I saw this meme recently, and now just about everything ticks me off.
The reason for my ire is that it really DID make me think of all the businesses that would go under. Look at the contents of our closets. The money I’ve spent over the years, trying to accentuate my positives and hide my negatives. Madness. And God forbid I go out of style! Unacceptable. The clothing industry would disintegrate if we didn’t care what we wore.
And can you imagine if we stopped buying cosmetics and dark spot removers and fancy shampoo and astringents and moisturizers and creams and lotions and dyes and waxes? What if we stopped taking vitamins? How about if we only bothered to own one pair of comfortable shoes?
The number of agencies that prey on our insecurities is astounding when you really think about it. Gym memberships. Weight loss plans. Advertising, and by association the entire television and magazine industry. Designer EVERYTHING, cosmetics, skin care, health food, hair salons, spas, exercise equipment, diet cookbooks, self help books and gurus, a lot of therapists, models, cosmetic surgeons. Even cell phone companies like to imply that you can’t look cool without owning their product.
Just like the remoras that latch onto sharks and feed off their leftovers, these body image industries could not survive without actively maintaining our negative self-images. Now when I walk through a mall or a department store, I see signs of this everywhere. It’s like being pelted with dead fish that have “you’re not good enough” written on their stinky scales. They NEED us to feel insecure. They NEED us to think that if we just buy that “one more thing” we will be popular, feel better, be more loved, be accepted and attractive.
From now on, with every single purchase, I’m going to ask myself, “Do I really need this?” “What do I really think I’m getting?” “Am I really going to get what I want to get from this product, or am I about to buy an illusion?”
Once you start looking at the world through that particular lens, you really can see how used all of us are. We carry much of the economy upon our stooped shoulders, and I don’t know about you, but I’m tired.
And that makes me mad as hell.
The View from a Drawbridge 
A sane answer to our insane obsession with our quest for beauty. It is easy for me, because I never thought I was pretty, and have always just accepted me for who I am. Now at 71, I feel good. If I could just think the same about food… I could end up saving a ton of money.
I hear you. And I never really thought I was pretty either. I’ve never spent a dime on cosmetics, but I still have spent a lot over the years, falling for their tricks.
Someone smart once said: If women’s clothing through the ages had been purposely made to keep them in a position of inferiority, they could not have been better designed.
I sometimes wonder how many women died in the 9-11 attacks because they couldn’t walk down all those stairs…
And the wedding industry or fashion industry or makeup industry doesn’t give a shit about you…
That’s the God’s honest truth. And revisit my blog entry, “The Destruction of Women” to see other ways the little woman has been kept under control throughout history. https://theviewfromadrawbridge.wordpress.com/2013/02/23/the-destruction-of-women/
We live in a sick world… but some of these are more cultural than others… and women sort of let themselves be sucked into it… not always… they didn’t always have a choice about some things, but here… now… you just have to choose not to buy into it anymore.
It’s true. I haven’t worn a shoe with more than a half inch heel in over 30 years. I don’t get people who are willing to inflict pain upon themselves or alter their bodies.
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