Pornification

A very interesting article on Boston.com about the pornification of American culture. Of note, this tidbit:

Even cooking shows on the Food Network -- the Food Network! -- contain distinct parallels with the cinematography, dialogue, and body language of pornography, according to an article wryly headlined ''Debbie Does Salad" in the October issue of Harper's magazine.

My Mom will tell you this is true. Giada De Laurentiis annoys the hell out of her, because, per my mother, "her boobs are always in the food." Giada bugs me because she seldom swallows the food she prepares. Watch her. She pops the tidbit in her mouth, and the camera pans away or they cut to a commercial.

"She's got a bucket behind that counter," my Mom says, disgusted. We both trust only chunky chefs like Paula Deen and Ina Garten.

This article poses a lot of questions and raises some good points about how the media has become so hyper-sexualized. I've been noticing it a lot lately, and it's especially depressing if you read craigslist for any amount of time. While that's not always the highwater mark of Boston society, it's depressing how many guys describe girls as having a cute ass or nice boobs, and as an afterthought say "and she seemed nice." There's a lot to attraction and pheremones and all, but should I feel bad because my chest doesn't make cleavage very easily? Am I at a disadvantage because I don't wear low-rise pants and barely-there shirts to bars?

I am lucky to have a mother who told me I was beautiful, and that my appearance isn't everything that I have to offer, even in light of this boob-centric society. She never called me too heavy, even when I was, and she offered me encouragement when I lost weight. With those strong messages from my mother, I'm pretty good at resisting the pressure. I dress well, but not slutty. What happened to mystery, the idea of making somebody work to see you without clothes on? Maybe I'm a sixty-year-old woman in the slightly paunchy body of a twenty-four-year-old, but it seems stupid. I just think about girls whose mothers made them insecure, girls who watched their attractive mothers diet themselves into bobbleheads, and then they themselves dieted themselves too thin. One girl I graduated with missed the ceremony because she was in the hospital with anorexia. The pressure for a woman to be just so in this society is unbelievable. I think the pressure is less conspicuous but still present for men, and in a few years it will become more prevalent.

Everybody just needs to have a beer and some fries and chill the hell out.