all through the current draft of ardens play , the actors had blithely skirted around both the giant , steaming dog turd - still front and center stage in act 3 - and the pressing , steaming social and political issues of the day ( reflecting , arden hoped , upon the absurdity of popular fashion and the shallow , all-pervading emphasis on youthful prettiness in the mass media of contemporary western society , where spin doctors hover like flies around feces ) .