eringesine

While I agree that these definitions given to women should be addressed, I think this article inadvertently does the same thing to women that society does to beauty standards. It still placed all women into a category, held up makeup to an unreasonable standard, and largely failed to give women credit for being able to choose whatever they want to do with makeup. I think the discussion should be not “what should we think of makeup” and more “why does this matter?” What makes young women think they way they do about makeup, and what can we do, together, to improve self-image.

I agree with many of the comments that telling jokes doesn’t lead to a logical conclusion that they are any less serious about the facts. I disagree that shows like these steer away from “sad” stories; often this is where these stories get a well-deserving amount of coverage. I also have trouble with the assumption that “real” news sources are unbiased. They are incredibly biased towards stories featuring violence, crime, and suffering, because these are the stories that drive up viewership. The fact that The Daily Show and others have found a way to present these stories with a degree of humor is admirable.

I think the question itself is problematic. The same fear that writers and readers had in the Victorian era regarding the novel as “low art” is the same fear that writers and readers have now of other types of writing. The expansion of other forms of writing, or sub-genres of the novel does not cheapen the novel.
Literary critics did the same thing during the 1970s and 80s. They felt threatened when theory (feminist, formalist, etc) began to be applied to other forms of art they deemed unworthy. But, critically thinking about how theory can be applied to pop culture, soap operas, music, etc does not mean that it lowers the art forms traditionally privileged.
The evaluation of art is a worthy endeavor, not simply the art itself. The critical thought and reflection should be held up as important and meaningful, the evaluation is the goal, not the classification of writing.