So Formulaic

With the increasing need for online content, not only for the news media but also our own need to have an intelligent and controversial POV on everything, there is one formula that seems to just keep on giving: The "scandal", the backlash to the backlash, and finally, the let's-rehash-all-these-lashes-for-a-couple-of- months so we can generate some clicks and sell some advertising. 

Cases in point:

1. The Rolling Stone Boston Bomber cover
In the beginning, social media and some news blogs called total outrage over this cover. They felt that the picture of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev looking like a Jonas Brother on the cover of a music magazine was crossing some kind of journalistic line. Why not put one of the victims on your cover? They're heroes! Why give Tsarnaev a platform usually reserved for celebrities we adulate? Some claimed to have cancelled their subscriptions because of this cover. 

Personally, I didn't have this reaction. The fact that Tsarnaev looks sort of sexy in this shot is actually pretty interesting to me. He has legions of female fans (this happened before the cover), and what does that say about us or women, really? This is a thing to examine. Evil comes in all shapes and colors and can be a complex process; that's what this cover said to me. I think we need to be reminded of this constantly. Those who don't agree with me are wrong - it's not up for discussion as far as I'm concerned. Portraying the victims is fine, we always want our "heroes," but where's the psychological tension in that? They were just in the wrong place at the wrong time. Tsarnaev was deliberate. He was news. And Rolling Stone, believe it or not, is a news magazine with a pop culture bent. 

Ok, so now that that's off my chest, we can go on to the backlash to the backlash. After the first reaction of outrage, other news outlets then came out in defense of the Rolling Stone cover, some calling it absolutely brilliant, some reminding us of Charles Manson being on the cover back in the day etc. The conversation about this cover dragged on for over a week. Way to extend a story. And who won in the end? Rolling Stone Magazine whose sales doubled for that one issue alone. Jann Wenner, you effing genius.


2. The Miley Cyrus Twerking "Scandal" 

I can't remember where I was during the VMAs but I do remember that I started seeing "omg Miley's performance" popping up in my Facebook feed at a pretty rapid clip. Then came the media judgment: tasteless, objectification of women etc. My favorite was the article on how her performance was somehow racist. Something about Cyrus adopting black moves and playing with her blackground dancers like toys. Something about a minstrel show. What? Had this person never heard of Elvis? Eminem? Every white suburban kid in America listening to and completely internalizing hip hop?

When I finally watched the performance, I thought it was just a bad performance. I guess when you don't have talent, the best way to get attention is to try to shock people. In that respect it worked, though it appeared to me like a desperate move. My biggest issue was the tongue. Just lose the tongue dude, this is not going to become a thing. That and she's a terrible dancer and singer. The blasphemy in my opinion, is that we've let such a talentless person become so famous and now we're stuck with her. I know this is not a new phenomenon. 

And then came the "In Defense of Miley" stories. The ever-vocal "slut defenders", you know, the ones who are all: slut is not a derogatory term and it's a double standard etc, etc. 'Yawn,' uninteresting, overplayed. There were some who claimed conservatives were pissed because innocent Miley had grown into a sexual being. Then there was the Kanye West comment that Miley incessantly repeated afterward: he allegedly texted her that he thought she was one of the most interesting artists today, or something (typing that just made me very depressed). And there were other celebrity defenders saying it was brilliant (just think of the attention you can get!). The Miley twerking story is only now just dying down. All this while a mall in Kenya was under siege for four days. 

This little story gave Miley the platform to then land on the cover of Rolling Stone Magazine and talk about "haters." Those ever present haters everywhere, judging every little thing you do. They fuel your motivation though, don't they, Miley? Yes they do. Thank God for the haters out there because they do the exact opposite of what they intend. 

The VMAs were on August 25. It's September 28 as I write this and it's still a relevant topic. It shouldn't be. 


3. The Jimmy Kimmel - Kanye West one-sided Feud

Jimmy Kimmel made a little joke about Kanye's constant gibberish. He had a point obviously. I do think Kanye's really talented, he's good at what he does, but he also be crazy. People laughed and laughed at Kimmel's little stunt (even though it actually wasn't very funny in my opinion). But not Kanye (shocker). Kanye took to Twitter and all capped his outrage at the joke at his expense. And we all laughed and laughed at this because the dude can't take a joke. But we already knew that. In fact, Kimmel might have been banking on it. 

Then the backlash to Kimmel. I kid you not, this happened. An article in Flavorwire about how Kanye refused to play Kimmel's game and was right not to. You see, usually the publicist-sanctioned celeb response to these things is to be all, oh hahaha, good one, Kimmel! But Kanye don't play dat. The same article claimed that making fun of Kanye is playing to racist stereotypes of the crazy black man going on a rant. Call me naive but I didn't see that AT ALL. Just like I didn't see it in Miley Cyrus' performance. Believe me, I know that racism is alive and well in America and there are thoughtful discussions that need to be had, but I mean, come on, we make fun of crazy white dudes all the time. We need the content! If Kanye really wanted to do everyone a favor he would have just stayed silent. This thing would have gone away. Instead, a pretty bad skit is getting more air time than it deserves. Yay.

Ok, so that was three and there are more and there will be more. It's cool for people to want to express opinions on both sides of a story, but these opinions are often very dumb and only written to stir more controversy and fuel the need for online content. They create false debates about things that really don't matter (except maybe that first example, which I actually found interesting since it was the media's examination of itself. Navel gazing for the cynics out there).

And see what I just did? Yup, I shamelessly extended all these stories past their expiration date so I could finally have some content for this opinionated blog of mine.