Media and Ideology

Lol, this is already late as it is, so excuse the ~formality of the title and this poor excuse for an...excuse...

There were a couple of really cool arguments being brought up in Croteau's Media and Ideology, but the one I think I will focus on, for the sake of clarity, is his take how the media influences the dominant ideologies that we, as feminists, are trying to deconstruct in order to have some form of rights in this world. Like Croteau mentions in the article, "Media sell both products and ideas, both personalities and world views..." (161) Basically, this is bringing up the point that many people who have been brainwashed to think that there is no ideology being passed through the media, say that something "just is" -- "Come on, that's just a movie!" Or "You can't be serious, that's just  a kid's book!" Something never "just is". There's always underlying messages in every medium -- it's selling us the ide(ology)a that there is a superior race, and that there is a superior gender, and that something is right from wrong; this is the place where binaries are set up and we, as consumers just eat it up like it's a way of life. Like it's a religion that we just can't get enough of and we are praising the very thing that is making it harder to obtain the rights that we all deserve.

In his piece, Croteau's argument extends toward the fact that we see these (dominant) ideologies so often that we just accept them as normal and don't think anything of it. It's almost like the way we go to a restaurant and order food and just eat the food without even knowing how it was prepared. We watch a television show or a movie or read a book and think "This is awesome!" without looking at the fact that the main character is a huge misogynist, or that it's perpetuating stereotypes about sexuality, or that it's further proving that we do not live in a post-racist society. We become so used to these things that if we watch something that challenges said ideologies, we look at it as if it's some offensive thing that has no place in your life. It is this same normalization of different ideologies that forces us to glamorize things that should never be glamorized, things like violence, misogyny and a shitload of other stuff that makes this world the place that it is.

(btw this is ~argument in case that second paragraph wasn't clear enough ;~;)