Monday, December 14, 2009

Low-Brow Art


I am so over being embarassed by my interest in so-called "low-brow" art. I like all kinds of levels or stature of things made by us humans. I like comic book movies, scifi, comedies, graffitti, noise music, and diversity. I find great insight into the human condition from many sources...and sometimes a "bad" film or tv show is so distilled away from "high-art" that it can be an excellent study for observing the human condition.

When we watch a "high brow" movie...we can walk away and feel we've spent some valuable time. The concept of "high brow" suggests we will be more cultured, more insightful and educated...we might learn something esoteric or exotic if we expose ourselves carefully to "high end" work or authentic work. (remember "authenticity " is stuff white people like)

I simply don't care if people think I'm a loser because I like what I like. I don't care if it's "pure" or "authentic" or "high brow". I also avoid restaurants that say "authentic" or "cuisine" on their signs...but thats another post.

I like pork rinds and I like all kinds of B-Movies and cult movies. One of my favourite holidays movies is Black Christmas. It's every bit as fun and insightful to me as It's A Wonderful Life. There is something noble about all of our trashy low-brow art...and I am fully out-of-the-closet in my passion for all genres and ranks of art. I embrace my guilty pleasures because I'm not guilty about them! Actually, did you know the director of Black Christmas is the same director of the holiday staple A Christmas Story? Black Christmas is a Canadian movie based on a real set of murders in Montreal.

My most obvious "guilty pleasure" is reality tv.

I'm absolutely crazy about reality tv. I watch about a dozen of this genre a year. including the following...

Survivor
Project Runway
Top Chef
Dr. Drew's Celebrity Rehab
The Bachelor
The Bachelorette
Chef Academy
Ruby
so You Think You Can Dance
Dancing With The Stars
America's Best Dance Crew

So..you can see I'm in pretty deep with my "guilty pleasures". The only thing I feel bad about is that I wish I knew more people who watched these shows so we could discuss them!

But right now...one of the very best of this genre...is Dr. Drew's Sex Rehab. This program is really amazing. I cry almost every episode. These people are really going through an amazing "awakening" and transformation. They have learned so much about life and how to live, and often their past is heart-breaking. Several of the people involved have already been through recovery for substance abuse. What happenes once they get sober and healing...is another "process addiction" has manifested!

Process addiction is an addiction to an activity or process, such as eating, spending money, or gambling. These addictive behaviors can be as debilitating as those associated with substance addictions, and they require psychological treatment. People sometimes have difficulty understanding process addictions, because they believe that people should just be able to stop negative behavior, but people with process addictions face the same problems that people with substance addictions do.

It seems kind of like an OCD behaviour and stops the people from having balanced, functioning lives.

Often ...what I understand is once a substance abuse has recovered...underneath it the process addition, like sex, surfaces. Dr. Drew explained that it's ultimately an "intimacy disorder".

In an interview Dr. Dew said, intimacy disorder in adults usually is associated with childhood trauma.

Most of the patients on Sex Rehab have shared terrible rape stories...as CHILDREN! on the program...horrendous. And yet...they are struggling to find a way to function healthy with the therapy and hard work. It's really amazing.

Not all childhood trauma is sexual or an obvious abuse. In addition to physical, sexual and verbal abuse, this can include anything that causes the child to feel worthless, unlovable, insecure, and even endangered, or as if his only value lies in meeting someone else's needs. From here

I remember seeing old footage of a toddler on a tv show making amazing golf shots...of course it was Tiger Woods. The idea that a small child would be trained and groomed so extensively...might not be healthy or natural. And I suspect that childhood lifestyle of being trained to perform like that is now rearing it's ugly head in Tiger's adult life. Sad. It's easy to forget that Tiger Woods in many ways was a "child star".

8 comments:

tweetey30 said...

Hey tagged you with The Circle of Friends Award...

Candy Minx said...

Thanks Tweetey!

Beej said...

Candy, I don't watch reality tv as a rule, the exception being John and Kate Pluse Eight 9before they blew it) because I just love those kids AND Dance Your Ass Off. I do not know how I got wrapped up in that one, but I sure nuff did!

DILLIGAF said...

Does The Simpsons count?

Oh well....only thing I like 'cept proper football...

Bring back Hill Street Blues I say!!!

Demeur said...

Good point Candy. That would explain a lot about Tiger. I say live for yourself and worry about others later. Only took me 50 years to learn that.

S.M. Elliott said...

I'm firmly in the "no-brow" camp. Sure, I like Proust and art films, but I'm equally satisfied watching Fraggle Rock or reading true crime paperbacks. Ya gotta have balance, right?

I was a little creeped out and saddened by that clip of Tiger Woods as a kid. Clearly he was molded and crafted to be what he is today, and who could blame him for trying to break out of that mold? A lifetime of training for success in such a narrow field must be stifling, and I'm sure it stymied his intellectual and emotional growth. He's going through his teen years a little late.

Malcolm said...

You make an interesting point about Tiger being a child star in many ways. I think Tiger's childhood combined with the trappings of superstardom are the cause of the problems he is now having... especially the latter.

I think we all need some low brow art in our lives. Like I say, everything can't be "Masterpiece Theatre".

Gardenia said...

I think you pegged it with the Tiger. Child stars suffer. And it manifests in later life. I don't know about the process of addiction or process addiction, but I know I certainly suffer food addiction. It is a constant battle. I watched a few episodes of a sex addiction reality show - too disturbing for me to watch on regular basis - for the reasons you say. I have a fury against societies that condone (by inaction) the exploitation of children sexually or in any other way. When a society gets to the point that a perp can feel bold enough to walk into someone's bedroom and and steal a child to rape and/or kill - and preventative measures continue to be ignored - oh I just get so mad. Children seem to have little value in a society, any society, some less than others. I'm hoping the former child stars who are coming out with their experiences will call attention to the exploitation of children and eventually something will come of it - Michael Jackson was another one - so it can be stopped or at least diminished. It goes so far as training and indoctrinating children in other countries to fight adult wars. Countless child prostitutes in so many countries. I could rave on and on - - - an attorney friend of mine said once, the only thing worse than murder is rape because that also kills the child's spirit..... that rape also happens when they are exploited in any mannter - I ramble

Gulty pleasures - ahh, still Nip/Tuck - Medium again, and foreign films on pay per veiw - have you by any chance seen Antichrist - ?

generated by sloganizer.net