The Perception Of Marriage In Pop Culture
This report examines the effects that pop culture has had upon the perception of marriage. The bulk of the analysis compares and contrasts the opinions of two current editorials on the subject. It is seen that pop culture has not only transformed the institution, but also caused widespread changes to attitudes that are having significant societal fallout. Jadezweni writes that marriage is fundamentally an idealized conception that “takes place long before the ceremony”. She notes that Americans are fed “hyper-romanticized” portrayals of marriage in the media. On the other end of the spectrum, they are exposed in the evening news to endless stories of failed unions among fabulously wealthy couples that, according to popular opinion, can scarcely find a reason not to dissolve into fairyland bliss. Young Americans who are faced with the imminence of their own marriages are so confused by the barrage of conflicting images with which they are assaulted that they hardly know what realistically to expect (Janezewski). Jadezweni also suggests that social media is causing a widespread belief that monogamy is altogether a myth. This causes young couples to fluctuate between considering the fantasies of glorious marriages and the hard realities of single life. Overall, the tendency of people to share their dirty laundry on social media has led to a situation where marriage is not only less appealing, but also evidencing far less popularity. Indeed, divorce statistics in countries all around the world have been burgeoning out of control.
The author suggests that hearts are breaking in real life because the ideas that we glean from popular culture conflict with what are commonly viewed as suitable goals to which betrothed couples can legitimately aspire. The media tell these people that the first requirement is an outrageously fancy wedding that nearly bankrupts the couple’s parents. The next de rigueur steps include the purchase of an extravagant house — with a mortgage to match — and the immediate production of two or three children. If the young couple is unable or unwilling to commit to this path with dedication and fixity, society would convince them that they have frankly erred in committing to spending their futures with the loves of their lives.
Janezewski bemoans the fact that the pressure that young couples feel has reached such an over-the-top level that they often choose to forego marriage altogether. In actuality, however, the view that they are being fed by popular culture is remarkably skewed, showing either the zenith of happiness or the nadir of despair. These characterizations are a radical departure from hard reality, which is that most couples encounter both successes and failures as they work hard to keep married life in equipoise: as Henry David Thoreau remarked, most persons “lead lives of quiet desperation”.
Douglas and Clark-McClatchy promote an altogether different view of marriage. Their view is tempered by the recent Supreme Court decision that redefined marriage from a religious rite that promotes the establishment of a nuclear family to an arrangement of social and romantic convenience that enables persons of arbitrary stripes to devote their lives to each other and qualify for concomitant government benefits.
The editorialists point out that the Rainbow Revolution has radically transformed the whole way that young Americans perceive marriage. Once regarded largely as a curiosity, gas and lesbians are now the people next door, beamed intensely and incessantly into Americans’ living rooms through a widening spectrum of television sitcoms and celebrated court cases. These persons have emerged from the obscurity of fictional characters and campy performers to achieve equal status with mainstream Americans, being featured as protagonists in books, movies, popular music, and even comic books. Moreover, many are not quirky oddballs, but extremely favorable role models that just happen to exhibit sexual personas different from those traditionally regarded as mainstream.
Popular culture is responsible for the entirety of this sea change. The national political scene has shifted from long-term opposition to gays toward open and heartfelt support for such institutions as same-sex marriage, acceptance of gay children, willingness to vote for gay politicians, and even recommending orphaned or at-risk children for adoption by gay couples who, admittedly, are unable to provide what are perceived as traditional role models.
The authors note that the shift in popular perceptions of marriage that has accompanied the Rainbow Revolution is a long way from the attitudes that prevailed only ten or twenty years ago, when the religious right criticized children’s shows for such minor improprieties as having a male character that carried a bag or an alien sporting a delta-shaped antenna that appeared consonant with classical homosexual symbology.
The authors opine that the broad change in perceptions that is making young couples reconsider the fundamental nature of marriage has accompanied a gradual embracement of homosexuality by the middle class. They even suggest that this movement was a natural follow-on to the Civil Rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s, merely seeping into different aspects of the Constitutionally guaranteed rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
