To Resist or Accept?

 

            Stuart Hall argued that we, the masses are not “cultural dopes” and that we are always on the “battlefield” fighting between “resistance and acceptance” of mass media messages. I believe that is true, but I also believe that we are resisting less and have become more accepting as we are constantly bombarded with media messages.

            There was a time when viewers of media were more discriminating in their acceptance of media texts. I vividly remember my parents asking some trusted friends if a particular movie would be appropriate for me to see. They wanted to take the whole family, but they were concerned that the PG rating might indicate bad things for me, their seven-year-old daughter. What was the movie? Star Wars (A New Hope). It was determined that this movie would be okay for me and our whole family stood in line for an hour to get into the theater to see the film phenomenon that was sweeping the nation. 

 Star Wars | Wookieepedia | Fandom   

             In contrast, this fall there was a different media phenomenon that swept across the country. It was a show called Squid Game and it carried a TV-MA rating. This rating indicated the show contained “graphic violence, sexual content, and mature themes.” Media outlets reported that children’s doctors advised parents against letting their young children watch this show for the children’s own well-being. I saw one such report from a reputable news source on Facebook. The comments on that post were, in my opinion, disheartening. Parents laughed at the news story saying it was too late, that their kids loved it, and that it was the show they watched together when they had nothing else to do. 

 Family Watching Television Stock Illustration - Download Image Now - iStock 

Let me be clear, I am not arguing that parents do not have the right to decide what their children can and cannot watch. I know they do, and they should. The question I am asking is are they deciding what their children watch or are they even deciding what they watch? Are many of us just letting whatever media washes in and out of view to be consumed? Have we become so accepting of popular mass media texts that we do not question whether it should be accepted, by whom, and under what circumstances?

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