Awards culture interferes with learning to love self
Mesa Legend
Many of us are just not there yet when it comes to love of self. With love lacking in many areas in the world, you would think in a selfie age there would at least be no shortage of self love. But the selfie love is hollow because like narcissism, it depends on the acknowledgement and admiration from others as it a key supply. Our culture doesn’t help us know any other way.
Your experience in little league competitions meant close to nothing if it didn’t end with at least a medal or trophy, even if you didn’t actually win anything. February in the culture is not only Valentines and “Black History Month”. It was also the peak of “award season”. It begin with the Super bowl extravaganza that ended with Kurt Warner walking the Vince Lombardi trophy down the aisle of the victorious Patriots like a father and bride.
Days later, Yeezy barely second guessed another “Ima let you finish” episode at the Grammy awards. Then, the month finished off with the biggest movie awards. Now that we have a camera and connectivity, its no wonder that to be constantly recognized and awarded has become the only way we can consider our lives to be real.
St. Vincent, winner of the Best Alternative rock album at the recent Grammy’s sings in the song “Digital Witnesses,” “What’s the point of even sleeping if I can’t show it, if you can’t see me?” In this state it’s like we forget that we breathe on our own. It’s the short cut exchange of self-esteem for we-esteem.
So while we appear to be obsessed with the selfie, it’s actually what we fear most. To be completely reliant on self-affirmation alone would mean we’d have to survive without outside gratification: medals, trophies, likes, and retweets. It seems scary at first, but a healthy love of self isn’t opposed to outside validation, it just means you can be allowed to look at both praise and criticism with indifference.
When asked if she felt “snubbed” by the Golden Globe Awards for an award, “Selma” director Ava Duvernay responded by saying she doesn’t like the word “snub”, because it implies someone took something. She then stated that as long as you do your best, you become bullet-proof to criticism.
