Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Chasing a Mirage



I'm an artist. I like looking at pretty things. I psychologically like thinking of myself as the "prettier" me, the one when I actually do my hair and/or makeup (which, folks, is not too often).

But why do we look to the barrage of media to tell us what "pretty" is, when their definition is a mirage? I mean, can YOU BELIEVE this video? She's so pretty to start with, and is drop-dead gorgeous by the time she's done with hair and makeup, and yet it's still NOT ENOUGH for their billboard. They lengthen and slim her neck, change her hair, make her eyes bigger, and of course use the good 'ole airbrushing.

So why do I look at a pretty billboard like that and think, "Wow, I'd love to look that pretty."???

I like the tagline of this video: "No wonder our perception of beauty is distorted." I think every parent should show this to their fashion-conscious tween and/or teen daughter/s.

I also like the tagline of another Dove video that shows the onslought of sexually objectified women via the media. It ends by saying, "Talk to your daughter before the beauty industry does."

10 comments:

Katie said...

Wow! Thanks for sharing, oh and I think you are beautiful just the way you are.

Teric said...

Yup, I've seen that one before. I'm still utterly disgusted by the way media presents 'beauty'. I stopped believing their drivel years ago.

Besides. That girl wasn't smiling in the picture. Meh. A smile makes any girl twice as pretty. And you don't have to go through some three hour touch-up session to do that!

Kimbooly said...

Aww, Katie. I wasn't fishing for a compliment, but thank you very much.

Even though you have to say that because you're my sister. ; )

Rob (Teric)-I knew there was a reason I liked you. : )

Kimbooly said...

ps. I'm smiling, dear. : )

Shelly said...

I've seen it before as well. I LOVE that dove is doing their "Campaign for real beauty" because we NEED it.

Although it's nice to have makeup on and hair done, it won't take long for ugliness to "shine" through if there isn't real beauty underneath.

WATGNAT said...

If you are looking for a blog topic I have a good one: How many blog postings will Kimbooly make before taking the camping gear off the top of her van?

My vote is 6

Kimbooly said...

Touche' Kevin. Touche'

So, if your bet is 6, I'm already down 2, I only have 4 more blog posts to go and then I *might* attack unpacking the van.

Perhaps posts 3-6 will be pictures of said trip that we have not yet unpacked yet.

Maybe post 7 will come before I wash it, too....

Shelly said...

LOL-I knew you hadn't unpacked, but the gear is still ON the van?

You could post about Easter too...

I vacuumed my van yesterday and realized it was probably the first time since my St. Louis trip three weeks ago.

Julia said...

I love that you posted this on your blog! It's SO refreshing to expose the truth--especially about something as unattainable as "model beauty". Now we all know why. I've personally been trying to purchase more DOVE products, because I support causes like this one, and I know that some of the money goes to these campaigns. Thanks for sharing cous!

Do you mind me asking how you uploaded this u-tube video to your blog? I would love to know how, so that I can do it to mine on occasion. Feel free to e-mail me or post the info. on my blog: http://armywifemomof3.blogspot.com/--sometimes I forget to check back in people's comment sections after leaving a comment. I figure that I'm done once I've commented, but that's not always the case.

P.S. Just so you know, you have more readers than you do commenters. My mom (aka Aunt Nancy), in particular, follows your blog quite closely. (In fact, she's the one who told me how much she liked watching this video.) She's just not much of a commenter--I guess that makes her a silent lurker or is it a "delurker"? I love that term, "delurking" by the way. I don't know if you noticed, but I totally stole it for my blog. Immitation is the sincerest form of flattery, right? Anyway, thanks for all the great stuff you post; youts is a fun blog to follow!

Kimbooly said...

Hi Aunt Nancy! I love knowing I have lurkers about! I thoroughly love validation (don't all moms?).

Julia, I love your comments, thank you SO much.

When you go to youtube and view a video, up in the right-hand corner of the page, just below the "description" of the video, should be a spot that says "embed." If you copy and paste the "embed" html into your blog post, voila. It should work. But lately it's doing screwy things with my blog. Somehow all my side column stuff has magically been pushed way down beneath all my blog posts. I gotta figure that one out.

And for the record, everyone, I finally unpacked my van and washed it. Within a couple weeks of returning from vacation. Ahem.