Wow.

[bladespark]

Okay, the "skinny is beautiful" media thing has officially jumped the shark. Gone beyond the pale. Passed the point of no return. Because apparently this woman is supposed to disgust you. Go, clicky, look. Then come back and read. (Er, clicky leads to gal clad only in strategically placed rose petals, may not be SFW in some workplaces.)

I am more or less straight, when Aidan's not doing the talking. (Probably a Kinsey 1, and a 2-3 when Aidan and/or Yin are around.) But that first girl especially is hot. Holy CRAP is she hot. She's supposed to be disgustingly overweight? What? She is drool-worthy even for people who do not have a BWW fetish. She has hips! She is gorgeous!

Media people have lost touch with reality. They spend so much time in their little marketing world, surrounded by yes men and crazy people who think a size 6 is overweight, that they no longer have any idea what real people like. (Heavens! A size six! I've been one, it was during my stick period, when I was too stressed to eat, and when I did eat I was too broke to have anything other than Ramen. I was too thin!)

Here's a clue, media people. Real people like real people. People who look like themselves. People who are beautiful in many ways, but who do not need to be airbrushed to be so! People who are thin and fat and in between, who are short and tall and dark and blonde and pierced and not, and everything. We may be momentarily attracted to a perfectly symmetrical face on a magazine cover, but it does not make any real impact on our minds. You want to capture our attention, well... you need something real. And that's the problem, isn't it? You don't know what real is. You try to manufacture reality, you try to be hip and cool and down with us homies, and you fail utterly, because you are not real.

Screw the ad campaign and the diet youghurt, I will take that lady with the rose petals right there. Mrow! (Hush, Aidan.) She looks pretty real to me. And if my not eating the diet yougurt means I look like her, I am not going to mind one bit! (Although I won't, I put my fat on in funny places...)

Comments

[graydown.livejournal.com]

That's fine for you and me, but we're girls. Men have different priorities. I don't think it makes them shallow. That's just the way the world is. It would be different if I were in charge, but nobody asked me. ^_^

[bladespark.livejournal.com]

Nope.

Not fine for men.

Men are like women. Anybody who tries to tell you that we are fundamentally different in how we think is full of it. We are socialized to be different, but so far EVERY little "men think like X, women think like Y" test, statement, article, and quiz I have EVER seen, I am on the men's side, not the women's. I think like a man, this has been proved over and over and over, I've had female friends tell me this.

Men do not have "different priorities" If a man is judging what he wants in a mate entirely in looks, it is called "shallow" same as it would be in a woman.

[graydown.livejournal.com]

I read scientific journals for a living. It all supports the idea that men and women are different. But that's beside the point.

Even if it is just socialization, it's still very real, very powerful, and not something any of us can change. That's why I try not to get upset. It's nobody's fault. It's just life. I need to learn to deal with that, and be content with what I have.

[bladespark.livejournal.com]

Being content with what you have is fine.

But saying that all men judge women on looks is doing a HUGE disservice to men. I know men. Most of my friends are men. Maybe there are scientific differences, but they are not that large. And they do NOT mean it's "okay" for a man to be a shallow idiot!

And it IS. Here's the definition: Shallow is when you have no depth. When everything is on the surface. When what matters is what you see, and not what's under it. Even if you say that's normal, well, then normal is shallow.

And talk about stupid! If you choose your mate based on how she looks, you will be miserable! You will have somebody that if you're very lucky you might get along with okay, but there's no real relationship if everything is about the physical. A trophy wife is not a companion, a support, or a partner, she's just a possession, and if that's what you choose you will be unahppy in the end. That's called stupid.

If that's reality, then reality is shallow and stupid. Happily the men I know aren't like that. I wish I could introduce you to some of them and you could actually see what it's like to know a guy who cares more about what's in your brain than what's in your bathing suit.

[pet-tiger.livejournal.com]

Never mind that looks fade, so choosing a partner based only on looks is a Bad Idea(TM). (Either that, or choose a partner based on looks that also has enough money to cover the hundreds of cosmetic surgeries they'll need to maintain that look over the years.)

[graydown.livejournal.com]

Wow, that's insulting.

[bladespark.livejournal.com]

And you saying that men think only of how a woman looks isn't?

[graydown.livejournal.com]

[rimspace.livejournal.com]

You have an interesting concept of 'insulting', especially given your apparent willingness to make wildly generalised and sweeping statements about my gender.