愚蠢是種流行病在女孩中蔓延
In this media-focused world, the things we see and hear in the movies, on TV, and on the radio influence us all. Some of these influences are benign or even beneficial to the forming minds of youth. But many others provide young people with questionable messages, for example, the MTV hits “Jersey Shore” and “My New BFF.” The stars of these shows do not commit technically immoral acts; they simply commit mindless ones. The lack of blatantly immoral behavior leads many viewers to conclude that the shows are harmless. We can recognize when behavior lacks common sense, however, the greater danger is that we have been conditioned by the media to view mindlessness as acceptable.
I am disgusted with TV programs and movies that promote mindless behavior. The stars of these shows demonstrate to young people—particularly girls—that it is attractive to be dumb . That idea feeds into other self-image issues that girls already experience, and I believe this is affecting the future of our nation. If we want to have any hope for our society, we must stop this epidemic of stupidity.
Mixed in with all the blatant messages that young people are gathering from the media is a subliminal implication that it is attractive to be dense—especially for young women. Paris Hilton has readily admitted that she is not familiar with common knowledge, including the function of the Walmart stores and the capital city of England. Despite these intellectual failings, Hilton—whose mindlessness has inspired the term “celebutard”—has been linked romantically to the rich and famous— models, musicians, actors, and businessmen—showing young women that desirable men find her vapidity attractive. These negative examples lead girls to imitate Hilton in order to gain male attention; this begins young—perhaps as early as grade school—and only escalates during the teen years.
By promoting the “stupid girl” image, the media prevents young women from avoiding issues of body image and acceptance. While it is true that many eating disorders are caused by depression or abuse , many begin with a yearning to be attractive and accepted. Some girls will try almost anything to gain boys' attention, including dumbing down, taking up a crash diet, or getting a spray tan.
Some people may view the “stupid girl” trend as a simple display of childishness. If this were the case, the idea of girls playing dumb would not alarm thinking people as it does. However, the immaturity of youth is not to blame; stupid girls are growing up to be stupid women and having children. What will these mothers teach the future leaders of our nation? Will they teach their daughters to always wear makeup and encourage their sons to pursue ditzy girls? If this cycle continues, our country will be run into the ground in a matter of a few generations!
在這個聚焦媒體的世界，我們在電影、電視上看到或在收音機中聽到的各種訊息都在影響著我們。有些影響對青少年思維的形成沒有危害，甚至有益。但很大一部分向年輕人傳遞的信息有待商榷，例如，MTV電視臺的當紅真人秀節目《澤西海岸》和《新密友》。這些節目中的明星們并不是刻意做一些不道德的行為，他們只是出于無心。正是因為這些不得體的行為并沒有達到讓人無法容忍的程度，所以很多觀眾認為這些節目無傷大雅。我們能意識到有些行為不合常理，但更大的危險是，受媒體影響，我們已經認為這種無意識的錯誤是可以接受的。
我討厭那些宣揚無心的(愚蠢)行為的電視節目和電影。這些節目的主角向年輕人——尤其是女孩們——證實，愚蠢是種美。這種想法已經滲入到女孩一些關于自我認知的問題中，而且我相信這會影響到我們的國家。如果我們對這個社會還懷有希望，我們就必須停止這種愚蠢流行病的蔓延。
年輕人從各種媒體所收集到的訊息中摻雜著一種潛在的暗示：愚鈍是一種魅力——尤其年輕女性來講。帕麗斯?希爾頓曾公開承認，她不太懂得一些常識性的東西，包括沃爾瑪超市是賣什么的，英國的首都在哪兒。即使擁有這些常識上的缺陷，希爾頓——她的愚昧造就了一個新詞“豪門浪女”——已經被浪漫化地與“富有”、“出名”聯系起來——模特、歌手、演員、商人——年輕女性看到的是男人眼中這種無知的魅力。這些負面的典范使很多女孩爭先恐后模仿希爾頓，以求得到男士的青睞。這種風氣很早就開始了——或許從小學開始——在青少年時愈演愈烈。
通過宣揚這種“蠢女”形象，媒體使年輕女性不得不面對自身身體形象以及自己是否受歡迎的問題。雖然很多飲食紊亂問題由抑郁或濫用藥品而引起，但很多人最初是渴望變得有魅力、受歡迎。有些女孩不惜一切手段想得到男孩的青睞，包括弱智化、速效節食，或噴霧曬膚。
可能有些人認為“蠢女”趨勢只是一種孩子氣的表現方式，但如果是這樣，這種愚蠢女孩的現象就不會引發人們的思考。我們不能批評青少年的不成熟。蠢女孩會長大成為蠢女人，蠢女人又要生出下一代。這些母親會如何教育我們國家未來的主人?她們就教女兒如何化妝，慫恿兒子去追求無知的女孩?這樣循環下去，我們的國家會在未來的幾代人手中垮掉!
Vocabulary:
1. benign: 沒有危害的，良性的。
2. Jersey Shore: 《澤西海岸》以新澤西海岸幾位意大利裔年輕人為主角的真人秀節目，這群年輕人瘋狂玩樂，彼此間嬉笑怒罵，甚至連沖突斗毆的言行舉止都被記錄下來，從2009年在MTV電視臺開播后引來極大爭議，劇中兩位主角妮可爾?波利齊和邁克?索倫蒂諾也因此走紅娛樂圈;My New BFF: 即Paris Hilton’s My New BFF，MTV推出的真人秀節目。讓20名參賽者在同一屋檐下各展其能，努力成為帕麗斯?希爾頓的新密友。
3. blatantly: (強調糟糕)非常，極為，完全。
4. dumb: 愚蠢的，傻的。
5 subliminal: 潛意識的，下意識的;dense: 愚蠢的，愚鈍的。
6 celebutard: 由celebrity(名人),? debutante(初次參加社交場合), and retard(智力遲鈍)三個詞合成，指有名但是無知的人;vapidity: 乏味，無趣。
7 escalate: 惡化，升級。
8 abuse: 濫用。
9 ditzy: 愚蠢的，頭腦不清的。
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