Voyeurism is the act of seeing or gazing at something or some behavior that ordinarily one is not supposed to be looking at. In ordinary life, we are supposed to avoid looking at those things deemed private by others. Sexual activity in particular is supposed to be off limits.
Yeah, sure. Media allows us access to many things deemed private in the past. Not only are the most explicit sexual activities available for viewing online but the advent of reality shows encourages us to look at the "psychsocial interior" of families and the interaction of strangers, often escalating towards anger or sexual interaction. Put that together with the the fact that we also live in a surveillance society, with cameras everywhere, online activities easily traceable, etc. and it's clear to me that looking and gazing at the forbidden has become central to our culture (and not just popular culture).
I was reminded f this the other day when I bought a copy of "Philadelphia" magazine which had what I thought was going to be an article on the Phillies and their prospects for the upcoming season (I am a very enthusiastic fan). What I discovered when I opened it up were two articles. The first was not so much an article as pictures of top members of team standing in the locker room, with a little celebratory paragraph next to each, singing their praises and how good they looked! The second article was on the wives of (certain) players. This was straight out of the fan magazines kind of stuff--what they did with their time, how they dealt with their husband/player's moods, etc. It seemed trivial but I found myself fascinated. Examining my own feelings, I began to wonder if this really was a kind of implicit voyeurism. Was I hoping to hear about something more salacious? Or was this giving me the opportunity to fantasize about the sex lives of these ball players? Then I began to wonder about celebrity in general and whether it's fascination was based, at least in part, on the opportunity to fantasize about the sexual lives of whatever celebrity I'm focused on.
Well, of course, it can't be just that. What I mostly fantasize about consciously is having the money and the stuff money can buy that many celebrities seem to have and what I would do if had that money and all that stuff. But I suspect that voyeurism is always in the picture somehow.
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Dr. Bob,
ReplyDeleteOne example we see today that gives us a clear insight into people's lives and easy access to voyeuristic activity is MTV's The Real World. The Real World has been on MTV for since May 21, 1992. On The Real World (which we must question how "real" this Real World actually is) we get to observe a group of seven to eight people, previously unknown to each other, living in a house together for about a month.
Whenever there is a preview for an upcoming show, we are either shown a scene with a fight or a scene with two or more people "hooking up" to spark out interest and get us to come back. This is clearly driven by human instinct to be attracted to voyeurism. This form of media is successful based purely on our attraction to watch what would normally be private. The media has learned how to take human interest in voyeurism and make money off of it. MTV has certainly discovered a formula that works, seeing as The Real World just finished its 23rd season with its 24th already in production.