American Myths Essay, Research Paper

American Myths In processing a narrative text we actually construct the story, bringing a vast repertory of cultural knowledge to bear upon the text that we are contemplating. Our pleasure in the narrative is to some extent a constructive pleasure, based upon the sense of accomplishment we achieve by successfully completing the task. By “getting the story, we prove our competence and demonstrate our membership in a cultural community. And what is the story that we “get”? It is the myth of America itself, of the racial melting pot, of upward mobility, of justice done without fear or favor. (Scholes, 551) Will She look at magazines and think she has to be as thin as the models she sees? Think that independence makes her less desirable? Lower her expectations because she can not find a woman to look up to? Will she grow up questioning the things we do not? Will she be confident enough these magazines do not bother her at all? If she plays sports, is healthy, strong, and self-assured, she will not. Being active can make a difference in your life and in the lives of other women. Fight the things you do not want to live with. Talk about the things that bother you. Ask why it has to be that way, and then change it. “On Reading a Video Text”, by Robert Scholes the writer gives a good example how the media affects our daily life. The television we view to the radio station we listen to plays many commercials that we have come to ignore because of our busy schedules. Yet in using my own example I have clearly demonstrated what an effect my words can mean to an audience, specially a female. An attention get her is how most commercials work and not knowing the difference between reality and a false advertisement can effect our nation constantly. “This is not just partisan impartial judge, it is old man against young youth, and white against black. We root for the umpire because we want the system to work-not just baseball but the whole thing: America” (qtd. In Scholes, 551) Yet with waiting for America to work, we have deprived our countries necessities of our children and our right to live healthy. The media is a very powerful and many times it changes the way we think our see something without realizing it. In my own example I am using a females beauty magazine, Mademoiselle. Walking down an aisle at a grocery store, many of us notice the popular magazine displaying beautiful, with perfect body models. At an adolescent age a female may feel deprived and self-conscious for the headlines the magazine may give. “How to have the perfect body to get a man”, are words which will definitely catch a young girls attention to pursue the purchase of the magazine in an attempt to accomplish certainly, with the help of the magazine the perfect body. However what is the perfect body, can a female weighing 140 pounds and standing at 5″4″ not be physically fit. As many of us get older we start to understand how the media works and the lengths they will go to advertise their product, but for a young lady these words are suppressive and an attention get her.

“Video texts, like all except the most utilitarian forms of textuality, are constructed upon a base of boredom, from which they promise us relief”. (Scholes 549) Apparently the headlines from the magazine in the store can give a young female temporally relief. In reality we realize the magazine will not give a female the perfect body and will only make her feel less of a women because she can not accomplish the magazines goal. Keep in mind at a young age appearance makes a difference. The media needs to realize a headline from a magazine damages female self-esteem. Females are more concerned about their weight than boys. Eight in ten, ten year old girls claim to be on a diet and seventy-seven percent of female adolescent wish to lose weight, according to help end eating disorders, survey in 1998. Anorexia which complications include loss of menstruation, yellowish-discoloration of palms and soles, hair loss, heart and kidney failure and sudden death is fifteen to one more common in females usually starting in adolescence age fourteen to sixteen but may occur at any age. Yet the desire to change weight, size, and shape appears to be more of a concern to females than death.”(How baseball leagues are organized, for instance, and how the game is played) and myth (what constitutes success, for example, and what initiation is) (Scholes, 552). After reading this passage I have concluded the media does not realize or care about the effects a headline in a magazine can bring to a young lady and we need to public to learn the difference and be able to distinguish the harm it does to our future generations. With proper knowledge and education the public and the media can undergo changes and improve our magazine headlines to healthy ones.Some of us have become very proficient at using words to strike back, to deflect, and inflect anger, but we never seem to learn that words can get us into trouble. Even though it is the only defense many of us know, we pay dearly in using it. “In this age of manipulation and disinformation, criticism is the only way we have of taking something seriously”, (Scholes 551). But if stories serve to heal us words also help to cause pain and many of us have to use words, instead of fists to defend ourselves. A person has to defend themselves the best way they know how, and what many of us know best is words, but let us remember that words do not save us and the media needs to stop promoting what is not true. We also need to learn to shut up, not talk back, not to be a smart-ass, and always, not to be a cynic. Remember language in private saves us but language in public helps to destroy our country.