Bones & Society

I know that TV is TV and that what is said must be taken with a grain (or two) of salt, but something that was said on last week's episode of Bones struck a cord with me. Just in case you are not familiar with the Wednesday night show, Bones is inspired by real-life forensic anthropologist and novelist Kathy Reichs. On the show, forensic anthropologist Dr. Temperence Brennan, works at the Jeffersonian Institution and has an uncanny ability to read clues left behind in a victim's bones. Consequently, the FBI calls her in to assist with murder investigations, so it is kind of CSIish, only with a focus on bones. (www.tv.com)

The episode I am referring to had to do with the bones of an elementary aged girl who disappeared from a beauty pageant. (Just think Jon Bennett Ramsey.) Anyhow, what struck a cord was a rant by Dr. Brennan about how a high concern with physical appearance and beauty has been the downfall of ancient societies.

I look at America today and can’t help but wonder, are we the new-age Roman Empire? It scares me that such a high level of caring and concern is given to Hollywood movie, television, & singing stars. I would venture to say that there are probably more shows dedicated to movie stars, makeovers, and plastic surgery, than to the news and people in society who are actually doing things that we should be concerned with. Point in case, the birth of Suri Cruise making the National News. I mean, why does this event constitute coverage on the National Level? It truly scares me.

At one point in the episode, as www.tv.com reports, Dr. Brennan says (to some nine year olds), "So yours is a cultural structure predicated in the equation of beauty with power. You instinctively align yourselves with someone who holds the greatest potential for a societal supremacy. It's a Darwinian pressure you're too young to bare."

Now I have never been a fan of beauty pageants, and especially at such a young age. It just doesn't seem to be right for "baby" girls to be dressed up in heavy make-up and adult-like clothing, pranced in front of a crowded room in order for one of them to be crowned the winner. What the heck is this doing to the self-esteem of all of the "losers"? And, what are these girls really learning from the experience? These little girls are scarey to me. Not beautiful, not cute… frightening. I don't like clowns. I don't like dolls. And, I don't like little scarey pageant girls.

My other rumination is this...what mother would do this to their child? In the episode, the girl's hair was dyed, she had been using a corset in order to gain an hourglass shape, and had been on a very restricted diet. If this was done to a little girl who's mom was on welfare, I am sure that a social worker would cart her away because the mother would be judged as unfit, yet in the 'pageant world' this is okay.

Yes, I understand that Bones is a made up television show and that the show's pageant world was probably dramatized. But, then again, part of me wonders, are pageant really like that? And, in a world where a ‘beautiful’ super star gets a slap on the hand for something an ordinary American would go to jail for, I also have to wonder, is our society doomed because of its ever increasing preoccupation with beauty and fame as power?