Have you gotten the message? You aren’t good enough the way you are but if you will join this group, buy this product, or sign up for the app, your life will change and people will love you. Furthermore, you need to tell your doctor to prescribe this medication, or better yet, buy these supplements so your pain and other symptoms will go away.
Although I limit my television time, there are certain programs I enjoy, therefore I’m exposed to advertising. Years ago, a local priest offered a seminar on television awareness and I’ve never looked at ads the same since. Try to see the message behind what you are shown. Most times, it tells us we are not good enough and we don’t know how to make good decisions. We seldom realize how we are being manipulated. Sexuality and body image are powerful tools of the trade.
Beyond the ads, notice how women are being dressed by their handlers. You should be a blonde, with long hair and tight clothes. Better yet if you had eyebrow and lip work done, and are wearing so much eye makeup that you appear to have been in a bar fight. Be sure to show some cleavage. Short skirts and stiletto heels, of course. What happened to the feminists who didn’t like being sex symbols? Worst of all, we now dress our teenaged girls that way.
I’ve never subscribed to the notion that how a woman is dressed means she is asking to be sexually abused but I do know some things about how the male mind works, and nobody is taking that into consideration. These same body image messages are now being aimed at men.
There’s certainly nothing wrong with wanting to look our best. Diet and exercise are important for good health and lifestyles. We should be the ones in charge of those decisions, not corporations that make their money from encouraging our feelings of unworthiness.
Back in another century, women were encouraged to enhance their good points and distract from what was less desirable. Those inclined to be chubby, chose clothing with vertical lines and solid colors. No large prints, tight pants, or horizontal stripes. Hairstyles were aimed to complement facial structure. Clothing that was appropriate for home differed from what your profession required. Lately, I’m sometimes so distracted by what an employee, male or female, is wearing that it’s hard to concentrate on the business at hand. Interestingly, language seems to follow our fashion choices. Words once unfit for polite company are now aired everywhere, even by politicians and reporters. I’m old, and old fashioned, but I wish for a kinder gentler world and these trends aren’t leading us there.
This quote from Richard Wagamese gets right to the point:
“When there’s a crack in my mirror, I can’t see myself as I am—all I see is the crack. The crack tells me that there’s something wrong with me, that I’m not enough, and that this is how others see me too. It’s not a question of finding a better mirror. It’s about seeing beyond the crack. I am not, nor ever will be, perfect. But I don’t need to live for approval. I, need to live for acceptance and joy in the unique, worthy, lovable, beautiful, sacred being that I am, and to celebrate the same thing in others. That’s seeing beyond the crack.”
Meet me here next week and, meanwhile, look a little deeper.