O Beautiful, For Spacious Minds?

So many things in our media today are glamorized and made to appeal to an audience that is used to being entertained. While it was not the choice of CNN as to how the inaugural proceedings of President Obama played out, I do believe that so many political and social issues are made out to be more entertaining than they are so that we as a public pay more attention to them. While we may laugh as James Taylor sings a song between the swearing in of the Vice-President and President, his performance is something that keeps us watching. If there were just speeches and constitutionally mandated measures, I honestly think that fewer people would tune into the entire inauguration. Today, a day after the ceremony, I looked online and one of the top stories was that Beyonce possibly lip-sang the national anthem. While some may consider this to be an incredibly offensive thing and easy to talk about in a global or national setting, it really shouldn’t be the most important thing taken away from such an event. Few people concentrate on what is being said at the ceremony and look more at the bells and whistles that make it look pretty. There are far more important things that our society should be taking away from this, and I think that is what the Global Feminist Network would concentrate on.

If the GFN were broadcasting this, I think their primary focus would be on what the President had to say about things like “anyone can succeed in America even a little girl born into poverty”
or “the journey is not complete until wives, mothers, and daughters can earn an equal living” or “our gay brothers and sisters can marry”. Some can argue that a lot has to be done before this can happen, but as the GFN, they would concentrate on the fact that the idea and goal is in place. Rather than presenting the appearances of celebrities as something great, they would concentrate on people like the civil rights leader Myrlie Evers. To stray away from the typical news broadcast, the GFN would try to show their viewers that there are real issues in the world that should be put first rather than what and who can entertain us the longest.