As with most recent Monday mornings, the conversation topic between the girls at Woodreed this week turned to the almighty reality show that is the X-Factor. Yes we are all totally hooked by it once again, and who could blame us?! Who isn't? However, this week it wasn't all completely positive; did Mr Bublé or even Cheryl actually sing or were they miming and WHY is the group performance COMPLETELY mimed each week without fail? Is this not meant to be a talent show, in which we are supposed to judge their actual talent rather than one which is enhanced? Were they hoping we wouldn't notice? Well, we did.But this is not the only show or indeed form of media which plays on tricking the audience. Even the beauty adverts in the X-Factor ad-breaks are rammed full of enhanced beautiful people, projecting idealised women which we all aspire to be like. We forget that these people are not actually like this in real life; they are portraying a false reality to the audience, but one which we stupidly believe in. Bearing this in mind, can we really blame the X-Factor for their awful attempts of miming and dubbing or are they just keeping up-to-date with the idealistic times?
I blame Adobe Photoshop
ReplyDeleteWell said Emma. I know as a mother to a nearly 7 year old girl, I think this is a real issue of our age. One that our mothers certainly didn't have to deal with. The gulf between 'real' people and digitally and cosmetically enhanced celebrities is massive and I feel a huge responsibility to educate my daughter that the people she sees on the TV are just as unreal as the Disney princess characters she so loves.
ReplyDeleteBlimey, that's interesting and thought provoking.
ReplyDeletei have two things to say. X factor:To have 4 judges making tough calls on impressionable people, judging them on their talent, their capability and being harsh while they're at it, and then for one of them to get up and mime (badly!) is outrageous...what signal is that sending out to the hopefuls? And to mime on a show that you're judging on is almost bad taste!! At least with Strictly you can't mime dancing and the band is live!!
Secondly, we've had retouching for decades now, it's now just much more sophisticated. Whilst I agree that there must be a sense of reality with TV and media, everyone aspires to something or someone whether it's right or not. I love Disney because I can escape into a world I'll never have!! Don't take it away from me!
don't get me wrong, I don't think the disney princesses should ever go away, I just think in an age where celebs spend thousands ironing out all those imperfections and then still get retouched, you have a responsibility as a mother of a young girl to make sure she understands these are not levels of perfection that she needs to aspire to. When I was young all our pop stars had bad hair and teeth and normal figures. Kylie is a perfect example of this....and look at her now.
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