Yes, precisely, that's what I meant by "the perceived norm". It's not TV so much as it is the people around you who believe and follow it (plus the magazines, and so on). They perceive it to be normal when in fact it is not; it is consumer culture, *resists going into full consumer culture rant*.

An example of consumer culture is an advertisement that sends the message "You should be/do/look like this, and if you don't, you should be ashamed of yourself, and be sure to buy things that bring you as close as possible to what we say you should be/do/look like."

As for the dog idea, I'd still look into it. These cultures I described that take animal totems seriously aren't all solemnity about it, oh no. There's plenty of joking around, including about sex.