Signal to noise

[iainjclark]

This is rather cool. The earliest known recording of a human voice has been found, from 1860, pre-dating Edison's "Mary Had a Little Lamb" by 17 years. The full details of the recording and the work done to play it back are here and here, and the actual (rather warbly) sound files are here. The recording unfortunately reduced one Radio 4 presenter to a fit of giggles.

There's another BBC story that my wife was ranting about the other day. Apparently -- and I know this will come as a shock to you -- unrealistic images of male bodies in lad's mags can cause teenage boys to aim for an impossible ideal (to the point of taking steroids: a 'condition' named "athletica nervosa". Really.) Apparently after years and years of everyone saying this about unrealistic images of women in the media, it's considered surprising that men are affected the same way. I suppose it's worth reporting but a) surely we all knew this and b) surely the pressure on men to achieve unattainable physical perfection is orders of magnitude less than the equivalent pressure on women? My impression is that images of male perfection in the media and in Hollywood are far more about attitude, looks and style, e.g George Clooney, than they are about toned abs. And surely lad's mags in particular remain far more influential in their depiction of women's bodies than men's? Then again I don't read lad's mags.

Comments

[veggiesu.livejournal.com]

I think you're absolutely right about the pressure on men to look good being lower than it is on women (although equally I know several men who are fairly obsessed about the way they look in that unhealthy "appearance is everything" way). One thing I would say is that the pressures on men tends towards the "healthier" look - toned, athletic, and as you say, stylish. The pressures on women still tend to either the lad's mag ideal of big tits and perfect grooming, or the thinner the better (right up until an unflattering photo reveals what a body that thin looks like when it's not fully clothed, at which point the media turns hostile towards the "skeletal" celeb in question).

The thing I find slightly odd though, is how much some people buy into these images. Are people really that easily to brainwash? It's a depressing thought.

[iainjclark.livejournal.com]

I think it's part of the social pressure to conform, not necessarily to an ideal but to whatever is seen as the "norm" for the part of society with which you identify yourself -- whether that be skinhead, goth, geek, or high-flying business types.

I suspect that the problem with the media is it taps into that desire to fit in so that the magazine ideal comes to be seen as a kind of norm in itself. And because a very few people can attain it and we are vastly overexposed to images of those few, it's like being surrounded by an extended circle of people who are more popular than we are.