POPULAR CULTURE DIGEST

Memorable things from the 90s, continued...

#9. WWF Monday Night Raw.
I have an older brother. And like all teenaged boys growing up in the 90s, Monday nights usually meant being glued to the tv to watch half-naked grown men in skin-tight spandex (with exception to the Undertaker and a few others) and scantily-clad babes (be them bitches or bimbos -- just speaking the truth here) (fake)-hitting each other over the heads with chairs, tables, you name it. This was how the youth of America spent their quality time. Come Tuesday morning, the buzz around the water fountain was all about how 123-Kid totally got his butt kicked by Bret "the Hitman" Hart or something to the likes of that. As a girl, I knew a thing or two about wrestling by proximity (if you have a brother you know what I mean, and in addition, my brother had remote control power that night). Admittingly though, I came to enjoy the world of "wrestling" as a form of entertainment yet even to this day can't quite understand why it was in fact entertaining. Shows like "Jerry Springer," "Maury Povich's "Who's my baby's daddy?", and other less-than-stellar-quality shows, why was America tuning into them? Do humans really enjoy watching pain, humiliation, and drama being inflicted on others?

The 90s had its share of trashy shows and just when we think they've come and gone, we find them only to be replaced by shows promoting materialism in the 2000s. Sure, "Extreme Home-Makeover," "Oprah," and several other seemingly-charitable shows project good-will, compassion, and generosity, but at the same time they also place a prevailing emphasis on materialistic things like fancy, new cars, and "all them shiny, new things." It's as though the message being sent out is one that equates materialistic "stuff" to personal happiness. Oprah gives out free cars, oh yippee! But do I really need that extra sports sedan to pollute an already environmentally-degradating society? And have you ever noticed how Extreme Home-Makeover goes to multiple lengths to advertise Sears' appliances and home decor? That's one more point scored for another day in our consumer-driven lives. I can understand that everybody has bills to pay, I have my share as I know you do, but I just want to ask, how free are we really when the liberty that our fathers (not literally) fought for has become enchained to the slew of in-your-face advertisements and commercials slithering to get inside our pockets full of cash.

Brought to you by someone seeking a career in advertising. I hope to read from you about my hypocrisy.

P.S. How I started from writing about WWF wrestling to a diatribe on our consumer-driven lives, I have no idea.