White Bear is about a woman named Victoria. Victoria wakes
up one day in what seems like her home with picture of her a man and a little
girl. Assuming that since the picture of the little girl is close to hers she thinks
that the girl is her daughter. When she walks out of the house she comes across
people taking pictures of her as there are others chasing her so that they can “kill”
her. Towards the end her and a woman were on their way to destroy the white
bear (a location that was like a signal tower).
While there she comes to the surprise that the whole day had been a show
used to torture her for videotaping her fiancé as he killed the girl that Victoria
thought to be hers.
At the end of the show they say that the reason that they
were torturing Victoria was because her partner had killed himself hence going
off easily for what he did. To make someone pay for the cruel way that they
girl was killed they tortured Victoria. I understand the fact that Victoria should
be punished for being an accomplice. But how is the way of punishing her effective if they keep erasing her memory. By doing this it almost makes you realize that they mostly do this to get a show out of it. On the other hand we are not given enough
information to know if this form of punishment should be used on her when there
could be the possibility that she was forced to be an accomplice.
We may think that the way that they turned her punishment into a theme park and everyone gets a show out of her torture is bad. What this show mostly did is make us realize that we already somewhat do this. There are so many shows that broadcast the life of prisoners in jail or delinquents being caught and sent to jail. When sometimes judge where they deserve the punishment of not. While we watch these shows and judge the prisoners on the show we are also almost taking the position of the spectators in White Bear.
6 comments:
I agree with you on the point that we essentially do enjoy the broadcast of criminals. Everyone has judged at some point in their life. We all do it. When we see someone on Tv or the news do something wrong or unjustice we immediately give our opinion. We are so quick to judge and express what we fill their punishment should be. But essentially who are we to judge or say what their payment is. No one is perfect and we should all agree on that. When it comes to punishing someone I believe who ever is doing the punishment should not be attached in any way. Only then could the "criminal" be given an unbias punishment.
To address your statement about how today's society already has a similar version of the White Bear Justice Park is somewhat understandable, but I would also like to point out a few things.
I feel like if the system we have today with broadcasting was the same level of cruelty as the White Bear system I am sure that there would be people who would protest the park based on moral reasoning and ethical treatment of humans. All we saw in the episode were those who were condoning her punishment. It's almost as if society.
Also to address the current entertainment that we do have now regarding the legal process from the arrest with Cops, the investigation with the First 48, the judicial procedure with shows like Judge Whoever is on in the middle of the day, and the containment with 60 days in I also wanna point out that while all is for our entertainment we unknowingly gain something else from it. I feel like why these shows have made such a market is because we as a society want to see that the system we have is working, every day and is fulfilling its intended purpose: to keep us safe. Some of them could even be seen or used as a safe way to give visual deterrent to youth that "this is the kind of place you go to when you don't follow the rules of our society".
But in all honesty, we don't really wanna know what we do to other people when we label them as a criminal, say that they can't act the same as us and throw them away. If we really wanted to know, we wouldn't have so many prisons scattered in the many desolate remote areas of the USA we would have it right in our face like something we're proud of.
Hey Paola!
So one thing I realized when reading your post is that maybe this episode isn't necessarily about the torture or punishment. Maybe this episode is a foreshadow, somewhat, of what our society eventually becomes? Like you were saying, we watch so many different shows that normalizes this kind of stuff to us. Honestly, maybe we are already in that spectator stage? It is a scary thought to think that we could eventually become a society that's portrayed in White Bear but maybe we are in the pre-stages of it? Great insight!
I agree that her torture is mostly used for the benefit of those arranging it and is something that happens in today's society. The erasure of her memory doesn't exactly make it a punishment either and I find it questionable as well.
Great comparison on how this how relates to our world now and how it uses punishment as a show for other to watch and be entertained by.
Your input on how well you analyzed this episode really helped me understand how corrupted our justice system can become if these sort of punishments are praised and multiply in the world.
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