Hooray for Hollywood, we love it. They bring multifarious entertainment into our otherwise dull, unexciting, everyday lives. They have the power to produce shows that can make us laugh, cry or hang on the edge of our seats. Comedy, drama, action, suspense. We love it, we obsess over it, and we just cannot get enough of it. OK, that’s cool, nothing wrong with that… right?
Well, take a closer look. Let us heedfully examine the message that they’re sending to the loyal, supportive viewer. Whether it be television, movies or shows on the internet. Hollywood is by far, the grandiose land of discrimination.
If you want to feel the experience of being discriminated against, go no further than your TV set. I suppose most people would think that I am trumping up the race card. We all know how that goes. It’s been around for 400 years and it ain’t getting no better. It’s still a huge problem, but I’d like to begin with another of Tinsel towns many prejudices.
Age
Who are these people that have the nerve and audacity to judge others by a chronological number. Your age should bear no reflection on what type of work you do or who you date or what you wear. If you are mentally and physically healthy, nothing or “no one” should be allowed to hinder you from doing whatever you want to in life. You can be assured that every time you turn on your TV, read a magazine or the Internet, you’ll be able to find an article profiling some beautiful starlet that just turned forty. So what! Forty can be just as beautiful and productive as twenty it depends on how well you take care of yourself. Not only does the way they treat aging fall under discrimination, it also promotes disrespect. It’s suggests to the younger viewer that the older you become the less significant your life is. How sad!
Weight
Out of all the struggles people deal with, losing weight is probably one of the most stressful, disheartening, frustrating, arduous tasks to try and accomplish. I probably don’t need to tell anyone about the blatant bias that is shown toward the larger, full-figured, or huskier personalities that choose acting as a career. I’m not saying they don’t get roles or parts in movies, they do. How bout the funny fat friend. Maybe a cop who’s stuffing donuts in his mouth instead of chasing the criminal. Or my favorite, the teenage girl /guy who is cast as a nerd or part of the dorky kids group in school because they’re too fat to hang with the popular kids. These are just a few scenarios, there are many more.
Think about it, how unjust is it that your height and weight ratio be determined by your employer. Don’t get me wrong, there are some situations where weight should be a factor. If it’s affecting your health or if it hinders your job performance. It’s understandable then, why one wouldn’t be hired for certain roles. But if you’re healthy, talented and capable, there is no well-founded reason for discrimination because of body shape or the size of clothes you wear.
Image
I’m going to state the obvious, first-off, we’re not all the same. God made us different for a reason. There is an old clique that still stands true today -beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Hollywood has tendency to promote a one-track, single sided, misconceived image of what beautiful is. Beauty is not reserved for one look, it comes in all forms. You don’t need to have a petite nose, big boobs, or full lips to be beautiful. The same goes for men, you don’t need to have a strong jaw line, a full head of hair or a muscular physique to be handsome. People old and young are resorting to great lengths and expenses to alter their appearance to match that of the delusive Hollywood standard. It’s shocking and pathetic to see how these false images encouraged by the media affect peoples’ self-esteem. They intentionally and maliciously deceive viewers into thinking that if you don’t look a certain way you’re not going to be considered as beautiful. This type of partiality has negative social impact and it needs to stop.
Additionally, there is nothing wrong with embracing beauty. When you look good, you feel good. What the media needs to work on is achieving a broader more realistic view of what beauty is. They (the powers that be) need to take the lead in reassessing the artificial values that are now in place and put an end to their inequitable practices. In turn, we the public must respond to and uphold these changes, as well.
