While there was a great amount of escapism throughout the 1930s, this has been drastically changed since then into a culture where we dive face-first into social problems. This is exemplified today by the social and cultural trends that are used and shared by people today. Throughout the 1930s there have been many examples of movies and other art forms that show there was a very deep-rooted ideal of escapism. This in some ways is actually quite understandable, FDR even wanted to try and re-instill the Hope in American society. With so much of the economic sector as well as a cultural sector collapsing it is easy to see why many people turned into a form of escapism and treating it as a thing to cope with their problems. One such example of this was the movie It Happened One Night by Frank Capra. While there are many examples throughout the movie one example is while he is in bed dreaming of a better life on an island to which he can escape and live with a woman he had once scene. Many people dreamed of this but very few would ever actually attain it, that was the whole point it was never really meant to be attained just as a simple coping mechanism for those suffering in the Depression era. However, this is in complete contrast with modern trends. While the presentation of problems is still in many forms of popular culture such as movies, videos and other forms of entertainment, it is only to try and challenge and face these problems head-on. Movies and entertainment painted a picture of perfect places where people would escape to in the Depression era, today they paint pictures of imperfect worlds and even try and help contribute to fixing the problem. One example is diversity and representation in entertainment, with movies like The Avengers as well as video games like Overwatch directly helping combat this problem. Other forms of media that do not hide the problem are things like Twitter which many even use as a platform to express their views and beliefs as well as ways to fix problems. Finally there even movies like The Joker which is rumored to help expose class injustice in modern society. While the world’s problems in the Depression era were never really hidden it was always ideal to try and escape them; however now, culture has chosen to directly push back on these issues to fix them.
Clips from modern movies and entertainment that clearly show the presentation of modern problems:
Diversity:
Female Representation:
Escapism in It Happened One Night:
