Ponderings
I posed this question on Facebook, but this LJ post is much longer.
So I know New Moon is supposed to premiere tomorrow at midnight. And one of my roommates is all excited to go see it. But I do wonder at what's the appeal of Twilight to us, who are in college, who are nearly 5 years older than these characters? That brings up a broader question of why do us, as 20-something adults, are attracted to watching shows like Glee or Gossip Girl, which all involve high school students that are sexually mature, and act more than mature than their age they may as well be in college. Why are some of us watching shows about people who younger than us? Why are we not involved in watching shows about those that are more in our age range?
The only answer I can come up is the following
I guess you could say that even at our "advanced age" we wish for something. We watch those highschoolers on TV and think, "I wish I was like that in high school." The high school on TV is the dream world we wish we could have had. It's like Disney, it's a wondrous place where everything you can think of comes true. And maybe, I am being harsh on my sex, but this seems primarily pertinent to females. We still enjoy Disney and all it's fantasy. So, why shouldn't we dream about "could beens" by watching television shows and movies that have people that we wish we could have been.
Also I wonder at the choice of a high school setting as compared to a college setting for most of these shows. Is it because you have just as much independence and freedom yet you don't have all the necessary responsibilities as compared to college? Or are we just advertising the sexual appeal to younger and younger age groups that by the time another decade goes around, the appeal of being a college student will have worn off and you would be considered middle aged? And of course that brings up the topic of how the entertainment industry is sexualizing our society at a younger and younger age in order to bring up numbers.
So I know New Moon is supposed to premiere tomorrow at midnight. And one of my roommates is all excited to go see it. But I do wonder at what's the appeal of Twilight to us, who are in college, who are nearly 5 years older than these characters? That brings up a broader question of why do us, as 20-something adults, are attracted to watching shows like Glee or Gossip Girl, which all involve high school students that are sexually mature, and act more than mature than their age they may as well be in college. Why are some of us watching shows about people who younger than us? Why are we not involved in watching shows about those that are more in our age range?
The only answer I can come up is the following
I guess you could say that even at our "advanced age" we wish for something. We watch those highschoolers on TV and think, "I wish I was like that in high school." The high school on TV is the dream world we wish we could have had. It's like Disney, it's a wondrous place where everything you can think of comes true. And maybe, I am being harsh on my sex, but this seems primarily pertinent to females. We still enjoy Disney and all it's fantasy. So, why shouldn't we dream about "could beens" by watching television shows and movies that have people that we wish we could have been.
Also I wonder at the choice of a high school setting as compared to a college setting for most of these shows. Is it because you have just as much independence and freedom yet you don't have all the necessary responsibilities as compared to college? Or are we just advertising the sexual appeal to younger and younger age groups that by the time another decade goes around, the appeal of being a college student will have worn off and you would be considered middle aged? And of course that brings up the topic of how the entertainment industry is sexualizing our society at a younger and younger age in order to bring up numbers.