Marriage in the Media

       Marriage is something we see everywhere.  We read about it in papers, we see it on TV, and there are even people who make a living off of showing their married life to the world.  I am unfortunately one of those people who loves drama and although I feel for the ones struggling, it wouldn't be any fun to read about people's problem free perfect marriages.  I chose to use marriage in the media as my artifact.  I believe there are many different ways this can be interpreted and presented.  You can't even turn on the TV, or flip through a magazine without hearing or reading about someone's marital problems.  I think the world eats up media like this because we look at movie stars and other wealthy people as having everything which isn't fair so of course we want to see them fail as awful as that sounds.  No one should have everything! Well that's atleast what I think anyway.  Money makes the world go around but it can also make your personal life a disaster.  One of the most current bits of gossip I read about was the new relationship between Kat Von D and Jesse James.  Apparently they're a couple, who knew right?  I thought she was married and isn't a little soon for Mr. James to be snooping around for another woman?  With all the drama he dealt with in his marriage to Sandra Bullock and the regret he showed to America, it sure didn't take too much time for him to move on.  There are also relationships that are intentionally put in front of the media and America to witness.  Take the show basketball wives for example, these women make themselves look so desperate and half of them aren't even married which defeats the purpose of the show.  The one that is married is told by numerous people that her husband doesn't care about her and she even hears it from him in some instances.  She stays with him probably because of the lifestyle he provides for her.  This is also I'm assuming one of the reasons men of wealth and power get away with what they do.  Most women would leave a man caught cheating and not want their personal life blasted to America.  When Kobe Bryant was caught cheating, he held a press conference to explain his actions and to apologize with his wife sitting at his side holding his hand.  How embarassing is that!!  There are so many different angles you can take when discussing marriage in the media and Hollywood.  Over the course of the semester I'm going to focus on how wealth and popularity in our culture influences marriage.  Women throw themselves at men in power, but if Joe the plummer walked by them they wouldn't even give him a second look.  Most women or "groupies" as I like to call them, see a married man as a challange or something they want to conquer.  This is especially the case with professional athletes.  Hopefully this will be a very interesting experience.