Blogpost 6: Johnny Bravo: Denial

"Ohhhhh, Mama!". You probably know this tagline. It came from the famous Johnny Bravo. We all know that Johnny Bravo is the muscular main protagonist of the series. Johnny can also be interpreted as a male representation of the "dumb blonde" The character is memorable for his incredibly fast movements, usually done when he starts impressing women, accompanied by a swishing sound that goes "Hee, Haa, Huu". Fun fact about this show is that Johnny Bravo is based on Elvis Presley, the famous pop, blues, and rock and roll musician. I used to love this show when I was a kid. I find his misadventures funny, especially because he gets dumped by women almost every time. But if we look closer and dig deeper on Johnny's personality, he's more of an egomaniac person. He sees himself as someone who is generally attractive and deluded about his own manliness. However, in the eyes of women, and because of his shallow and dim-witted traits, it leads to a severely incorrigible inability to attract women. But there is a deeper psychology to this kind of personality that Johnny Bravo possesses.

Johnny, as we all know, and as the TV show presents him, he's troubled with attracting women, although she loves women so much, he just can't seem to pull off a good conversation with any. He claims to love his friend, Carl Chryniszzswics. Chris is Johnny's alter ego. He is a local nerd who gets all the women, that's why he's a little bit of an annoyance to Johnny, but for others he's just an average Joe. Carl has a big part in the show, it usually ends up with him being chased out of town by Johnny, or he is the technical victor of the episode, getting all the women while Johnny's left dumped and alone.

An accurate psychology to Johnny's personality can be classified as some sort of ego-defense mechanism, particularly Denial. According to the article about 15 Common Defense Mechanisms by John M. Grohol Psy.D on the website PsychCentral, Denial is the refusal to accept reality or fact, acting as if a painful event, thought or feeling did not exist. Meaning, Johnny cannot really accept the fact that he's just not that good at women, but he tries so hard and forces himself to be so, that he falls off the curve of awkwardness and eventually gets dumped because of his ill-advised actions toward women. Denying can be determined as someone who is arguing against an anxiety provoking stimuli by stating it doesn't exist. It is considered one of the most primitive of the defense mechanisms because it is characteristic of early childhood development.

Many people use denial in their everyday lives to avoid dealing with painful feelings or areas of their life they don’t wish to admit. For instance, Johnny is considerably not good with attracting women and seduction. But he keeps on trying his ass off everyday, even when he fails consistently. When a woman or his friends label him as someone who is bad at picking up women, he tends to show of his outrageous hairstyle, his macho body, and his defined skills for modelling. This is a perfect depiction of Denial. Denying the reality that he's bad at something, and often pointing to how well they function in other fields.

On this article about What is Denial? written by Kendra Cherry on the website About Psychology, as she quotes, "Denial functions to protect the ego from things that the individual cannot cope with. While this may save us from anxiety or pain, denial also requires a substantial investment of energy. Because of this, other defenses are also used to keep these unacceptable feelings from consciousness." This means that the main purpose for denial is to keep the person intact with their psychological health and not fall off and go crazy.

We are complex animals living complex lives in which we are not always able to cope with the difficulties that we face. Facing your own problems is good. But to some extent, a man can only take so much information and emotion. That's where these ego-defense mechanisms take place. Denial is an outright refusal to admit or recognize that something has occurred or is currently occurring. But it doesn't necessarily mean that this is always a bad thing. It has some good effects for us, especially when they deal with minor to major stress and trauma. These coping mechanism are ways to help us confront and get by our problems and issues in life, therefore a help for us human beings.