Limits of Love as a Book by Mary Evans - Literature review Example

Question One: Analysis of The Limits of Love Since the beginning of the 19th century, the search for true love has been preserved within the expectations of the Western societies. This pursuit is regarded as a person’s right. However, the likelihood that love is becoming more and more difficult to achieve among the western people is beginning to draw considerable thought. The accord is that love is awfully difficult to find and deeply desirable. Limits of Love is a book by Mary Evans, which looks at the insights of two aspects of the seemingly socially indispensable issue of love. The first of these two aspects majors on the sources of people’s ideas on love. This is concerned with where the idea o love originated, as well as its relationship to moral and morality systems (Carroll, 2009:557). The second of these aspects is individuals’ determination to achieve love. This is regardless of the personal and social costs. Mary Evans starts her arguments in the book by pointing out that unconditional love offers support and selfless care. In addition to this, she states that unconditional love may sometimes portray aspects of violent and abusive patterns. She in particular mentions that love can be separated from moral and morality expectations. This means that for the generations that have been given sexual freedom, there is every reason to suppose that love is fulfilled and immediate. For those people, living in the contemporary west, falling in love has however, never been easy. The author also looks at the current society in that it is richer as far as availability of goods is concerned than the previous societies. The rich live by reading newspapers and watching the television. Those individuals who have married and divorced many times still remarry. This world acknowledges that love can go and can still keep coming back. People do not acknowledge that sometimes life is better if lived with a series of people instead of one lifelong partner. At the start of the twenty first century, people do not have to link marriage with love, or sex with marriage, or love with sex. The once close relationships of these ideas have been sabotaged by moral and social change. With the intention of improving the relationships between men and women, campaigners and reformers have fought for more broadminded agendas on contraception, divorce, and sexuality. It is however arguable that marriage should be build by sexual fulfillment, with no sexual inhibition. However, an argument that marriage should be happy commits people to expectations and assumptions that people should be happy all the time. It is however arguable that lasting and absolute happiness is not always possible. The author further argues that the beneficiaries of our happiness are however, not those that we are close to, but those individuals who benefit from the corporations, which provide the goods and services, that make us happy (Goodwin and Finkelstein, 2005: 169). The author relies on some kinds of justification for the argument and ideas she talks about in the book. The idea of erosion of a community in a society is supported by the ideas of Max Weber, Walter Benjamin, and Georg Simmel. Evans quotes these writers when she says that the western society has a paradox in that it appears to provide individuals with everything while at the same time it is viewed as a society without cultural and moral substance. She further justifies her arguments with Max Weber’s discussion of what he views as iron cage, in which all member of the western society increasingly love. This cage is not of material deprivation, but a place where the spontaneous is marginalized. People, therefore, become slaves of the market not in the sense of literal enslavement, but in the sense of moral commitment and material indebtedness. Evans goes further to state that the beginning of twenty-first century is faced by destructive and sometimes chaotic aspects of love, marriage, sex, and relationships than in the past centuries. People are liberated from unwanted pregnancies, forced marriages, and violent relationships, yet at the same time, more contradictory and complex association between love, sex, and relationships are offered. She further states that in the current society, marriage as an institution has not followed the way o God, but has greatly changed. At the same time, people have been allowed constant access to a more explicit culture as well as sexual expectations and demands (Evans, 2002: 104). She supports this with a novel on the English Roman Catholic written by Amy Levy. According to him, marriage as an institution was doomed. A critical analysis of the book evidences some strengths and weaknesses. The author has greatly analyzed the link between love and marriage, love and relations, love and sex, as well as the shifts that have been made as far as these issues are concerned. She has been acknowledged for exploring deep in the issues of love. She can further be credited for linking love issues with the social moral and social ethics. However, it is evident that the book overlooks the romantic versions of love as well as what can be viewed as a contractual description of love. In the place of these issues, the book illuminates a kind of love that is dependent on commitment and care with an argument that love should be abandoned in its commercialized and romanticized form (Abbinnett, 2003: 21). Bibliography Abbinnett, R ., 2003, Beck and Giddens: Risk and Reflexive Modenrity, in Culture and Identity, Critical Theories, New York: Sage Press. Carroll, J., 2009, Sexuality Now: Embracing Diversity, New York: Cengage Learning. Evans, M. , 2002, Love: An Unromantic Discussion, New York: Wiley. Goodwin, S. and Finkelstein, J., 2005, The Sociological Bent, New York: Cengage Learning. Question Two: Self-Improvement Television Show Reality television shows are a genre of television programs presented unscripted with ordinary people. This genre has been in existence for a long time commonly in the beginning of the history of television. Presently, the genre is becoming increasingly popular with the broadening of subgenres such as renovation, self-improvement, competition, and dating shows among others. Reality television shows on self-improvement are a common subcategory of reality shows. Watching people as they struggle against an individual battle is inspiring and motivating for some people, while to other people it forms a great source of entertainment (Carroll, 2009:12). This has resulted to a variety of self-improvement television shows on such areas as relationships, weight, sports, career, and fear among other factors. One of the most popular self-improvement television shows is The Biggest Loser. Introduction Another popular self-improvement television show is MTVs MADE. This series follows teenagers who have goals and desires to be made into such things as dancers, singers, skateboarders, and athletes. These teenagers are joined by a Made Coach, who is an expert in the fields of their choice. He tries to help them achieve their courses over a period of several weeks. All the processes that the teenagers undergo in the process of achieving their goals are documented by their coach. Discourses The teenagers in this movie apply a variety of discourses in the attempt to achieve their goals. Some of the discourses evident in the show include no pain no gain, hard work, and one can achieve anything. The show is aimed at putting an end to the ‘no, you cannot do anything,’ American Dream. This dream argued that when one is born a loser they could achieve nothing. The actors and actresses of the movie are, however, determined to achieve the dreams and the desires of their heart. Each of the teenagers in the movie has a dream that they desire to achieve through hard work. They apply hard work in all trainee sessions and at the end of each season of the movie, some achieve their dreams. They believe that anybody can achieve anything provided they put their mind in to it. For this reason, each of the teenagers is determined and struggles throughout the trainee session to achieve what they have out their minds into. This motivates each individual to put extra effort in the training. They believe that they shall achieve considerable gain through pains in the hard trainee sessions. The training sessions are not easy. They are difficult and tiring, but these teenagers believe that they shall at the end of the struggle achieve their hearts’ desires. Disciplinary Practices, Surveillance, Self-surveillance In the effort of each participant to achieve their dream, varieties of disciplinary techniques are employed. The Made Coach controls all training sessions. The various techniques employed depend on the outcome expected. Some of these techniques include body training, lecturing on appropriate behavior, speech mannerisms, dancing skills, diet skills, vocal raining, and field techniques among others. For Julie, Josh, and Katrina their training techniques include field practices and ball techniques since they all desired success in the field. For others like Billy, and Alexa, their training involved vocal training, since they were interested in music. For those that were interested in dancing and modeling like Bryttni, Johnny, and Najah among others, were trained on matters of dressing and dancing techniques. Technologies of the self Each individual applied a variety o strategies, methods, actions, rituals, and habits for improvement of their skills. Free participation was one of the strategies that the individuals incorporated. They participated freely in the training sessions and had an inner drive for change. This propelled their skills a great deal. A further strategy employed by these teenagers was incentives and motivation. For any individual to perform well there should be a source of motivation. Incentives, too, are a good source of morale enhancement. These were greatly used among the participants for the achievement of their goals. A competitive attitude was also significant among the participants. An individual was able to perform better with increased efforts if their competitors were stronger. Competition is a good source of motivation. Whenever incentives and motivations are involved, withdrawals are also significant. Withdrawing rewards and privileges was another method used as a strategy in the training. Participants were denied some privileges and rewards when output was not admirable. This way, they would work harder, improving their skills and performance in the process. Conclusion Generally, the above discussed show is a good source of not only entertainment, but motivation and inspiration. Individuals who are demoralized by issues in their life could find this show helpful. This is because it clearly shows the kind of success an individual could achieve after a long interpersonal struggle. The discourses employed in the struggle to achieve the dreams plays a noteworthy role in the performance of each individual. The disciplinary and technologies of self are also of noteworthy impact in the success of these teenagers. The versions of self-improvement displayed in the show include style and grooming, attainment of difficult goals, fashion, and field success, among others. The peer pressure coupled with the difficulty in the new skills are the struggles that the teenagers overcome in the show to attain their success. Bibliography Abbinnett, R, 2003, Science, Technology and Catastrophe, in Culture and Identity, Critical Theories, New York: Sage Press. Adams, M., 2007, Self and Social Change, New York: SAGE. Beck, U. & Beck-Gernsheim, E., 2002, Individualisation: Iinstitutionalised Individualism and its Social and Political Consequences. London, Sage. Danaher, G. and Schrato, T., 2002, Understanding Focault, Kansas: Motilal Banarsidass Publ. Read More