Roseanne And Pop Culture
Published January 28, 2006
Breast reduction surgery is not something that one sees talked about very often, but as with a lot of large women, Roseanne's character was faced with having to undergo that procedure for her health. The whole episode was dealt with in the show's usual mix of humour and good taste, so as an audience we were able to appreciate what a woman faced with this procedure goes through emotionally and mentally.
Roseanne and her television family were some of the most real people you were liable to see in prime time. There still hasn't been a live action family that has come close to capturing as truthful a depiction of life for lower middle class Americans as this show did. It may have helped people find humour in their daily lives, but there is no way this show could have been considered a distraction from everyday reality.
Which brings us back to Roseanne's quote that started this whole post about pop culture just being a distraction from the real world. There are two ways one could look at that statement. The first is to say, well yeah, isn't that the point of pop culture anyway, to provide light entertainment and not have any basis in reality?
If you're of that mind, well the argument has nowhere to go, because you can just agree with her assessment and get on with watching television and blocking out the world. To be honest there's a lot of truth in that sentiment anyway. Many is the time I've made the conscious decision to watch a movie that is deliberately escapist so that I don't have to deal with mine or the world's reality.
But where that argument falls down is when you consider how many people don't make that conscious choice, but simply park themselves in front of the television and stop thinking. It's not even the watching of the programming that is necessarily the distraction; it's the hype that surrounds the so-called celebrities that appear on all these shows.
The media's obsession with the ins and outs of relationships, weight gain and loss, and all the other minutiae of these unimportant lives is passed off as vital news. The fact that this artificial world of film, T.V., and music stars garners so much attention is how it acts as the distraction. People get far more caught up in the wedding of two people who appeared on a reality show then they do in the fact that people go to bed hungry at night.
Roseanne never played by the rules when she was in the spotlight and was roundly criticized for some of the things she did. She now says that during that time she "went a little crazy" from being at the centre of things. She too came in for her share of tabloid press with her marriages and divorces, and sometimes-odd behaviour.
Richard Marcus is a long-haired Canadian iconoclast who writes reviews and opines on the world as he sees it at Leap In The Dark and Epic India Magazine.
- Roseanne And Pop Culture
- Published: January 28, 2006
- Type: Opinion
- Section: Culture
- Filed Under: Culture: Arts, Culture: Media, Culture: Society, Music: Pop, Video: Television
- Writer: Richard Marcus
- Richard Marcus's BC Writer page
- Richard Marcus's personal site
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Any of the famous celebrities I've seen at the grocery checkout counter seem to lead really boring lives. I think they're pallid imitations of the celebrities of years past. Yes, boys and girls, we have a celebrity gap.
What happened? Why are todays celebs such bores? Is it the water? Did fluoridation ruin American gossip? It's gotten so bad that I find that even MY life is more interesting than Brad Pitts! When I reflect on my own misspent history, usually only involuntarily in the dark of sleepless night when the devils of conscience appear to torment me, while I'm properly shamed at my transgressions and misdemeanors, I also have to smile at the great fun I had and the rewards of life experience and exploration.
Even celebrity miscreants seem to be one-note sinners. Maybe they spent 10 years strung out on heroin. Duh. So, they were blotto for 10 years.
Maybe I should write an autobiography. Nah, nobody would believe it.
"Roseanne and Milwaukee"? Any "Roseanne" fan knows the show was set in Lanford, Illinois, which was outside Chicago. Tsk tsk.
Otherwise, great post.
I love pop culture.
But I don't love pop culture because I really care.
No I don't care who Brad Pitt is having a baby with. But I'll forever be fascinated by how the celebrated arrange their lives so that they can grab the headlines. The whole process fascinates me.
Jennifer Aniston has had her tits shown in every major publication yet she continues to assert photographers are catching her unawares.
Captain Kirk sells his kidney stone on E-Bay and I scratch my head in amazement. Anything, absolutely anything, to keep the name out there, to hang onto a fading career, to be considered for the next role.
Hey, it's how they make a living. I smirk at all the silliness and wonder how low they will go.
It's fun to watch people make fools of themselves. Especially when they are making fools of themselves on purpose.
Excellent piece! I'm impressed with your depth and sensitivity. One might think this subject had touched you in a personal way.
I think the reason that "celebrity culture" has gotten so out of hand is that it isn't as ugly as what has been going on in the real world for that last 5 years. It's easier to look at than what is really out there. We have created it so that we have something to distract us but I don't think that it is, in itself, a distraction unless we want it to be. It's just too boring and pointless to be.
Wonderful piece. It's not every day you get something this weighty and thoughtful about a woman known for grabbing her crotch during a baseball game.
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This was a very well written and thought out piece gypsyman - thank you.