Today's Society Pill Poppin'

Medicine is the quick fix to the slightest hint of pain. Medicine is a manufactured, artificial pill designed in a lab to sooth our symptoms. More interestingly "shaman", the native American term for "medicine man", derived from the word "medicine" implying "magical influence" (Online Etymology Dictionary). I found this incredibly intriguing because of the way medicine is used in millions of households today.

So many people rely on medicine as a quick fix and don't realize all the complications and the harm that it can cause. Medicine is just seen as something that suppresses the pain. In the book that we are reading in American Studies, "White Noise" by Don DeLillo, there is a quote that really relates to this.

"They isolated the fear-of-death part of the brain. Dylar speeds relief to that sector." (190)


In the book there is this drug called Dylar that is supposed to suppress the fear of death from a person. DeLillo is satirizing our society's dependency on medicine and how medicine cannot fix everything, especially not the age-old fear of death. This also relates to a blog that I recently read by a classmate of mine, Layne E, who commented on the over medication that is going on in today's world. The over medication of today's world is causing people to be much more dependent on medication and leads other more serious medical problems.

What do you think about the uses of medication in today's society? Do you think that advances in medicine are truly aiding our society or causing more problems for it?

Women getting their fair share?

SOURCE

After reading Mr. O'Connor's blog on our class's blog it got me thinking about how often I see women being the main focus of TV shows. Although we are talking about TV tokenism and how it relates to racist stereotypes, I wanted to take a second to talk about the TV tokenism and how it relates to women. Too often are women shown as sidekicks or assistants to more dominant male characters. While watching some TV tonight I saw an add for a show called "Unforgettable" starring Poppy Montgomery, a red headed woman who plays Carrie Wells a strong and valuable leader of a police force.

Even though a red headed lead character isn't an example of TV tokenism the fact that Wells is the main focus of the show is a phenomenal leap for women in the entertainment business. In the show she has a flawless memory which makes her fantastic at her job and gives her almost super human qualities. This show is empowering women in a way that they aren't typically portrayed and that is showing some significant leaps for women.

Unfortunately, this is an exception in the current pattern of women portraying the roles of sidekicks or minor characters. In today's shows many women are only filler characters in love triangles or romantic plots and they do not have an equal recognition or depth that the male characters have. Although women have gone from being housewives to policewomen, there is still much more ground to be covered.

What do you think or the progression of women in the entertainment business? Do you feel that women already have an equal opportunity in the business?