Then I reached puberty and stopped reading them for a while. I started watching more TV and movies and again started getting more these superficial thoughts of what women I would desire needed to look like and how I needed to look like in order to attract such women. How I needed to become as wealthy as possible to have the power that men would have in the movies I would watch. All this media I was consuming was becoming me and shaping how I dressed, what I wanted to study, how I would talk, basically most facets of my life. It wasn't until my more recent years that I started to phase out of that thought process by well questioning just why my identity was what it was. Did I want to become succesful so I could give a better life to those around me or just so I could have an elevated sense of status? Did I want to drive expensive cars because I liked them or so I could impress others? Was the fact that I was becoming more and more miserable because I was feeling like I wasn't going achieve such goals caused by it? How much was I contributing to such poisonous attitudes in society by choosing to consume this?
Funnily enough it would be thanks to the man who I thought was the most boring superhero ever created thanks to his simple upbringing by his grandparents in a farm in Kansas, his boring secret identity as the ever so clumsy Clark Kent and boring omnipotence when he was the ever famous Superman. Suddenly it all clicked with one series, All-Star Superman by a Scottish author named Grant Morrison. Superman is the ideal who we all aspire to be. The person who with the power of God, chooses to do everything in his power to make the world a better place. The person who instead chooses to hide his powers from his closest ones with a secret identity ever being so humble just so he can live life as another one of us because of the love he has for the world and its people. And this all made me feel like I too could be like him in my own little way. Sure, he walks his dog by flying laps around the moon but I too can make my dog happier my taking her out with me for another walk. Yeah he may have corrupted uncles who come to his world to try to beat the hell out of him but at the end of the day, its a story about dealing with family gatherings. Maybe I could do stuff like him just on a different scale and I started to feel more and more like I could matter and it was helping me fill that void that I was feeling at the time.
So that's how I ended up getting so attached to this media called comics and started thinking more critically about the things I consume. How my monetary support of these outlets in some way helps to encourage or discourage these issues going on. Media shapes who I am so why would I not want to do what I can in order to make it a better place for those around me? So when I walk around with my hair swoop and thick-frame glasses doing my best Clark Kent impression I'm representing what I am aspiring to do. The universe can be a cold dark place but I believe the best way to rebel against this is by being the absolute happiest person we can be so why not do what little we can even if its starting conversations about the things we consume?
-John P
Here's one of my favorite blogs that talks about social issues with a focus on the "geek" culture
http://exploringbelievability.blogspot.com
No comments:
Post a Comment