Of course without the media attention, these issues would probably not be brought to the attention of the public. If the media didn't publish that Heidi Montag had ten surgical procedures in one day, then the possibility is that we would not know about it, and then maybe girls wouldn’t feel the need or pressure to copy her in order to 'follow her trend'.
Because of the way in which the media publicises celebrities, surgery and the pressures on to the general public it produces false class consciousness, a false picture of the nature of the relationship between the social classes is created. We believe that celebrities are above us in the hierarchical structure therefore to be any way like them; we have to follow what they do. By doing so the classes are unaware of the true nature of the oppression and exploitation and they accept status quo.
Linked to this is the nature of popular culture. Pop culture such as the media and celebrities may seem to offer us freedom of choice and self expression, but Adorno believed that this was an illusion. We enjoy the feeling that we are finding expressions for our own individual emotions and needs but in reality we are simply imitating others e.g. celebrities. Our consumption of pop culture makes us more docile, apathetic and passive, in return making us more vulnerable to manipulation by ruling class ideology. Marxism believes that the mass media is owned by the ruling class hence why we are oppressed by it and sucked in to believing what we are told or shown is true.
Feminist Naomi Wolf stated in her book The Beauty Myth, that 'perfect bodies' are glamorized by fashion, advertising and the cult of celebrities. She says that it is a patriarchical attack on women who are supposed to represent timeless cultural fantasies of beauty, not fake plastic inch-thin models.
Wolf also spoke about what she called the 'Surgical Age'. She described it as human rights abuse to women. We are put through hunger, nausea and surgical invasions in order to look the same way that celebrities do. She states that the media use these as political weapons against women.
She goes on to say that women are sensitive to the signals that institutions such as the media, advertising and celebrity cult send out referring to what we have to do with our 'beauty' to survive, for example having surgery, Botox etc. Wolf believes that surgery represses and controls women and that to be noticed we need to have it.
