no proselytizing this year. well, just a little...

[keryx]

I almost forgot that this is the Season of Self-Hating Resolutions!

Usually I start the new year slightly angry at... well, mainstream America, I guess. But this year, I wouldn't have noticed it if my friend/instructor hadn't pointed out the unusually large number of people in the park when we trained Sunday.

It must be television - I don't have teevee now, which means I don't see ads, and I don't see 'news' programs talking about 'eating healthily' (dieting), or 'getting fit' (punishing your bad bad fat self at the gym). This rocks. I mean, seriously, I'm used to seething up to and through the month of January - the message that we all suck and need to resolve to hate ourselves more (always, of course, in the language of treating ourselves better, which is vicious and cruel) is so overwhelming.

That says something about the power of teevee, I think. It's not that I'm anti-the-teevee, just that it's clearly had an effect on me, and I'm glad to be rid of that effect. I do think everyone should move and eat however's healthy for our individual bodies, but it's not a moral obligation - it's just something that would make us all feel better. The problem with the pervasive influence of teevee (and all the other ways the command to hate yourself gets disseminated) at this time of year is that it makes it so difficult for many people to experience the joy of healthiness. The message is that healthy is a duty, and you're failing at it right now (but you could change, if you'd just buy this product); it's a lie, but I think we all want so badly for something to be the truth that we'll believe whatever we hear often enough.

So, yeah. Turn off your teevee. Advertising is why human ingenuity brought us Netflix.

Comments

[chubbyninja.livejournal.com]

hey dont blame advertising... it's not our fault that you all are too weak to fend off our power of suggestion.

im a future advertising demon, and i i approve this message.

[keryx.livejournal.com]

I believe my argument was, in fact, that I wasn't too weak to fend it off, but too angry to not be affected by its evilness. Bleh. :P

[chubbyninja.livejournal.com]

you only fended off the angry by not watching it at all...
besides, we'll get you, one way or the other.

[fancymcsnazsnaz.livejournal.com]

We stuck our Box Of EEEEEEEvil in the basement a few months ago (unplugged, decabled, and now in use as a table for books for prisoners), and I cannot believe the amazing effect that decision has had on my relationship with myself. I'm still not anti-TV any more than I'm anti-anything else that's not particularly fantastic for me, like candy bars (see my post on the Newlyweds-on-DVD marathon I'm engaging in to distract myself from losing my damn mind about school starting). But watching TV shows via my computer (sans advertising), in a really controlled, bite-sized way - no just leaving the damn thing on all day as audiovisual wallpaper - means I can be aware of how and why I'm using it and not let it fill my head up with shit that makes me hate my body and my life.

[keryx.livejournal.com]

Yep. I've only gone without it for 6 months (and they were 6 months with a lot of other change in them too), but this weekend it just struck me how much less angry I am when I'm not constantly defending my insides from all the horrid things the teevee had to say about people.

I still watch (often very stupid) teevee, too - but only on DVD, which makes it a lot more enjoyable, and much less likely to subtly influence me to hate myself.

[snidegrrl.livejournal.com]

Yes Yes Yes! I am glad you all have done this and it is working for you! I will now display peregrin8's awesome icon that I stole!

[hope-persists.livejournal.com]

nice!

[peregrin8.livejournal.com]

Yay! :-)

...and netflix is so very lovely.

mr.darkness has TV --we do still watch The Simpsons in realtime, just often enough that I still get vexed every single time the VCR fails to fast-forward automatically through the ads (b/c it's not a tape, duh!) and I lunge for the Mute button so fast I'm surprised I haven't broken anything. When you've been away from the ad barrage and you sit through it once, it's both an agonizing and a radicalizing experience!

[keryx.livejournal.com]

I'm surprised, actually, to find that I'm better at ignoring the ad stuff now that I don't watch teevee than I was when I did watch normal teevee regularly. Like, I didn't even really notice watching ads at my parents' over the holiday. I wonder if I'm less radicalized/angry in that regard after being away from it?

[firecat]

I'm waffling between ditching my Dish subscription altogether and upgrading it so I can get the Japanese channel.