Who’s who? By Ayesha Shahid
Uploaded by eddyslash on Mar 09, 2009
Who’s who?
By Ayesha Shahid
Fame, glitz and glamour are the buzzwords in today’s world. An average person’s mind is so conditioned and sensitized to these notions that he/she almost aspires to be a part of this world. Money talks, as the saying goes, I have observed that one in seven people, aged between 18 and 35 , in my surroundings are more likely to boast about their latest purchases, flashy cars, exotic holidays or designer goods to illustrate how well they're doing rather than telling people directly about their property and financial status.
Our print and electronic media reinforce this preoccupation with glamour as it is the elite class, politicians, celebrities and stars who adorn most of the content of both newspapers’ and TV programs and this is what we term as page 3 culture. The term originates from colourful daily newspaper supplements appearing usually on the third page that features cocktail parties of celebrities and the nouveau riche. Today the attractive supplements are like a collage of celebrity news, gossip, party pictures, movie chit chat and stories on subjects such as life styles.
Page 3 has taken the form of a phenomena because of the elemnt of sensationalism in it. It gives a superficial view of the ‘ hunky dory’ lives of these people, exxagertaing the trifles and frivolities . An average person fails to realize the hypocrisy, superficiality and shallowness that often lies underneath it. It reminds me of the mock epic poem ‘ Rape of the Lock’ by Alexander Pope that underscores the ridiculousness of a society in which values have lost all proportion, and where the trivial is handled with the gravity. The society on display is one that fails to distinguish between things that matter and things that do not.
If we try to look a little deeper, we’ll observe that the characters who appear on these pages are mostly businessmen and their resentful wives, social workers with dysfunctional families, politicians and their lofty talks, friends that backbite each other, desensitized celebrities, drug addicts, homosexuals whose facial features are reduced to telegraphic dots and so on. This comprises of a glittery group for whom a party is not a party unless champagne shows up and the cameras start flashing. For the page 3 audience, the only news is who is who, who is wearing what and who is kissing who.
During my quest...