Tropes'R'us - do movie tropes influence our way of thinking
February 13, 2017 at 4:34 am
(This post was last modified: February 13, 2017 at 4:40 am by Alex K.)
If you think of resuscitation attempts, you probably have a vivid picture of the following scenario in your mind: a victim of drowning, a gun shot or a heart attack is lying on the floor being all dead.
A desperate hero/loved one is hitting the chest a few times, possibly applying improvised electro shocks until EITHER they are dragged away after 30 seconds by bystanders who will say something along the lines of "He's gone", the rescuer then yelling "noooooo"; OR the patient suddenly wakes up from the shock, and in case of drowning, coughs up a few pints of water before passionately kissing the rescuer.
Now, these scenes are horribly unrealistic to an extent that most of them would count as malpractise/manslaughter, not least because helpers are pressured by bystanders to surrender to fate waaaay to early from a medical stand point, delivering in my opinion an absolutely toxic moral and medical lesson in the guise of a lazy dramaturgical solution.
Now, if resuscitation is regularly shown on TV and in movies in such a trope-ey misleading manner that it gives the casual viewer potentially harmful misconceptions about the reality of first aid, what other things do we as consumers get hammered in our heads every day, that subtly fill us with dangerous misconceptions about how life works, which we internalize without even realizing it
- how relationships and sex work
- how politics and the state work
etc.
My concern is that a large portion of the population is basing their thought patterns and especially gut decisions on fictional tropes they learned from made-up stories.
Do you think I have a point? Do you have some more examples?
A desperate hero/loved one is hitting the chest a few times, possibly applying improvised electro shocks until EITHER they are dragged away after 30 seconds by bystanders who will say something along the lines of "He's gone", the rescuer then yelling "noooooo"; OR the patient suddenly wakes up from the shock, and in case of drowning, coughs up a few pints of water before passionately kissing the rescuer.
Now, these scenes are horribly unrealistic to an extent that most of them would count as malpractise/manslaughter, not least because helpers are pressured by bystanders to surrender to fate waaaay to early from a medical stand point, delivering in my opinion an absolutely toxic moral and medical lesson in the guise of a lazy dramaturgical solution.
Now, if resuscitation is regularly shown on TV and in movies in such a trope-ey misleading manner that it gives the casual viewer potentially harmful misconceptions about the reality of first aid, what other things do we as consumers get hammered in our heads every day, that subtly fill us with dangerous misconceptions about how life works, which we internalize without even realizing it
- how relationships and sex work
- how politics and the state work
etc.
My concern is that a large portion of the population is basing their thought patterns and especially gut decisions on fictional tropes they learned from made-up stories.
Do you think I have a point? Do you have some more examples?
The fool hath said in his heart, There is a God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good.
Psalm 14, KJV revised edition
