How Do Media and Pop Culture Perpetuate the Search for Perfection and the "Happy Ever After Life"?
Introduction
The media and pop culture play a significant role in shaping societal norms and expectations. They often promote the idea of "perfection" and a "happy ever after life," which influences how individuals perceive themselves and others.
Examples of How Media Promotes the Search for Perfection and the "Happy Ever After Life"
1. Influencer Culture:
Influencers on social media platforms like Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok often portray a perfect and glamorous lifestyle. They showcase their luxurious vacations, designer outfits, and flawless bodies, creating unrealistic standards for their followers. This promotes the belief that perfection is attainable by buying certain products or emulating specific behaviors.
2. Romantic Comedies:
Romantic comedies in movies and television often portray idealized relationships with happy endings. The protagonists overcome all obstacles and find true love, leading to a "happy ever after life." This narrative reinforces the notion that romantic relationships should be perfect and effortless, setting unrealistic expectations for real-life relationships.
3. Beauty Industry:
The beauty industry, through advertising and marketing, promotes the idea that physical attractiveness equates to success and happiness. Skincare, makeup, and cosmetic surgery products are marketed as tools to achieve the perfect appearance, leading individuals to believe that they need to conform to specific beauty standards to be accepted and valued by society.
Conclusion
The media and pop culture continue to perpetuate the search for perfection and the "happy ever after life" by presenting idealized images and narratives that shape individuals' aspirations and desires. It is essential to critically evaluate these messages and recognize that true happiness and fulfillment come from self-acceptance and embracing imperfection.
How do the media and pop culture promote such expectations? Provide three different examples of how this search for "perfection" and the "happy ever after life" is perpetuated by the media and pop culture and demonstrated today? The search of perfection is promoted by media constantly, because the media promotes expectations in people about being perfect in every possible way: having the perfect body, earning so much money that the perfect luxury car can be afforded, the perfect clothes and so on. This is promoted in advertising, in film, television, and music (in other words, pop culture). The search for the happy ever after life is also promoted when media gives the idea that there is a point in life where problems stop, and after that, life becomes more or less perfect.