Oscar
Wilde once said, “Life imitates art far more than art imitates life.” This is
absolutely true and is a necessity for our social progress. Entertainment has
an important role in shaping the type of society we will become. Looking back
through history, we can see how entertainment has predicted the future. I think
that it is more than a prediction, however. I think that entertainment brings
to light the issues of the times and shows different ways that they can be
corrected, warns us of the downward spiral we are on, or can artistically
portray the issues as not even being problems at all. Interracial coupling,
Tyrannical Government, the acceptance of homosexuality, and even having a black
president has been portrayed in books, television, and movies long before they
happened in real life. Art speeds up the
process of social change.
Interracial
Couples
America has had issues with minorities since Europeans
first stepped foot here. From slavery, to Jim Crow, to the first black president,
progress has been slow. We still see mistreatment, bigotry, and prejudice that
effects our society. Without our entertainment this progress would be slower.
Until 1967, being an interracial couple was not just
taboo, it was illegal. Interracial marriages became legal in the case Richard
Perry Loving, Mildred Jeter Loving v. Virginia (Lawing, 2000). Long before this
case however, interracial couples were portrayed on-screen. From 1917 on, there
were countless numbers of interracial couples, typically between a white man
and a Native American or Asian woman (Filmsite.org). In 1961 the first black
and white interracial couple was portrayed on screen. A Taste of Honey is a British film about a seventeen year old
school girl who meets a black sailor and they begin a relationship together (IMDB.com).
The relationship was only a few brief on-screen moments, but it was the first
shot of a black man receiving reciprocated love from a white woman.
In the same year as Loving v. Virginia, an American
classic was released. Guess Who’s Coming
to Dinner is a story of a white woman bringing her black boyfriend home to
meet her family (IMDB.com). It addressed stereotypes head on with a white
father who was not very accepting of her daughter loving a black man. As the
story progressed, so did the father’s acceptance of something new. This on-screen
encounter gave people everywhere the courage to have the same conversation at
home. It allowed interracial couples to stop hiding and start sharing their
love with their family and friends. By taking this step, it forced people to
look at their prejudices head on.
The following year on an episode called ‘Plato’s Stepchildren’,
Star Trek showed a very controversial
scene that is still talked about today. During a scene, William Shatner’s
character, Captain Kirk, kissed Nichelle Nichols’ character, Nyota Uhura in
television’s first interracial kiss (IMDB.com). After filming, the director
backtracked and tried reshooting the scene without the infamous kiss. Shatner
intentionally awkwardly crossed his eyes in every other take, leaving them no
option but to literally say, “What the hell.” Although interracial coupling was
no longer illegal, it was still not generally accepted by society. Hollywood,
again, took a bold move by unblushingly portraying the taboo as typical
behavior.
The
First Black President
In 2008, history was made in dramatic fashion. After 219
years and 42 white presidents, we finally elected Barack Obama, the first black
president of the United States. Hollywood, however, had foreseen this happening
since Sammy Davis, Jr. played the president in 1933. But the first black person
to be seriously portrayed as president was James Earl Jones in the 1972 film The Man.
In The Man, the
President and Speaker of the House were killed in a building collapse and the
Vice President declined the office due to his poor health. Jones’ character,
Douglas Dilman, was the assumed Senate President after the accident and filled
the role of President after the Vice President declined the role. The film
focuses on Dilman’s time between assuming office and deciding whether or not to
run for election when his term ended. It follows his struggle to be a great
leader and deal with the politics of being the first black President.
Ultimately, Dilman pursues and wins the election (IMDB.com). Although this
movie does not predict the types of obstructions the first black president
would actually face, it helped pave the way towards American acceptance for a black
leader.
Twenty-six years later, in the 1998 movie, Deep Impact, another black man had the
opportunity to show what the first black president could look like. At this point
in our history, it truly was no big deal. When Morgan Freeman acted as the
strong-willed, eloquent president, people were not thinking, “Look at this black
man showing such great leadership.” The audience was simply saying, “Look
at the great leadership their president shows under such duress.” By this time,
it is no big deal to have a black man in control of the country; we accept it
without a second thought. A mere 10 years later, the first black president was
elected and, four years later, reelected for his second term. Hollywood helped
pave the wave for a society where the first president I ever voted for was a black
man.
Acceptance
of Homosexuality
Homosexuality has not been incredibly out-of-the-ordinary
in film. From the 1950s films Rebel
Without a Cause and A Streetcar Named
Desire, to Rocky Horror Picture Show,
homosexuality was common to see. But it was not until movies like Philadelphia did we feel empathy towards
the homosexual character. In Philadelphia,
Tom Hanks plays a gay lawyer named Joe Miller. Joe Miller was suing his law
firm for firing him after they found out he had AIDs. In this movie, Joe hires
a homophobic lawyer who surprisingly takes his case. The movie does an amazing
job of getting you emotionally attached to the gay character, forcing you to
realize that they are humans too. Because of this film, America took a real
look at itself with the way they treat the AIDs virus and those who contract
it. Because of this movie, many people were able to get help with the illness
and learn about prevention; this movie saved lives.
In 1998, a television show began, starring two gay male
characters and their two heterosexual female best friends. Will & Grace showed their everyday encounters at work, the
troubles with finding love, and how to be a good friend. The audience fell in
love with these characters and saw that their everyday lives were no different
from any other person’s life. These characters were your neighbors, your work
colleagues, and your best friends. They were your average uppity New York
residents, and we all cried when we were no longer able to watch them week
after week.
Jumping ahead to 2009, we encountered a laughing, crying,
and, yes, singing high school group on Glee.
This show gives insight to the everyday encounters of high school students as
they try to deal with love, heartbreak, failing, and how to just make it
through their teenage years, all while singing and dancing along the way. Some
are straight, others are gay, yet no one cares. This show lets the teenagers of
today see that they do not have to be scared to show who they are. It also
shows them that although high school may be difficult, it is difficult for
everyone. This generation does not care whether you love a man or woman. They
do not want you in their business, so they stay out of yours.
Hollywood
helped our society broaden from the thought of homosexuals as being diseased-filled
outsiders to being seen as who they really are — the Average Joe that just wants
to make it through the day; your buddy you hung out with last weekend or that
girl that gives such great advice. Hollywood artistically shows us that we are
all facing the same struggles and life is hard enough without adding bigotry
and hate.
Tyranny
Arts and entertainment are not only positive forces for
social change. Often times they are giving us the foresight of the negative
world we are becoming. In 1949 the movie All
the King’s Men was released. This movie is about an honest politician, Jack
Burden, who loses his first election. After losing, he goes to law school and
gets an education to go along with his bravery, honesty, and will. He runs for
election again but this time, in his efforts to win the election, he is not so
moral. He throws his assistant under the bus, loses his fiancée, and ultimately
loses himself in his quest for power. The movie is a depiction of what our
political system later becomes, particularly after Citizens United, a
controversial court case that allows unlimited and anonymous campaign donations
to be made to political candidates. What Jack found out and what we are finding
out now is: You cannot win an honest election when the system is set up so that
the person who spends the most wins.
Ironically, 1949 is the same year in which George
Orwell’s novel, Nineteen-Eighty-Four,
was published. This famous novel is a dystopia set in a place formerly known as
Great Britain. This world is filled with perpetual war, omnipresent government
surveillance, and mind control (Orwell, 1949). Some lingo that is used in the
real world today like: Big Brother, thoughtcrime, Newspeak, and Room 101 came
from this famous book. This book is chilling to read in the year 2014 because
you can see so many similarities in the world that Orwell created and the world
we live in today. The NSA (National Security Agency) has been found to be hacking
our phones, emails, text messages, etc. and keeping huge databases of this
information. You cannot go anywhere outside your house without at least a
handful of cameras capturing your every move. Room 101 torture chambers have
been recreated at Guantanamo Bay to be used in cases where we think someone has
information about a possible terrorist attack. We use every trick we can think
of to create fear in our ‘enemy’ to get them to give us information and due
process is oftentimes completely thrown out the window. In Orwell’s novel, the
government owns the media and spews propaganda at every opportunity. I fear
that the same has happened in today’s society. Money rules everything in the
country, including our government and media. The same people who funnel
millions into elections buy the newspapers and television media. Once the media
became privatized, unbiased news ceased to exist. Without accurate news, the
populous can be convinced of anything the powerful want them to believe.
The
Future
In
the 2011 movie Ides of March, we meet
George Clooney’s character, Mike Morris. Morris is an honorable man, filled
with conviction, who manages to make it to the main stage in the presidential
election. Although he falls into the typical political games of making shady
promises and buying people off, there are a few things he does that are
atypical. The first out-of-the-ordinary thing about Morris is his blunt way of
talking about his very liberal views; views that no liberal in current times is
willing to be up-front about. He is very outspoken about his pro-choice views
on abortion and being against the death penalty, issues that no Democrat of
today is willing to fight for. The other atypical thing about Morris is his
religion. He is an Atheist, one of the most untrusted groups in America
(Grewel, 2012). In today’s world, not having a personal God is political suicide.
Even with the current Christian-President, you still hear complaints about him
not mentioning God enough in his speeches. This open Atheism is a very small
foresight that should be easily achieved but is in a very distant future. As an
Atheist who dreams of being in a position to make change, I hope that enough
Atheists are portrayed positively in entertainment so that I may one day
successfully take that plunge.
In
2008, Suzanne Collins published her first book in her Hunger Games series. This book is a dystopian novel based in a time
after the citizens revolted against their corrupt government and lost. To
punish these citizens, they must have an annual ‘reminder’ of who is in charge.
Each year, one boy and one girl from each district must enter an arena and
fight to the death. The winner gets to live in the capital city with the rich
people while the other 23 competitors’ bodies rot. It gives the citizens enough
hope to not be backed all the way into the corner, but at the same time, so
much despair that they feel worthless in their lives. This ratio of hope and
despair leaves them exactly where the President wants them—controlled. By the
time we get through the third book, we realize that the everyday citizen has no
true ally. They must choose between the capital side, the side they know does
not care for them, and the rebel side, the side of the unknown. What Katniss,
the main character, realizes is, the rebels’ leader has the same desires as the
capital leader—power (Collins, 2010).
Another
dystopian novel series was released in 2012. The Article 5 series follows a young girl named Ember Miller. She lives
in India, during a time where war has destroyed the civilization as we know it today,
leading to a rewritten Bill of Rights and new, conservative government. Ember
and her boyfriend manage to escape and try to find a safe haven. They
eventually realize that have nowhere to go and no other option but to join the
resistance and fight back (Simmons, 2014).
The
Hunger Games, Article 5, Nineteen-Eighty-Four,
and all the other dystopian novels are very popular. They are popular for a
reason—you can relate to them. Everyone with any nobility in their heart can
see the slow shackles our government is locking onto our wrists. Most citizens
dreams of being that hero whose character is the missing piece in the fight to
restore civilization. It may not be conscious, but every reader feels it
somewhere within them, and for good reason. Each dystopia is different in the
way they portray the inevitable tyrannical government. Nonetheless, the
tyrannical government is what they have in common. The signs are there, and if
anything has been proven in this paper, it is that life imitates art. Art is
telling us what is on the horizon. We must make adjustments or we are destined
to follow their prophecies.
Reference
List
Collins, Suzanne.
(2008) The Hunger Games. Scholastic,
Inc.
(2010) Catching Fire. Scholastic,
Inc.
(2010) Mockingjay. Scholastic, Inc.
Filmsite.com. The History of Film-By Decade. Viewed
March 2, 2014
Grewel, Daisy. (2012). In Atheists We Distrust. Scientific
America, January 17, 2012.
Lawing, Charles B. (2000). Loving
v. Virginia and the Hegemony of “Race”. The
University
of Virginia Press.
Orwell, George. (1949).
Nineteen-Eighty-Four. Harcourt, Inc.
Simmons, Kristen.
(2012). Article 5. Doherty, Tom
Associates, LLC
(2013). Breaking
Point. Doherty, Tom Associates, LLC
(2014). Three.
Doherty, Tom Associates, LLC
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