Is Society of Spectacle a Window or a Mirror to Reality?

My daughter’s essay:

Is Society of Spectacle a Window or a Mirror to Reality?

 

Fernanda Ruiz Ríos

 

Introducción a la Sociología

Universidad de Monterrey (Unidad San Pedro)

November 27, 2017

 

Abstract.

Statistically, 96% of the women that go clubbing regularly are sexually harassed at some point, but statistics of sexual assault are often misleading and inaccurate because most women are afraid to speak up. But lately, the media is experiencing a boom of allegations against male public figures, so sexual harassment is receiving a wide and unusual amount of coverage. The purpose of this essay is to analyze how such things as rape become ‘real’ when they transform into a spectacle, using a television program called Riverdale as an example of how things are true or not depending if they are a spectacle, and that who gets to decide if it is or not are the richest.

 

Key words/concepts.

Sexual assault. Mass society. Society of spectacle. Sexual harassment. Privilege. Reality. Television. Cinematographic industry. Riverdale.

 

Introduction

This narrative was chosen due to its relevance with the current youth (by talking about a popular TV show amongst teenagers and young adults), and due to the phenomenon that is having a way more wide coverage and can be seen clearer than ever, in the small screen and cinematographic industry: sexual assault.

 

A few months ago, several allegations have been filtered to the media, in which victims are deciding to testify against sexual predators highly known in said industry, this explosion of attestations happened because of the Harvey Weinstein effect, that detonated a wave of testimonies of victims of sexual assault towards many public figures, such as Bill Clinton (ex president of the United States), Oscar winner Kevin Spacey, and the Affleck brothers, to name a few; every week there’s a new headline on the news accusing these men, but women in Hollywood, although they are quite enraged (Uma Thurman, Meryl Streep), don’t seem surprised. What happens in the media is only a reflection of what happens every day, demonstrating that sexual harassment is a much more bigger issue than what was contemplated before.

 

Riverdale is a TV series based on the Archie Comics, that acquired popularity right after its pilot, acclaimed by the critic and winner of several Choice Awards. The show has had previously managed controversial themes, such as sexual/child predators, suicide, family abuse and mental disorders. But this time, in its still inconclusive second season, it is shown, in a… ‘opportune’ way, the discourse of men in powerful positions taking advantage of women. And it’s actually opportune since, when filming a particular episode that will be later argued, the allegations against Harvey Weinstein hadn’t been broadcasted yet.

 

This essay will discuss how certain scandals in the media generated a conversation that was being ignored before this wave of allegations against sexual assault in the industry, it will be discussed how such things as rape and paedophilia became relevant only because of the coverage they’re receiving in the society of spectacle; showing that although sexual harassment has been ever since history can remember, and still is currently, an alarming problem, it is only being talked about after they gained headlines because of relevant and public figures. How society is blaming women victims, (by protecting certain male celebrities), of being guilty of sexual assault, theme that will be clearly seen in Riverdale.

 

Spectacle decides what’s ‘real’ and what’s not in the society, but who gets to decide what becomes a spectacle? And what other issues is the world blind to see them as clearly just because they’re not receiving enough coverage? But most importantly which is the line that divides the truth from the false in the society of spectacle?

 

By analyzing Guy Debord’s complicated and pioneer Society of Spectacle. And in a lesser way Timothy Snyder’s analogy between the current president of the United States and the far-right fascists of the 20th century, and its relationship with the spectrum of what to believe in a time where truth has no value over rapid and cheap information; it will be shown how issues only exist in the eyes of the masses only when they’re being broadcasted and have relevance.

 

Shortly, spectacle means the mass media, which are “its most glaring superficial manifestation.” (Debord, 1994). The critique of spectacle is the development and put-into-practice the Karl Marx’s concept of fetishism of commodities, reification and alienation. In the society of spectacle, the commodities rule the masses instead of being ruled by them, the consumers are passive subjects that contemplate the reified spectacle that they take for granted, it is a reality in which the ‘show’ has a bigger impact in the masses than the truth.

 

Text analysis.

Three weeks ago, episode five of the second season of the popular american-canadian TV series, Riverdale, aired; following the narrative that continued after the first season finale: there’s a murderer on the loose, and he won’t stay inactive for a long time. Nevertheless, in episode five a new villain is introduced: Nick St. Clair, Veronica Lodge’s (a main character) old friend who helps as a reminder of the type of person she was in New York. Nick openly flirts with Veronica, doesn’t matter if her boyfriend is standing right beside him, and encourages the group to use drugs. These aren’t the reasons though why his character is hated amongst the people who follow the series, but because he is a serial rapist.

 

Nick not just only tried to force himself on Veronica, but then, after being pushed away and rejected, he moves on to another target: Cheryl Blossom, who suffers from depression and attempted to kill herself in the season one finale. Cheryl flirts with him at a gala of the Lodge’s, not knowing what the situation was between him and Veronica. While they small talk, he turns around to grab a glass of champagne, and when she’s not watching, he drops a pill in the liquor, and hands it to her. When the drug starts to make effect on her, Nick takes Cheryl to his room, where he throws her to his bed, and starts getting undressed.

 

    Now, several people via social media, –and which is worse– women blamed Cheryl for flirting with him, as seen in the picture, this shows how society shames woman of ‘provoking’ sexual assault because it’s easier, it’s more comfortable to teach girls not to dress ‘inappropriately’, than teaching boys that outfits are not guarantee of sexual consent. What happened in this sequence is an example of “In societies where modern conditions of production prevail, all of life presents itself as an immense accumulation of spectacles. Everything that was directly lived has moved away into a representation.” (Debord, 1967), for Cheryl’s life became a series of spectacles, even before Nick, but it was him whom orchestrated what came after, because it doesn’t matter that not only blaming Cheryl Blossom of being assaulted is sexist, but it doesn’t matter that an attack of this kind can’t ever be justified, it doesn’t matter in a world where, according to Oscar Wilde, “everything is about sex, except sex, sex is about power”, and who has the more power? White-rich males, just like Nick St. Clair.

 

Guy Debord writes: “He will essentially follow the language of the spectacle, for it is the only one he is familiar with.” (Debord, 1988). Drugs are a part of the commodities and, in certain social interactions, the rule of the spectacle; it isn’t a secret how the massification phenomenon has allowed it to be easier to find drugs and use them in every social environment, but it also has normalized them. Nick doesn’t hesitate in letting the pill drop, he doesn’t show remorse simply because he isn’t aware of the consequences of his actions, the massification rules the way he thinks of drugs, instead of building an opinion by himself, to consider drug use ‘normal’ is a commodity that Nick loves to exploit.

 

Cheryl is eventually rescued by Veronica before it came to actual rape, and differentiating itself from other CW shows, in Riverdale, Veronica actually talks to her parents in order to help Cheryl, and then they tell Cheryl’s mother. Nonetheless, she doesn’t believe her, she tells Veronica’s parents that her daughter is exaggerating, that she only is seeking attention and to make everything about herself, her own mother said nothing happened to her, and the worst part is that Cheryl believes it, at least for a moment. Veronica, who was with her that morning, tells her she’s sorry her mom doesn’t believe her, then she answers: “Don’t be silly. I’m used to it. And besides, you heard what Mommy said: nothing really happened to me.” (CW’s Riverdale, 2017). Timothy Snyder points out:  

 

“To abandon facts is to abandon freedom. If nothing is true, then no one can criticize power because there is no basis upon which to do so. If nothing is true, then all is spectacle. The biggest wallet pays for the most blinding lights.” T. Snyder, 2016.

 

Cheryl abandoned her voice, she abandoned herself, because she believed what her mother said, she believed nothing was wrong, that she was just looking for attention and scandal, she believed her own spectacle, locking herself up in the idea that reality didn’t happened at all, and therefore Nick’s power couldn’t be criticized.

 

Penelope (Cheryl’s mother) has  a history with bad parenting, when her daughter was showing signs of depression (justifiably, for she lost her brother by his father’s gun, and then with her father killing himself), she asked Penelope if she could stay home, because she was exhausted of acting like if everything was fine, but her mother didn’t care, just as she appears to don’t care about her daughter being a victim of assault. It is written “appears” because later on, as the episode goes by, Penelope tells Cheryl that the St. Clair’s bought her silence, demonstrating how social constructions rule the way people live, even when they’re privileged like the Blossoms, it acts like a law in which the richest are the ones with power, and that the power controls the spectacle, according to Guy Debord: “(…) the spectacle epitomizes the prevailing model of social life. It is the omnipresent celebration of a choice already made in the sphere of production.” (Debord, 1994).

 

Following Debord’s Society of Spectacle, he states that “In a world that really has been turned on its head, truth is a moment of falsehood.” (Debord, 1994). When Cheryl confronts Nick, (he entered in the cafeteria she was, failed to remember her name, and asked her ‘what’s up?’) he tells her: “You were high, half-naked and begging for it.” And to most people in town, he is telling the truth, although he was the one who without her knowledge dropped a pill in her drink making her unable to speak (that includes begging), and the one who undressed her in the first place. Nick twists up the truth to transform it into falsehood, and the spectacle that the whole town believes into the undeniable truth.  

 

And by talking about Timothy Snyder’s perception, he says: “If nothing is true, then all is spectacle. The biggest wallet pays for the most blinding lights.” (Snyder, 2016), which is the remembrance of the check the St. Clair’s gave to Penelope, the biggest wallet are the rich and powerful, the blinding lights are the lies turned into truths that they pay for. In the picture Nick is facing Cheryl, telling her that he did no wrong; well, earlier in this essay it is stated that Nick is a serial rapist even though both of his attempts (that are known of) failed, and that his parents protected his actions by paying for Penelope’s silence, which is clear evidence of other blinding lights: ‘protecting’ Nick is seen as good parenting, when in reality, they’re only hurting him more by not teaching him that actions have consequences and that sexually assaulting a girl it’s not only terribly wrong, but a crime.

According to Guy Debord “Nay, sacredness is held to be enhanced in proportion as truth decreases and illusion increases, so that the highest degree of illusion comes to be the highest degree of sacredness.” (Debord, 1994). When Cheryl asks her mother to defend her, to care about her, Penelope still defends this idea of sacredness, of purity, that the Blossoms are still untouchable and the fact that Cheryl was assaulted is unfathomable in her mind because to her, Cheryl is still the head-cheerleader that seeks attention and Penelope wants her to stay that way, it reminds her of her sacred golden boy that his dead son was, Cheryl’s depression and post-traumatic stress disorder is the living reminder of the darkest chapter of Penelope’s life, she’s what keeps trying to pull Penelope back to reality, to the unholy reality that his son is dead by his husband’s gun. So she would rather deny the truth, she would rather ignore that her daughter is a victim of harassment (as seen in the picture), in order to stay in her tiny little-comfortable box of sacredness.

 

And as a contradiction that spectacle is falsehood, Debord isn’t closed up to the idea that spectacle can be real, too. To reality, spectacle can be either a window opened to falsehood, or a mirror, that shows and mimics the tumors and flaws of society, by saying: “(…) reality erupts within the spectacle, and the spectacle is real.” (Debord, 1994). With this boom of allegations against sexual offenders, more people have been encouraged to speak up, the society of spectacle is generating a change in reality, as much as it did in Riverdale. Veronica, by seeing what Cheryl was going through and that nobody but Veronica and three of her friends believed her, decided to tell her parents.

 

Personal reflection and discussion.

Truth is sexual abuse coming from males in powerful positions isn’t unique to Hollywood, it’s just that that is the only place in which both victims and perpetrators are of ‘public interest’ for the media. If a victim isn’t relevant they become just ‘one more’, more of an statistic than a person, a minor problem that if it is or not solved it doesn’t matter because they’re not real in the eyes of the media. And it’s not only about sexual harassment, it’s about a lot of things; most people don’t know about the Rwandan genocide in which almost a million people died, because the media didn’t care enough. Most newspapers would rather write about if three members of the Kardashian clan are pregnant than if a black boy got shot by a white cop for doing nothing because that’s what the masses care about, the masses care more about Kylie Jenner’s lip kit than they do about police brutality.

 

Answering the main approach of this essay, society of spectacle is both a window and a mirror, the masses do both: relate to and reject different aspects of the spectacle, right now people are more actively against sexual harassment than ever, but it also sparks misogynistic ideas (in my community, like the cardenal Sandoval scandal) in which actions are justified by blaming woman.

 

Throughout the essay it was clear that the richest are the ones who decide what becomes a spectacle, but also that the masses are the ones who enhance it, if no one were to buy Kylie’s lip kit, would it become part of the spectacle at all? Truth is no. The powerful decides what our commodities and new ‘needs’ are, but the masses are the consumers. It is extremely difficult to see the issues we’re being blinded from just because they’re not receiving enough coverage, reading actual academic and periodistic articles help, but those come in short supply in a world where Twitter exists; but in reality, I believe we choose to be blind, we all know there’s hunger, we all know there’s war, we all know there’s discrimination, but what are the masses doing about it? Dying kids are right in front of our eyes, you don’t need to go as far to Africa, women are being harassed in schools, here in our state, there’s hunger in our cities and yet we choose to keep watching our cell phones, we still choose to do nothing about it.

 

By doing this essay I’ve learned the danger of believing the spectacle, but also the danger of ignoring it, it is hard to know where the line between true and false stands, and where it becomes blurry, in the society of spectacle. I was always told not to believe everything I saw, but to find the information and build my own opinion for myself, but if the information is corrupted, what can I do to know what to believe? The answer lies in the sentence above: to find information doesn’t limit itself to read a single article and source, to know your truth it is necessary to understand both, the window and the mirror.

References.

Ceron (November 16, 2017). “Riverdale” Showrunner Roberto Aguire-Sacasa on Cheryl’s Sexual Assault Storyline. Retrieved from:

https://www.teenvogue.com/story/riverdale-showrunner-roberto-aguire-sacasa-interview-cheryl-blossom-sexual-assault#intcid=dt-recirc-cral1 on November 16, 2017.    

 

Debord (1988). Comments on the Society of Spectacle. Retrieved from:

http://www.notbored.org/commentaires.html on December 10, 2017.

 

Debord (October, 1994). The Society of Spectacle. Retrieved from:

http://www.antiworld.se/project/references/texts/The_Society%20_Of%20_The%20_Spectacle.pdf on November 26, 2017.

 

Harris (March 30, 2012). Guy Debord predicted our distracted society. Retrieved from:

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2012/mar/30/guy-debord-society-spectacle on December 10, 2017.

 

Petsch (November 8, 2017). Riverdale Season 2 Sexual Assault PSA Madelaine Petsch. Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dbqifGbWMug on November 16, 2017.

 

Vargas Llosa (2012). The Civilization of Spectacle. Retrieved and translated from: http://www3.gobiernodecanarias.org/medusa/ecoescuela/clubdelectura/files/2013/08/La+Civilizacion+Del+Espectaculo.pdf

 

Picture 1: Retrieved from:

http://www.gramunion.com/scrpcntquccn.tumblr.com on November 26, 2017.

 

Picture 2: Retrieved from: http://www.popbuzz.com/tv-film/riverdale/cheryl-rape-sexual-assault-nick-st-clair/ on November 26, 2017.

 

Picture 3: Retrieved from:

http://www.telefilmaddicted.com/wordpress/riverdale-2×06-un-quarto-di-miglio-alla-volta/  on November 26, 2017.

 

Picture 4: Retrieved from:

http://riverdalesource.tumblr.com/post/160599788458/westallenss-and-the-award-for-worst-mom-of-the  on November 26, 2017.

 

Picture 5: Retrieved from:

http://riverdale.wikia.com/wiki/File:RD-Caps-2×06-Death-Proof-90-Cheryl-Nick.png on November 26, 2017.

 

Picture 6: Retrieved from:

https://www.pinterest.com.mx/Iloveparis18/riverdale/ on November 26, 2017.

 

Picture 7: Retrieved from: http://www.gramunion.com/bett-coop.tumblr.com on November 26, 2017.

 

Picture 8: Retrieved from:

http://www.gramunion.com/riverdalesource.tumblr.com?page=7 on November 26, 2017.

 

Riverdale (Noviembre 15, 2017). Dead Proof, minute 25:58. Retrieved from: https://www.netflix.com/browse on November 16, 2017.

 

Thump (November 21, 2016). A New Survey Has Revealed a Shocking Level of Sexual Harassment in UK Clubs. Retrieved from:

https://thump.vice.com/en_uk/article/qkae5q/a-new-survey-has-revealed-a-shocking-level-of-sexual-harassment-in-uk-clubs on November 16, 2017.

 

Snyder (November 21, 2016). 20 Lessons From The 20th Century on How To Survive In Trump’s America. Retrieved from:

https://law.yale.edu/system/files/workshop_readings_-_february_2.pdf on November 26, 2017.

 

Grigoriadis (November 15, 2017). What The Weinstein Effect Can Teach Us About Campus Sexual Assault. Retrieved from:

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/15/opinion/campus-sexual-assault-weinstein.html on November 16, 2017.

 

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