Not all that glitters is gold

Abuse is something celebrities across the world know all too well, but are very good at hiding it or sharing it with the world. Whether it is physical abuse, verbal abuse, and the most prominent one substance abuse.

The sad thing is that fans look the other way when it is their favourite celebrity involved in substance abuse. But when it is the case of physical abuse, twitter and Facebook will be buzzing with messages of how the partner who has hurting the other should be sent to jail, and must rot in hell, etc. Then the couple gets back together and charges are dropped, the fans are left speechless and feeling stupid, this is a vicious cycle that will never end.

That is not the issue, the issue is that when someone like Chris Brown acts violently and is in and out of court like it is a hobby. This same guy has young boys looking up to him, what kind of message does he send to his fans (who believe that Chris can never do wrong). Or that someone like kwaito star, Zola, who was the pillar of his community turns out to be womaniser and a women abuser. Then we get many celebrities across the world who have the guts to stand in front of cameras and tell their young fans that “drug can kill you” or the most famous line, “don’t do drugs”. Whilst the same person is high on drugs as they say that. Talk about hypocrisy at its best.

It is true that not all that glitters is gold, lifestyles that celebrities lead are not all glamorous, and they can lead to destruction. Young people must be aware of that reality. And must realise that simplicity is the ultimate sophistication. There is no fault in choosing a career that will ensure that you lead a simple life that has no peer pressure and certain expectations because of what you do and who you are.

Fooled by Subliminal Messages

There is a trend the advertising industry and sometimes the politics, cartoons and music industry have been using to get a message across to the conscious mind although the message can only be noticed by the subconscious mind. It is called subliminal messaging. These messages can be found anywhere and everywhere.  

Subliminal messages are mostly used to underhandedly sell sex, it cannot be denied that sex sells. The messages can be seen when flashed quickly in a film or buried within a print image and audio messages that is masked by other sounds or it can be played below audible levels or recorded backwards as a hidden messages. The following are subliminal messages that have been used in the past:

·         Beloved Disney has shocking perverted sexual images in many of their cartoons, the most famous cartoon from Disney that has sexual messages through their images is The Lion King cartoon. Here is one of the subliminal messages in the cartoon:

·         This is an America advert about ketchup what here in South Africa we call tomato sauce: you can decide what you see.

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Subliminal messages can also be found in political campaigns, here we have US President Barack Obama, with a pretty obvious message:

There are many subliminal messages encrypted in films, cartoons, political campaigns, advertisements, and music. What this means is that there is another way for people to push their agendas, and because we barely recognise it there are little or no consequences. This also proves that we do not use our minds to their full potential, and that people can be manipulated. Laws must be put in place to protect innocent consumers/viewers.

South Africa is not immune to this cheap act, an advert by a popular beer in South Africa has caused quite a steer, with it's racist advert.

Does a size zero truly exist?

I have a question… when did zer0 become a size? because I thought zero meant nothing, Nada, I could write it in all languages it will bring me back to the fact that it does not have value, so then why is it size? I thought clothing size was based on existing numbers with value.

The fashion industry has revolutionised size 0, to them it is the ultimate size a person should thrive be. I was looking at a Ralph Lauren catalogue and their front page had a model that looked like life was sucked out of her, to the point that she lost all of her fat and muscles in the process.  She looked deader than an actual dead body. It was as if her body was decomposing even though she is alive. That alone was enough to make me loose interest in the clothes that were being advertised.

The fashion industry has always ignored the fact that not all people are born to be a certain size, that people come in all shapes and sizes. Instead of striking a balance and using that to their advantage the industry has decided to stick with the make believe world where everyone is a size zer0. Forgetting that people with a certain size are also potential clients.

This has been a controversial issue in the fashion industry, former Australian Vogue Editor, said “the longer I worked with models, the more the food deprivation became obvious. Cigarettes and diet cokes were dietary staples. Sometimes you would see the tell-tale signs of anorexia.” This has send wrong messages to young women.  Making young women question their looks in the process killing their self-esteem. Sometime we never realise how much damage a simple decision can create great damage in the long run.

It is clear that Editors are at the top of the list of people to be blamed, but Fashion journalists have not voiced out public concerns and reporting like it is, from the glamorous part to the not so pretty side of fashion.  Clothes build confidence, they make a person look good, but if there is no morale built when promoting the clothes, people will not have much interest.

It is time to revolutionize fashion, turn it to that industry that not only creates and promotes outer beauty but inner beauty as well. Including healthy living, not to say they must promote obesity.

MEDIOCRITY THE ALLOWED STANDARD IN ENTERTAINMENT

Paul Arden, advertising guru once said “why strive for excellence when mediocrity is required?” this seems to apply in the music and film industry.

As I was listening to music on YouTube, I accidentally clicked on a link to a rap song by ‘French Montana’, boy was I in for a surprise or should I say disaster… really? What happened to the creative and story-telling rap music? Was Nas right to say hip hop is dead? Has it really come down to rapping about women’s body parts, how much money they have in their bank accounts, and one liner songs like the one I was listening to? For the whole three minutes and some seconds all this guy was saying was” N%&^a I ain’t worried about nothing, really? He should be worried about his lyrical content, or he will not last in this industry. But from the looks of the viewers this fool had more than 21 million other fools listening and commenting on how ‘dope’ the song is, wow.

Over the years the US government has accused rap music of encouraging violence, but documentaries such as ‘Bowling for Columbine’ proved that to be otherwise. What the US government should have accused rap music of is instilling mediocrity in our young minds and breeding a nation of irrational thinkers, who follow and believe everything musicians and actors feed them. And due to what young people are exposed to, the UK has found that 50% of young people in the world have the same goal, which is wealth and fame. I don’t blame these young people, the music and film industry has put out a message that you can produce mediocrity work and still get rewarded for it. The film and music industry has become a get rich quick scheme, and losing its value in the process.

where has the creative juices of script writers gone, why are we remixing films. i thought that that was for music. films like Super Man, Titanic, and many others are being remade, what is the use of DVD's that give people access to owning a copy for ever? Don't get me started on franchise films, like Bond movies, Fast and the Furious, are we being lazy to come up with something totally different?

My point to this whole article is that, the music and the film industry have great influence on the youth, especially rap music. It dictates the way the youth dress, think, and speak, their dreams and finally the future of the world. If mediocrity is the order of the day, we can be sure that the future will be mediocrity too. This should worry the rest of us who do care about where the world is going.