A term coined by me for the purpose of this blog, Prop Culture means culture that is formed by propaganda. Human minds are impressionable and forgetful at the same time. Impressionable enables big corporations to leave an impact on our minds through propaganda and forgetful enables them to make us forget that it was propaganda in the first place. Soon enough it becomes culture.
That is exactly what happened when De Beers ad campaign feigned us into believing that diamonds are rare and valuable and the only way of expressing the desire to marry is to present a diamond ring to your loved one. Prices of engagement rings went up and so did our expectations.
Propaganda makes an appearance again when blue was associated with boys and pink with girls. So, anything blue or pink sold well, and big corporation were minting money. It would be wrong to say that no one questioned the basis of assigning colors to genders because quite a few did. Pink was associated with girls because it is close to the romantic color red and women are perceived to be more emotional than men. Women’s Liberation Movements did oppose it however we all know now that the color bias still stuck and is a widely accepted prejudice in our culture.
Propaganda for desirable body shape for women changes with every generation. Corsets for extremely thin waists in 1910s to straight figures in 1920s, then came the soft curves in 1930s, fast forward to long legs in 1980s and now big butts in 2020s. So, what exactly is desirable? Anything that is advertised as desirable is desirable.
Don’t give in to propaganda, have a strong value system and stick by it! Our responsibility lies in our ability to not let external forces affect our bearing on reality. Don’t wear a shield to deflect opinion but don’t blindly accept it either, my advice is to rationalize it internally and then add it to your value system accordingly.
