Repeating Content in the Media Universe

Today in one of my classes I was watching a little movie about women and their representation in the American media, followed by criticism about the women's role in society and politics. To emphasize the limited presentation of women, concentrating only on their appearance and reducing them to sex objects, the movie actual showed a lot of examples of good looking women in advertising, movies, news and games. Surprising was that after the movie, which gave a lot of on evidence based arguments, I felt like I haven't seen so many sexual content in the media for a while as in that movie. So by criticizing it, I was getting exposed to the content even more. Of course that makes sense some how, because the movie tries to emphasize how often this picture of a women is drawn in the daily media. But still it made me think about how things get even more pushed into the audience's focus, no matter if it is criticism or not, just by dealing with it.

Another example for the sexual representation of women 

Looking for example at the series The Simpsons. I always loved that show. It is famous for making fun of the American society, the media, politics, religion and everything else you can imagine. It is not only a parody of real people and events, it also criticizing them and demonstrating their weaknesses. But you can't fight the fact that you are getting exposed to the same topics and contents as what the critic is all about. So you have to ask if in the end, formats like The Simpsons are not simply another part of the media universe, which is repeating the same contents over and over again. They assume to break out of this system by using irony and humor. It gives you the feeling that they stand above the "normal" media formats, because they refer to them and show their weaknesses. But nevertheless they put our attention on the same contents and it supports its importance to the audience.

What are you getting reminded of, when you see that scene of Simpsons?

                   
This thought makes me a bit frustrated, because it feels to me, that in the end every format has a different role in serving the consumer. Some of them are more obvious, some of them are less. I always thought the comedy shows would be special, that they are better than the "normal" media formats by making a parody of it, but now I feel like they are only a little wheel in the machine, keeping the audience's function as a consumer alive.