines prey on peoples' innermost fears, and fleeting impulses. Mens magazines ; mostly sex, women, how to get more sex, how to have better sex, how to attract women, how to get women into bed (as if it were some sort of sport, requiring them to be tricked, cajoled, convinced or bribed), preposterous tricks or secrets and other advice on what to do with a woman once she is in your bed, how to boost your confidence, ineffectual lists of the HOTTEST/SEXIEST "babes", fitness, with the remaining few percent of the pages taken up by more padding, usually involving sport, electronic goods, bawdy jokes, alcohol, cars, or "supplements" or "sealed sections". Womens magazines ; ditto, just swap "get women into bed" with "get men to commit", body image, plastic surgery, dieting, fashion, and cooking. Omit the electronic goods and sport.
There is VERY little departure from these guidelines, and it seems that mens magazines are beginning to get more and more like the soft porn magazines with increasing nipple counts and full frontal nudity quite acceptable in all but a few. The ever present sealed sections in the ladies magazines are getting more risque in accordance with their male counterparts. Both display nothing but the most improbable, implausible and unattainable body types for both men and women and consistently fail to pass on the ridiculous degree to which these pictures are doctored.
At least porn comes to us (no pun intended) warts and all, with no pretence of being anything like the way real people behave or look. Although I have just had an interesting thought. Perhaps pornstars, the women with their bizarre inflatable breasts, surgically enhanced grimaces, close cropped pubic hair, sexual fanaticism, and tendency to take themselves FAAAAR too seriously, and the men with their above average todgers, sexual athleticism, free range facial hair, and prodigious seminal output, perhaps this is the ultimate product of this sort of youth indoctrination. Sex, fashion and body image. All these women (and incresing amounts of men too) with hideously mutilated and malnourished bodies. Surely their priorities are just completely buggered......to be continued, this has started me thinking now......
