Because of the recurring theme of being unable to know oneself when controlled or robbed of freedom by the government in the memoir "Reading Lolita in Tehran" http://www.bookrags.com/Reading_Lolita_in_Tehran, I've come to wonder how much influence media has on how we view ourselves.
In the United States, we could certainly say that advertisement overload can flood our perceptions of what it means to be, for instance, a proper boy or girl. Television shows and video games can influence the way one perceives violence and sex (for example) and how liberally or conservatively they apply those parts of life into their own personal definition of "self". Media gives us a context within which we continuously update our view of self in relation to other people and lifestyles. If this interaction does not necessarily change one's self-description or definition, it at least does constantly provide them with a challenge of how to apply their own talents and individualities to differing views of life, causing them to either adapt their self-image or endure, keeping the self-image intact.
Personally, I've recently been wondering how musical artists around the world affect our own self-images. People connect to the moody music and lyrics of songs, but does it change the person overall? When a little girl grows up for four years with bright pig tails and pink skirts (not to say that's the ideal, but just to provide an example) and in a year changes all of her wardrobe to black and listens to Rob Zombie for funzies, was it the music that changed her, or was it the events occurring around her--perhaps the influence of a group of friends, the intensity and perhaps sad relationship between her parents--that changed her? And, although her outward image would imply that she has changed fundamentally, who are we to say that we know that who she is on the inside--the real demonstration of self and character--has changed at all? Maybe this was just how her particular mindset adapted to the events around her as a purely natural development.
In a more recent and well-known example, the Colombian artist Juanes http://www.juanes.net/ presented a concert in Havana, Cuba, called "Paz sin Fronteras," or "Peace without Borders" http://www.popmatters.com/pm/article/110360-buzz-is-on-as-popular-colombian-rocker-juanes-to-headline-internatio/ A well-known activist for peace and human rights and founder of an foundation called "Mi Sangre Fundación," which provides Colombian children who fall victim to land mines with new limbs and rehabilitation, Juanes has become a non-partisan leader for peace throughout the Latin American community. In addition to his political/social songs and travails, Juanes is incredibly well known for his songs of love and romance, which automatically reach a larger fan base and have provided Juanes with record-breaking album releases at every opportunity. But in regards to Juanes' Paz Sin Fronteras concert, the goal was to unite Cubans in a showing of peace and music and to bring them attention that they so often lack as a nation isolated by the United States' political schema. The concert was met with protests and death threats from conservative Cubans and praise from those more open to his hopes of peace and openness. And in actuality, the concert enjoyed thousands of attendees for Juanes and his lineup of famous Hispanic music stars.
In such a situation, does Juanes simply offer us another way to look at life, or can we definitively say that this particular concert affected the minds of some individuals enough to give them a new purpose: one of peace, acceptance, and advocacy? I find fascinating the wealth of possibilities; there could simultaneously be the father who never had any definitive view but to survive who is now fueled with a passion for peace, the young girl who goes to a concert to hear good music and comes away put off by the political message, and the American wife who, before, was set in her views but has been caused to rethink her view of Cuban isolation due to the emotional power of the crowd in the concert. Can we say that Juanes, a cultural icon, changed any of these people or their sense of purpose? Or, on the contrary, are these simply newfound opinions brought about by a particular situation that do not, in fact, reflect a fundamental change in the way they naturally think about themselves? With all the blame and controversy placed on cultural superstars in today's media, I think it's certainly a worthy question to ask ourselves.
To what extent are we really, fundamentally changed by the touching art of singers, artists, and other entertainment icons?
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