I like to take my media with a grain of salt, but I've seen just 30 million more commercials and advertisements flaunting tall, stick-thin, bright-eyed, tan-skinned models than is good for my health.
To be a woman in America is to never be satisfied. There is always a subconscious checklist of what you'd like to change if only you had the money, if only you could be born again. It doesn't matter if someone loves you. It doesn't even matter if you love yourself. There are all of these contradicting messages: love who you are, but buy this moisturizer. be whoever you want to be, but get these new Balenciaga heels.
Do men go to bed at night hoping that it will get better in the morning?
And so maybe if I just go away for a while, escape the country, all of it will just go away. Because even if I believed completely in myself and who I was (which I think I do a pretty good job of), there would be men and women who could pick out flaws and reasons for me not to succeed. Look at Hillary Clinton.
So my solution is not to escape, but for women to stop antagonizing each other and pushing each other to the edge of insanity, expecting perfection and balance. I think that, together, we could probably shield ourselves from all the media's poking and prodding.
7.07.2008
introduction.
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6 comments:
"Do men go to bed at night hoping that it will get better in the morning?"
Yes and no. I suspect that it's actually similar for men, just at a much lower volume. For women it gets turned up to eleven.
I grew up in South Florida, and it was always a "problem" that I wasn't tan. But I liked being not tan! That just wasn't acceptable to everyone else. "You should really get a tan." Pft. Yes, let's all sit under a giant ball of fire fueled by nuclear fusion. This is a good idea!
When I moved out to Colorado, it wasn't an issue. Tan? No one is tan in Colorado. Tanning was just something the weird California kids did. It has since come to my attention that the only places where being ridiculously tan is universally considered a prerequisite to qualify as attractive, are California and South Florida. No one anywhere else seems to care, and people who live anywhere it snows think that it's weird.
It's the same for a lot of other stuff. Sure, there are universal pressures on women all over the country to look a certain way, act a certain way, take certain jobs... but in California and South Florida there exists an extra layer of superficial standards.
too true, too true. i'm sure if i moved back to tennessee or georgia (where my family is from), it wouldn't be so bad. california (and florida too) seem to be the hub of shallowness. the problem is, most of our media comes from california. so this is all i really know as of now. SAD.
and thanks. you've always got something good to say! wassup with that?!
I accel at blathering, but every now and then the words seem to arrange themselves in a coherent manner. I assure you that it's completely by mistake.
And the fact that I had to post this three times because I guess I can't type today is PROOF.
wow. that is impressive.
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