Kosher Media
Recently, Rebecca Klempner wrote about her changing views on American mainstream media in her article “The Force Isn’t with Me Anymore” (12/16/2015). In her review of the new Star Wars movie for Tablet magazine she discusses her fanaticism for sci-fi, untempered since her youth, contrasting her waning desire for mainstream movies – even Star Wars. She cites the same menaces we all drag out when talking about media: gratuitous violence, objectification of women, bad language, glorification of promiscuity, and rampant materialism. What makes her article unique, however, is that, rather than kvetching about the lack of good movies these days or the sorry state of Hollywood, she responded to the negative feelings she had when leaving the theater by deciding to take a pause – no more movies, no more TV.
It is curious that the words we use to describe media are words we use to describe our relationship to food – we binge watch series on Netflix, we have a media diet, we’re fed a steady stream of media, we consume media, there is media consumption, we are media consumers. Eating connotes taking something in, digesting it – which is to say assimilating it, and making it a part of ourselves. Ms. Kempner keenly observes in her article the “immersive quality” of media that makes viewers “swallow their worldview whole”. Swallow. As a media psychologist, I concur. For a host of psychological reasons it is difficult for us to retain total intellectual and emotional distance in front of the screen. And this leads to my point: We talk about media consumption, perhaps it is time to designate kosher media.
As Jews there are things we refuse to consume. When discussing pork, for example, we refuse to consume it because of what it represents: pigs are animals that are kosher on the outside (cloven hooves) but treif on the inside (one stomach). In other words, we refuse to consume hypocrisy – appearing perfect on the outside but dishonest on the inside. We make these choices with our foods knowing that there is no such thing as the insignificant – each choice we make with our body determines the direction of our heads and hearts. So what about media?
I side with Ms. Klempner on the difficulty to let go of the idea of the great afternoon movie escape. I, too, spent my childhood dazzled by movies and the worlds they opened to me. Maybe I’ve grown up, maybe I’ve become more observant, or maybe movies have digressed. Either way, I no longer leave the theater buoyant with ideas, but rather depressed with worries about the state of the world, and the state of humanity and it’s thin, 2-dimensional conceptions of relationships. And as a psychologist I know too well the effect this has on my own inner well-being as well as on those around me. The world can be difficult or beautiful – if I am consciously submitting myself to a depressed or negative state then I am detracting, not adding, to what is possible.
We wonder today why the world is spiraling into an ever-increasing state of anxiety, aggression, loneliness, confusion, and violence. Certainly, media is not the sole culprit. However, from the Jewish perspective, what we eat can and does influence what we become. As a psychologist, phenomenon like mirror neurons insist that we experience the same feelings as other humans that we watch, whether they are really in front of us or acting on a screen. Every sad face, every anguished cry, is viscerally felt and registered by our brains as if it were happening directly to us. Their despair becomes our despair.
On the other hand, emotions like happiness have been shown to be equally contagious. Eating kosher is about discernment – some foods are fit to eat, others are not. The act of determining which ones and why is part of the process of directing our thoughts and actions; reflection itself is a pause. If media is merely mirroring the world as it is, then perhaps a discussion of kosher media is even more necessary to give us time to reflect and change the world so that future media can mirror a more positive reality.
Facing the “Oscar season”, the old habits of reading reviews and getting excited for double feature Sundays beckons. But while many films in that group may be inspiring, or intellectually or artistically stimulating, others will not. Knowing the cognitive power of images, I, personally, will be differentiating between kosher and non-kosher in my media diet. I prefer to walk around with my own thoughts and emotions without the disturbance of ideas, perspectives, and scenarios that I find indigestible. And like Ms. Klempner, I might go totally retro and hit the library.
