Prompt 3 catfish

Before taking W131 this semester I was aware of the term “catfish”. I knew there was a TV series behind it but never caught any of the episodes (Catfish: The TV Show http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2498968/episodes?year=2012&ref_=tt_eps_yr_2012), not my thing, but anything MTV airs is bound to reach at least my ears at some point. I just didn’t go out of my way to check out the show, though. You know what I mean? Anyways, I was fairly surprised to find out we would be watching the movie from which the TV series is named after in our class film study. Simply called Catfish (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1584016/?ref_=ttmd_md_nm), this film documents a heavily doctored and unauthentic relationship, between a filmmaker (Nev) and who he thought was a beautiful artist (Meagan), which was only possible with the existence of social networks. And one other reason.

Turns out, “Megan” doesn’t even exist. She was a creation of the internet along with several other profiles, spawned by Angela. Angela used her talent for painting, claiming it was the work of her young daughter-in-actual-existence, Abby. Nev ate up the artwork like a dog and its food bowl, he loved it. This left him vulnerable, easy to exploit, easy to fake date over the web by hiding behind images of other people.  As story goes along, Nev begins to notice the several inconsistencies in the bologna story that he consumed and thought tasted pretty good, until it came back up.  He realizes that Angela is just some distraught woman in Michigan, who does not match her online identity. She also doesn’t have a daughter named Megan who Nev developed a deep attachment for. Angela was Meg. Angela was a lot of people, but she wasn’t herself.  She was just unhappy. She acted out to escape herself and her reality because she desired to be someone else.  This is the second reason why her façade was able to take place.

The desire to be someone else is the result of the insidious consumer industry that has been ripping us off for far, far too long. Wanting nothing but our dollars, corporations will stop at no end to make sure you are spending your money. Even if it means your wellbeing is on the line. The Dove Beauty Pressure video is a perfect snapshot of the beauty industry and its relentless attack on your mind with ad campaign after ad campaign after ad campaign. These companies have perfected their advertising for decades and know exactly how to rewire your brain to think you need more. And for the unfortunate people who can’t always get more, they know how to make us very unhappy, like Angela. See Angela is a victim of the consumer industry. She, like all of us, is being bombarded with doctored ads featuring ultra-human models and other manipulative marketing techniques. Over time it has broken down her will to see the good in herself because she can’t match up with photoshopped models or run out and buy whatever she feels like. Being desperately unhappy, Angela needed a way to cope. Thus we have the art of castfishing.