An Image In Mind
Posted: Monday, December 15, 2008
by Sara O'Rourke
It's not every day I want to learn what colour lipgloss suits my skintone, who was caught wearing a tracksuit in the postoffice, how to lose 10lbs in a week. Sometimes, just every now and then, I'd like to learn something with a little more substance.
As you walk by the reams of glossy magazines, you're hounded by superficial imagery, colourful shallow propaganda that has a way of making the average girl feel inadequate. They make you feel like they are the beauty bibles - they are a saviour, the instruction manual to a better, more beautiful and acceptable you. In reality, this is nothing more than a front to increase their sales, while in their offices, the editors know that the only way to keep their precious margin in the market is to attack self-esteem.
Some of it is down to human nature, without a doubt in the world, but I also blame the immesurable impact and importance that we place on superficial appearances. We are openly praised for being beautiful, sexy, seductive, never for being witty, sharp, thoughtful. What makes the headlines is very rarely a woman's academic shine, but rather her physical exposure.
Even on a smaller scale, out on the town, a night at the club turns into a battle between girls to impress and infuriate each other by looking good, better, best. Gone are the days when going out was just for fun. Now, the night is pressure, the night is uncomfortable. The enjoyment and freedom is sucked out of it all, leaving only glamorously superficial girlfriends feeling hungry, and with nothing much to say.
When was the last time someone just wanted to strike up a conversation? I fear that we are getting pushed, and letting ourselves be pushed, so far from any intellectual subject that many of us don't even hold opinions. It's uncontrollable, yet dangerously addictive and effective ignorance. What makes girls happy is no longer a good debate or a mind-opening lesson, but public recognition and social acceptance.
I think it's about time that we make idols out of successful, intelligent career women - women with substance and sage. The media should express and publish an interest into what they have to say, all the while resisting that irresistible itch to slate their fashion sense. Then, and only then, shall women seek their happiness in books, travel and cultural enrichment and not in the pages of Vogue.
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Top-level comments on this article: (7 total)Hi Sara.I think your article is very well written as usual and this topic can never be discussed enough. You are so right. We need to get back to substance.Dianne
SaraAs a guy, yes girls that look great do get noticed more but for a lot of guys including myself, if a girl can't have a good conversation then it doesn't matter how good looking they are!! You are right though how "Hollywood" portays beauty is wrong! Just remember it's what insides that counts!Just for the record, girls who wear a lot of slap don't look that great anyway!!AlexI'm impressed that you feel that way, Alex.But what I was really trying to get at was that girls don't do this necessarily for male attention - in fact, I think it's quite accurate to say that more and more it's becoming a competition between girls for each others' approval and envy rather than that of any man. Girls are feeling they have more self-worth when they look good, rather than when they have a great brain.I don't know - I say that you can always add some make-up, get your hair cut, and go on a diet, but you can't suddenly grow a brain.Thank you for your input. =)"I say that you can always add some make-up, get your hair cut, and go on a diet, but you can't suddenly grow a brain"that is a great saying!!Alex
another saying that could apply to this article is "a leopard can't change it's spots"!Alex
... but it can paint on some more!
hi sara,this was a very well written, interesting article that includes information that has been timeless, at least as long as i've been alive for 52 years. girls were doing all the same things you mentioned, even back then:)i never was into that "club". i never have worn much make-up, and haven't at all in years. if i feel like going to the post office in a coat covering my flannel pajamas, i do. i don't care who sees me, i'm covered more than shorts and a tank top would offer. i am also a stay at home mom, which i think should be included in the list of successful, intelligent women.i have run this house and kept it looking nice, bills paid, and raised 3 kids, juggling basketball, softball, and baseball practices and games, etc., ad nauseum. i am proud to be a strong, intelligent woman who can sustain herself in this world we live in.thanks for a good article,my best,sue
Sara,First, I would like to say that I am thoroughly impressed with you and your desire to improve the intellect. I admire your delving into history, philosophy, and such. Having been a college instructor for years, I so infrequently ran into youth who truly embraced the intellectual.To the article. It is certainly sad that women are primarily valued for their beauty or lack of it. I was watching a historical documentary on FDR last night and his wife, Eleanor, was quite put down upon by her family and others who called her an ugly duckling. It hurt her to the core, so much that it stayed with her the rest of her life. However, she is a role model to me and others, a person who overcame adversity and fear to do great and amazing things for her country and especially for the disadvantage and downtrodden.It is certainly sad that nowadays women in the limelight, role models for most young women, feel that they must disrobe and turn it on to get noticed. There are great women out there doing great things in business, politics, and elsewhere who get little attention, for intellectual accomplishment does not sell.We need more young woman with your voice reaching out to our youth to help them see the proper path that longevity of happiness lies in the heart and not in the sway of the hips to entice, berating the physical over that of the eternal intellect.
Excellent article on aspects of society that go unnoticed each and every day.
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