I do sincerely hope this lacks greater cultural significance
Look, I don't care if you watch a lot of TV or not; it's just a medium, and an entertaining or enlightening one sometimes. So when I begin the remainder of this post by stating that I don't channel-surf much these days, it isn't a lame attempt to demonstrate some sort of superiority; it is simply a necessary prelude.
Yesterday I was flipping channels and I came across MTV. They were...I don't know how to say this in any other way..."they" were weighing a bunch of young women, announcing the results and then displaying them on the screen. As I attempted to process this, one of the women weighed in at 138 pounds, causing a ripple of horror through everyone in the on-screen room. They cut away to an interview with another woman who expressed her hope that the 138-pounder wouldn't feel too bad, seeing as she is really beautiful.
I am normally big on context and big on background research for my posts, but I don't even want to look around online to find out what this show was or what the context of this scene was. I just want to share the experience that I turned on MTV, for the first time in probably a month or a year or more, and found that they were weighing a bunch of young women.
It's bad enough that young girls are constantly subjected to visual images
of "perfection" to which they compare themselves incessantly. Having a
number assigned to that "perfection" is an atrocity. I sincerely hope that
MTV can applaud itself for contributing to the low self-esteem of all the
young girls who happened to catch this clip, not to mention the propogation
of eating disorders in the same population. Is it also possible that they
might be skewing the young male perspective on "perfection" at the same
time? Wow. Bravo, MTV.
Bravo, indeed, MTV. Please continue to assist America in getting a handle
on our collective weight problem.