I may not be a Jessica Simpson fan, nor am I an admirer or of her work… but I’m not a hater either. I was however, shocked to see the media attention gained over a poor wardrobe choice and perhaps ‘off week’. She did not look ‘fat’, at most from the pictures given to us from the media frenzy who dictates what we see… she looked like she fluctuated. Her clothes looked snug, big deal. Yes, the public pays her to look pretty 24/7 unlike those with greater talent that supersede their visual attractiveness. She was not chosen for her voice over her appearance. Sorry and sadly she took the job and has to put up with the scrutiny of paparazzi and those who who can’t help but read what’s splashed all over the internet and on magazine covers that bombard our line of sight as we’re waiting in line at the store- which is why I’m writing this.
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The thing that gets me though and pisses me off- Why is skinny seen as glamorous and attractive? For the most part I think society is filled with closeted homosexual men who are disgusted with the female body so they try to convince women that they look better with the body of a 16 year old male track star, but throw on fake boobs and hair extensions so it doesn’t seem like they’re able to act out their fantasies without being outed and it’s all good.
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Before and after the event there were many pictures taken of her from celebrity stalkers showing her come and go from the airport looking average to underweight… and the most noticable thing; she looked really alone. I think that’s when I *felt* for her. I just pictured walking in the airport, dragging my suitcases behind me and knowing the magazines were covered with my face with the word “Fat” plastered next to me as everyone is trying to snap photo’s of bulges and anything else to fuel their morbid obsession with weight. I think she did a good job not losing it, or at least not losing it in the public eye.
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The part of this all that makes me feel for her is that although I am not a celebrity sex kitten, I’ve had issues with my weight for years. I climb up and down the scale. I’ve had a 19 inch waist (size 0) to a 29 inch waist (size 10/12) and I’ve been in between. Any time I’ve gone to towards the higher- (like now) I feel like a troll. People seem to love me and flock around me when I’m more waif and then when I put on some pounds- it’s very lonely.
I also have my own PS here… I can’t believe the people who actually thought Obama was also commenting on her weight? Were they idiots??? My first thought upon his reaction to the cover replacing a photo of him and his family with Jessica was the hurt… and then he read the ‘subject’ of the cover. He didn’t insult her weight… he was reading the TOPIC. I don’t know why I continue to be annoyed with mainstream and their tendency to jump to ‘assume’ and react ignorantly.
Current Mood:
Disappointed
You’re right.
… Though I’m sure the “closeted homosexual” thing — which was undoubtedly hyperbole anyhow — is overkill as an explanation. The truth is that we’re just dumb. We’re attracted to thinner frames because that’s what we’ve learned to be attracted to. In a different age, we’d learn to be attracted to something else. The fake body parts — and be fair, the makeup — attract us because it’s a simple visual stimulus that we’re too dumb to look past even though we know a lot of it’s fake. And women are dumb too, make no mistake.
But it is ironic that it’s the fat bits that we (men) tend to like, while it’s the thin parts we insist upon at present.
And have the grace *not* to point out that today I’m saying that people are dumb, whereas the other day I said they were too smart.
I shall be graceful
I think for the most part I was trying to figure out “HOW” the body image acceptance came to be. “WHO” is everyone listening to? “WHY” do people just automatically go into herd mentality?
I guess I can’t think of how narrow hips and huge breasts can be seen as aesthetic… plastic looking faces. Drag queens still come to mind.
You’re absolutely right about the aesthetics. I couldn’t agree more.
I just don’t think it’s a result of people blindly following the herd. I mean, it *is* but that it happens so early in development that it should be considered “learning” rather than “following”. Like learning to enjoy eating hot dogs and hamburgers vs. eating sushi. You feed kids hots dogs and hamburgers and you don’t feed them sushi, so they learn to like hot dogs. That’s a preference that is learned before you even get to find out what sushi is. I still think the same kinds of girls are pretty that I thought were pretty in the third grade. I would have thought you were terrifically pretty in the third grade. If I had had a different selection to choose from back then, I’d probably think that a different kind of girl was pretty today.
Of course, I gave very little thought to breast or hip size back then, so my comments above obviously relate to faces, hair color/length/style, and similar stuff.
Well food tastes vs. what we’re attracted to in a mate. What part is primal? Women are typically attracted to the alpha male. It’s not learned, it’s instinct. “Who will help me survive? Who will be able to impregnate me? etc.” <-depending on the need of the mate.
Have we as society fought against Barbie for so long that now women are forcing themselves to look like them at the price of possibly deformity, health issue, financial and risk of life? I use the example of the most corrupt, perverted men I know are the ones who state they are devout Christians and family men. We were taught for so long how sick Barbie is and how no one can naturally obtain that ‘look’ that society had to bend natures rules.
And for the record- I just have to add that I’m not stating thin isn’t attractive. It is… a natural, healthy thin. <-think 40′s – 50′s pin ups as my ideal of what is healthy imo. Not obese, not muscle-y or wiry.
… for the record again, my apologies for using ‘pin up girls’ as an example, but they’re really the only thing I have to draw from who were photographed as American examples of beauty.
Yes, that’s probably a good way of looking at it. Since there’s a continuum between deathly skinny and morbidly obese, the sweet spot has got to be some point in between. And the problem, as you note, is that the current fad seems to point to one of the extremes as being the ideal.
Now I’m toying with the idea that fads are *usually* about extremes. If true, perhaps it’s true because it takes less brain-power from the people pushing the fads on us. Oh, well, that’s probably my limit for today on generalizations unsupported by an obvious facts!
Yeah- just a nice in-between “It looks like you eat foods that won’t give you heart disease, your face is pretty, your hair is gorgeous, you don’t look like you sit on your butt all day, if able and if you wanted to- it looks like you could give birth naturally and you have a nice color in your cheeks… you are perfect!”
I know I’ve been generalizing too lol Well how much of society bases ANYTHING on fact? It a religious nation… ’nuff said?
I like your criteria. It needs one more before being perfect, though: “… and you like *me*!” That may be the most important one.
Oh yeah… that one! BUT this is for the ‘society measuring stick’ of what I think should be an example for females if they want a standard of mainstream beauty to obtain or compare themselves against.
Yes, I became confused. I like your rules as they stand.