Collegiate Times

After coming across the Collegiate Times article “Vulgar entertainment does not represent our community” by Brooke Leonard (CT, Nov. 2), a question immediately popped into my mind. The column discusses the entertainment industry and how it has begun to influence society in a negative way. Leonard claims that this degradation affects the reputation of American culture on an international scale, but there is always another way to look at it. This backwards slide Leonard mentions might not be an issue if people would stop to consider that it is our responsibility as individuals to decide what is right and what is wrong for us and those around us.

There exists a famous quote that bluntly states, “One man’s meat is another man’s poison.” As college students, we should be able to comprehend the weight of responsibility we have in regard to “vulgar entertainment.” Take an example from the eve of Halloween on campus: The Rocky Horror Picture Show was played on a projector screen and performed (live re-enactment of the movie) simultaneously at the Commonwealth Ballroom in Squires. The movie revolves around a newly engaged couple that stumbles upon a castle that belongs to a Frank N. Furter. A celebratory feast is to be held as Dr. Frank has just created the “perfect being,” which is a parody of the science fiction movie Frankenstein. The movie is centered on passion and lust. A friend of mine down the hall, being brought up in a conservative family, left the show five minutes into it because she felt highly uncomfortable, whereas the rest of us stayed throughout the movie. The thing to be noted here is that there will always be a difference in opinion, but one must know what he finds acceptable and act accordingly if it does not cause discomfort to him and the people around him. As both high- and low-grade material will always have some degree of an appreciable audience, we as educated individuals must be cognizant of what we let influence us from this point on in our lives.

One must also consider that content played by readily accessible mediums such as television and the radio is censored for curse words or scenes considered as inappropriate by today’s societal standards. It is thus reasonable to conclude that those with exposure to questionable content have to some degree brought an intellectual or cultural downslide upon themselves. If this is the case, movies, books, magazines and most forms of entertainment thus cannot be held responsible for the way an individual or a society behaves.

Apoorva  Mishra
freshman
biological sciences major