Fat jokes & popular culture indoctrination

When I was growing up, I watched a lot of TV. Growing Pains, Family Ties, and to a lesser extent the Cosby Show, Roseanne & the Wonder Years.

For me, those shows modeled what families were supposed to be like -- two parents, 2-3 kids, and problems that could be solved in less than half an hour. As the oldest of three kids, I particlarly identified with Kirk Cameron's Mike Seaver and Michael J. Fox's Alex Keaton.

These shows influenced my perceptions, and in doing so they influenced my behavior. As time has gone by, though, I can see how some behaviors were unhealthy.

Growing Pains, for example, utilized fat jokes for recurring laughs. And a lot of those jokes were directed at the middle sister character played by Tracey Gold.

That was destructive. Due in part to that role and her other work, Tracey Gold grew to have a distorted view of herself and developed an eating disorder.
I have been destructive, too. I have made fat jokes at others' expense. Why? Because I imitated behaviors that I accepted as normal. Sadly, others have paid the price for that.

Some people look back with nostalgia at the pop culture they grew up with. I, however, do not.

So as time goes by and younger generations find newer forms of entertainment, newer books to cherish, and newer jokes to laugh at, I am OK with that.

The things I grew up with are not sacred. The things that shaped me do not have to shape my daughter.

And the things that warped me should stay where they belong -- in the past, as nothing more than a curious footnote of history. Let better things take their place.