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From: aeq@pucc-h (Jeff Sargent)
Newsgroups: net.singles
Subject: Re: Hollywood
Message-ID: <1677@pucc-h>
Date: Tue, 15-Jan-85 15:47:21 EST
Article-I.D.: pucc-h.1677
Posted: Tue Jan 15 15:47:21 1985
Date-Received: Thu, 17-Jan-85 12:51:38 EST
References: <4166@ucbvax.ARPA>
Organization: the PIRATE ship
Lines: 40

From Allyn Hardyck (ucbvax!allynh):

> Is the media effective in negatively reinforcing "bad" relationships?

> I feel this ties in directly with the topic of "pornography - good or bad?".

I quote (without permission) from "The Tenth Man", by Paddy Chayefsky
(written in the late 1950's, but still quite relevant).  A young man (the
character I'm playing) says to a girl who has just said that he loves her [sic]
-- which is true, though he doesn't want to believe it:

"I don't know what you mean by love!  All it means to me is I shall buy you
a dinner, take you to the theatre, and then straight to our tryst where I
shall reach under your blouse for the sake of tradition while you breathe
hotly in my ear in a pretense of passion.  We will mutter automatic
endearments, nibbling at the sweat on each other's earlobes, all the while
gracelessly fumbling with buttons and zippers, cursing under our breath the
knots in our shoelaces, and telling ourselves that this whole comical business
of stripping off our trousers is an act of nature like the pollination of
weeds.  Even in that one brief moment when our senses finally obliterate our
individual alonenesses, we will hear ringing in our ears the reluctant
creaking of mattress springs....  At your age, I suppose, one still finds
theatrical charm in this ultimate of fantasies, but when you have been
backstage as often as I have, you will discover love to be an altogether
shabby business of cold creams and costumes."

Considering how much casual sex went on even on otherwise fairly high-toned
shows such as "Star Trek", I'd say that the media definitely reinforces the
idea of the stereotypical empty relationship as described above.

On the other hand, the media also reinforces (via a certain abysmal show set
aboard a cruise ship) the idea that one can instantly find a life's mate with
whom one will live ecstatically for the remainder of one's days.  It would be
amusing to revive the old show "Divorce Court" and have it feature couples who
met on "Love Boat".

-- 
-- Jeff Sargent
{decvax|harpo|ihnp4|inuxc|ucbvax}!pur-ee!pucc-h:aeq
Proud owner of two Control Data doorstops.