The Fashion Media is a Force for Good

Hedonism can be defined as the pursuit of pleasure (Moore, 2004). In seeking pleasure, people often resort to sources of entertainment, such as the fashion media, which to some respect offers temporary relief from the “immediate proximate emotional and physical reality” (Gilroy-Ware, 2017). In the twenty-first-century people are constantly bombarded by an overflow of information from the media over various platforms and mediums, and of various subjects. Much of the information that is accessible, such as international and political news, can be negative in nature; adding stressors to those which already exist as a direct result of an individual’s everyday life. Consequently, these debilitating feelings of fear, self-loathing, and unhappiness that occur as a direct result of this overwhelming exposure to negative information and experiences regarding both society and the self, push people to hedonism. However, the fashion media in particular behaves as a force for good. Acting as a sort of cushion for truth, access to fashion media provides this coveted escape from reality into a world which superficially promises art, luxury, beauty, and frivolity. Some argue that this blanket of comfort, however, is inherently bad because it may obscure reality. Yet, this also makes life livable for many and provides them with the pleasures which they seek. Evidently, fashion media as a force for good provides comfort to the masses as hedonism prevails. By analyzing recent statistics of media usage and the motivations behind it, as well as examining the ideas theorized by Byung-Chul Han in Good Entertainment, Lauren Berlant in Cruel Optimism, and Marcus Gilroy Ware in Filling the Void: Emotion Capitalism & Social Media, this essay will discuss the positive influence the fashion media has by providing distraction and escape to the public when reality presents itself as cruel.

Fashion affects and is consequently affected by happenings in the world, but much of the fashion media does not regard such happenings in so much seriousness. Though fashion is not necessarily always frivolous, it may to some respect be considered at least to sugar-coat reality. At times, fashion media ignores what is considered serious in its entirety with content such as trend updates or catwalk reviews – however, to reiterate, fashion is not continuously superficial. Nevertheless, when fashion is not serious, as it often is not – in comparison to other media – people seek to ignore what occurs in proximity to the self and to the world by looking to fashion media.

In a 2018 report, Neilson (2018) found that adults were spending over 11 hours per day interacting with the media in general; up from the 3 hours a day reported by Mintel in 2017 (Wilson, 2018). From these statistics alone, it is clear that people are turning to the media to an extent which could considered by some to be excessive.

Matt Haig (2017), in an opinion piece for the Guardian actually compares the addictive qualities of social media in particular, to the addictiveness of tobacco – which contains nicotine; an extremely addictive depressant. Similarly, James Wilson (2018) explains that media platforms are becoming even more addictive as the technologies they use advance and develop in pursuit of keeping users engaged. This portrays a capitalist perspective on the media, in that it is a commodity which must keep users engaged in order for it to survive.

Haig also claims to have made friends online. This pertains to the notion that media can act as a means of socializing – which ultimately leads to the well-being of the self – like Edwards and Fox (2018) discuss in an article for NBC News. The article expresses a growing lack of interest in real, face-to-face interactions (Edwards and Fox, 2018).

Coyne et al. (2020), suggests that the motivation for this extreme exposure to the media, “involves escapism and diversion from everyday life… [One] may turn to… [the] media as a form of escapism, perhaps to numb emotional pain.” (Coyne et al, 2020). In his book, Filling the Void: Emotion, Capitalism & Social Media, Marcus Gilroy-Ware (2017) supports this notion by arguing that people interact with the media as a means to provide emotional regulation to their emotional distresses. He adds, “unhappiness and emptiness cause people to seek salve, comfort, and fulfillment.” (Gilroy Ware, 2017) In seeking this comfort he writes, “hedonism is often about using distractions to escape,” and that the stimuli provided by the media are “not unlike escape”. As such, it is likely that hedonism as a form of escapism is the motivation which drives many to interact with the general media, as well as the fashion media.

In Cruel Optimism, Lauren Berlant (2011) argues that our attraction to media as entertainment, though not inherently cruel, may in fact impede our flourishment. She describes this attraction as one to “fantasies of improvement”. Ultimately, she concludes that distraction and escape as an object of desire is solely an obstacle to success within the self. Though this opposes the hypothesis presented, it expresses a viewpoint that at the same time solidifies the argument that fashion media is a force for good, by stating that the reasoning for attraction to the media is one similar to that of hedonism where ultimately people desire something which is better than their current reality.

Berlant also explores ideas about the ways in which these ‘fantasies’ may actually provide a sort of ease to life. It is most certain that the fashion media can be compared to these, “fantasies of improvement” due to the lifestyle it often presents, and which people often desire. The fashion industry is commonly perceived as a place of glamour. For many it projects a lifestyle worthy of this desire. As such, viewing fashion media, which is readily available to the general public, can feel like a temporary release from the real world in all its imposing seriousness.

In Good Entertainment, the philosopher and cultural theorist Byung-Chul Han examines contemporary entertainment and argues that entertainment – from the mass media – is not only good, but healthy. Han (2019, p. 59) quotes Immanuel Kant in the Critique of Judgement, who cites Voltaire as saying: “heaven has given us two things to compensate us for the many miseries of life, hope and sleep”; to which Han adds, “ and good entertainment”. This suggests that entertainment can act as an escape from the realities of everyday life. The fashion media is a source of “good entertainment” which in turn works to express an immediate and temporary distraction from that which could be considered to be the “miseries of life”. Han (2019, p. 85) writes, “media make people blind. They generate a world without witnessing. They do not bear witness to reality. They falsify and deflect the world.” Han concludes that ”entertainment is an unburdening of being that generates pleasure”. This is inherently what people desire. In conversation, the artist Paul Cezanne is famously quoted as saying: “Life is terrifying! …I want to die painting… to die painting.” (Han, 2019. p. 45). From this, it may be interpreted that Cezanne sought escape from life through his chosen method of entertainment – painting. Cezanne is only one example, of the individual which desires escape, of many more. Behaviour such as his is not uncommon in people living presently, which the ideas presented by Coyne, et al. and Gilroy-Ware prove.

In conclusion, the statistics regarding media usage and the reasons for this as presented by Coyne, et al. and Gilroy-Ware show that people engage with the media as a means for escapism and ultimately hedonism. Furthermore, the ideas suggested by Byung-Chul Han and Lauren Berlant discuss the positive influence that the media in general, and specifically the fashion media has. As a result of this, it is undeniable that the fashion media is a force for good. Escapism through entertainment by the fashion media conclusively provides for a life made liveable.

Bibliography

• Berlant, L. (2011) Cruel Optimism. Durham and London: Duke University Press.

• Coyne, S. Rogers, A. Zurcher, J. Stockdale, L. Booth, M. (2020) Does Time Spent Using Social Media Impact Mental Health?: An Eight Year Longitudinal Study. Computers in human Behaviour. Vol. 104

• Edwards, E. Fox, M. (2018) More Teens Addicted to Social Media, Prefer Texting to Talking, NBC. 10 September. Available at: https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/more-teens-addicted-social-media-say-they-re-wise-distractions-n908126 (Accessed: 2 January 2020)

• Gilroy-Ware, M. (2017) Filling the Void: Emotion, Capitalism & Social Media. London: Duncan Baird Publishers.

• Haig, M. (2017) I Used to Think Social Media was a Force for Good. Now the Evidence Says I was Wrong, The Gaurdian. 6 September. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/sep/06/social-media-good-evidence-platforms-insecurities-health (Accessed: 2 January 2020)

• Han, B. (2019) Good Entertainment. London: The Mid Press.

• Moore, A. (2014) Hedonism. Available at: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/hedonism/ (Accessed: 30 December 2019)

• Neilson (2018) The Nielsen Total Audience Report: Q1 2018. Available at: https://www.nielsen.com/us/en/insights/report/2018/q1-2018-total-audience-report/ (Accessed: 1 January 2020)

• Wilson, J. (2018) Irish Consumers See Social Media as a Distraction from Real Life. Available at: https://www.mintel.com/blog/technology-market-news/irish-consumers-see-social-media-as-a-distraction-from-real-life (Accessed: 1 January 2020)