It's just me.

“Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people.” —Eleanor Roosevelt

Not too long ago I began a little hobby of creating a quote book.  It’s not your ordinary quote book.  Well, it is in one sense.  I have assembled quotes that have meaning to me, my beliefs, and who I strive to be.  I’d say that’s pretty common to the quote books I’ve seen out yonder.  However, what makes my quote book different from what I have previously seen is my method of making it. I decided to cut words and letters out of magazines that I own to capture these quotes in my book. This way I have a colorful and dissimilar view of each new entry, which tends to go with my general way of doing things.

Today I proceeded to enter in my book the quote that can be read above.  Eleanor Roosevelt is my favorite person to quote.  Her words tend to hold great value in my worldview.  This quote is of specific significance, especially on a day like today, when an idea popped into my head. 

As I was flipping through the pages of these magazines that I owned, it first occurred to me that all of the magazines were catered towards women.  I say that these magazines target women because there are fashion sections, which assess women dressed in gowns most generally; there are fitness sections, which cover women toning up their bodies (particularly the butt, the stomach, and the legs); and random sections that resemble how-to’s.  These how-to’s generally are how-to live or dress like a celebrity.  Who are the celebrities that are most often chosen? Women. These all address an audience that typically associates with the socially influenced gender role, female.

Secondly, these magazines that I own are all popular culture magazines. I say pop culture magazines because they cover the most popular forms of entertainment within the US—movies, music, the livelihood of celebrities. They are also the magazines which appear at the check-out line of every grocery store. To me, the most popular magazines appear here. Whether it’s the check-out line that makes them popular, or they are there because they are the most bought, is an entirely separate story. Rest assured, though, I have yet to meet a person who does not know the magazine, People. These are the magazines I buy and have an entertaining time reading. I’m guilty of being a member of the demographic that follows and am an active participant in popular culture, and I like it!

However, when I went to quote the mastermind of Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt, I found myself terribly frustrated.  You see, I started my hobby rather lazily, hoping to find complete words instead of cutting out individual letters.  I figured this would save me time, so that I could quickly get quotes down in my book.  To my surprise today, however, I was having the most difficult time finding the words “mind,” “idea,” and “discuss.”  Instead, I lost count of how many times I saw the words “beauty”, “skin,” and vocabulary focusing on losing weight and toning the body. Therefore, begrudgingly (since I could not be as lazy as I originally wanted), I had to cut out each individual letter to create about 95% of my quote. The only two words of my entry that were as a whole were “great” and “people.”  “Great” I got from a Diet Coke ad that was advertising a “great” beverage because of its taste without the calories, and “people” I got straight from the magazine title itself!

The magazines that I turn to for entertainment and knowledge about my everyday popular culture did not include some words that I associate with intellect, such as “mind” and “idea”.  Instead, just as the self-titled magazine proposes, people are talked about rather than ideas.  I even noticed that the language in which these articles were written appear simplified.  Places where the word “idea” could easily be used were replaced by “tip.”  Instead of using the word “discuss,” I’d see “talk about.” A unique vernacular consistently appeared throughout the text of these magazines that so many people read. I began thinking about the possible implications this has on our culture, even though culture is such a vast word by definition.

I hope that no one confuses this observation for a judgment against the popular culture magazines. I was merely counting words that I saw and bouncing them against the thesaurus I had in my head. What I did find with the quantity of words that target the body, definitions of beauty, and the exterior discussion of people, is that there appears to be a disassociation with the mind from the body. I began asking myself questions, as a 23-year-old woman who is an active participant in this culture as well as an academic. Does the language of these magazines serve a purpose? Do the words in here reveal an underlying message about how institutions may view and value this target market? If these magazines that I am reading target women, do magazines that target men have similar features? Do male-audience magazines focus on the physicality of men, how beauty is defined, and the discussion of famous people? Now this is something worth looking at.

Here’s what I know, or rather what I have processed through my thought tank (a.k.a. my brain).  Communication is an imperative aspect of culture. The way of life of individuals relies on the communication of values, rituals, customs, whether it be verbal or non-verbal. Communication is how culture is transferred.  A subset of communication is language, typically associated with verbal communication. However, there is such thing as body language or “unspoken” language that has just as much effect as what is spoken. An even more acute subset of language is words. English is spoken throughout the world.  However, there are different dialects, accents, and vernaculars. Even more specifically, cultures can choose to highlight as well as refrain from using certain words.  While each word holds a specific meaning, there is a greater understanding which can be unveiled when looking at why specific vocabulary is chosen.  If one were to strip away all accents of the world and everyone spoke English in the exact same tone, what would make cultures distinct is the choice of words. When all else is equal, vocabulary can have a strong impact as a facet of culture.

If vocabulary can be studied as a means for understanding distinct cultures (not in their entirety, of course), it’s fair to say that it can be used to analyze the varieties of sub-cultures within one nationality. The female gender is targeted with these magazines.  As popular culture magazines, they are meant to represent what is, well, deemed popular to the US general culture. Within these magazines, there is a strong emphasis on the gossip of celebrities, as well as a critique of the female body and what is beautiful. The discussion of theories, ideas, as well as the demonstration of females improving their minds (instead of their bodies) are absent.

This is not a declaration that things need to change. I understand that spheres of culture are kept separate and that the purpose of variety is to cater to different tastes. Not every magazine needs to discuss world news or theories developing in astrophysics. However, as a 23-year-old woman who is implicated by the culture in which I live, what sparked my interest is that the magazines that I have discussed are what have been socially and economically deemed popular. If these magazines represent what is popular, then my observations from reading the magazines are as follows: it is popular opinion that the mind and the body are not united entities, but rather separate; the body receives more attention than the mind (and one could argue that because of this, the body is being presented as having more worth than the mind); and that these messages are channeled through the female gender, expressing a “popular” view of femininity.

As I made these observations, I wondered what Eleanor Roosevelt would say. The discussion of people in magazines is one of the most sought after ways of receiving entertainment. However, ideas on the growth of humanity and intellect do not make the shelves of the check-out line in grocery stores. Based on the quote and what I’ve observed from a facet of popular culture, I’m curious if my generation has moved towards a way of living that finds fostering “small minds” (as Mrs. Roosevelt states) more socially acceptable. This is when I wish I could sit down and talk to her myself! I personally know that greatness lies beyond the pages of tabloids, the appearance of my body, and whether or not my life resembles that of a celebrity. Can everyone who is also an active participant of popular culture make that assertion, though? Or am I part of a minority?