Do You Fit The Media Mold?

Look anywhere, and the pressures put upon girls and women of all ages not only in America but other countries as well are blatantly obvious. Stretched larger than life along the walls of stores like Victoria's Secret, Abercrombie and many others are skinny females wrapped tightly in glowing, perfectly tanned skin with shimmering hair radiating from their flawless faces like a pristine waterfall tumbling directly from a mountain's center, untainted by the world's deadly, poisonous touch. Their eyes stare at you half-shut, rimmed in make-up, eyelashes curving upward like delicate waves fanning out, catching sunlight that sparkles against your eye, holding your gaze long enough to draw your mind's eye inward, to compare yourself to the perfect image of the woman before you. And if you're anything like me, you'll know you don't measure up and turn away, shaking your head. Wondering what factory that woman on the wall was produced in, how many on the assembly line came before her? How many will come after?

When it comes to the media's definition of beauty in girls and women, there is an undeniable mold they think everyone should fall into and conform themselves to, like melting away our pride, our dignity, our self-respect, who we are, our individuality and allowing the melted wax of our former selves to fill up that mold until we harden against it, harden against the onslaught of the media and all its dark tentacles reaching out. Then the mold is being torn away, a new woman already sinking into it, and we become just like everyone else the media has reached out to and polished to a shine.

I've come to realize that the media plays a major role in many of the blog posts I write about each Wednesday. Most of the time it has to do with music and how the media is so negatively affecting it these days, but this time I have taken a different turn. But, you never know! Music may end up working itself back in anyway. Marilyn Monroe - if I recall correctly - was the first artificial blonde Hollywood presented to the world through movies. She was shaped into someone completely different, a doll, a perfect delicate plaster cast from the universal mold they could pop onstage and pluck the strings, ruling her every move, her every thought, and her appearances. Granted, I know next to nothing about Marilyn Monroe other than hearing snippets of stories over the years and watching Some Like It Hot on TV some years ago, but I do know she allowed Hollywood and all its far-reaching arms to primp and mold her, shaping her into a dazzling movie star that still tantalizes many actresses today...but in the end she was eventually ruined because of it.

There's the old saying beauty comes from within but honestly? Who really takes that to heart? Now don't get me wrong, it's every bit true. Like an online friend of mine said, you can have the most attractive features in the world, but if you aren't a good person on the inside, those good looks mean nothing. So why is the media presenting the complete opposite to us in its usual twisted way? Well, I said I wasn't going to insert a music metaphor here, but I'm simply following the narrow and rutted dirt path through the thick woods of my mind. Each corner is blind and could lead to anything, I just take everything as it comes!

Over the years media has done the same thing to music. Quantity has been placed as a higher priority than quality. People are demanding more and more music yet don't realize that like mixing tea, you can't make a whole gallon by just continually adding water, you have to double all the other ingredients to keep the tea's flavor from thinning out and eventually becoming insipid. Such is the case with today's music. But people no longer care about its distilled sound or even more distilled talent. You could apply the same theory to the world's view of what a beautiful woman is today. The more carbon copy women out there who adhere to this universal mold, the more satisfied people will be the celebrities they see on TV, advertisements and magazines.

Celebrities are another thing entirely. A couple weeks ago I was watching Entertainment Tonight, which I never watch for obvious reasons, but that night curiosity won me over so I decided to watch it anyway, and they presented a story of Terri Hatcher - I think that's her name, the actress from Desperate Housewives? - who had taken pictures of herself with not a trace of make-up on with wet hair and a towel wrapped around her middle in her bathroom and posted them on Twitter. The ET announcer went on to point out the ghastly wrinkles in Teri's forehead, and the wrinkles here, and the wrinkles there. I can't recall exactly what Teri herself was quoted as saying but it was something like "I'm not afraid to show who I really am. This is me, without make-up, and I'm proud to show these pictures to you." Even when celebrities strip off the thin, powder masks that make them glitter and shine beneath the lights and so many women's hearts rip with envy, I'm skeptical. Sure they look normal but would any celebrity really take it all off? Or is it just a marketing ploy? A way for themselves to appear on the same level with the average American woman watching their movies and TV shows? Maybe I'm being overly critical of celebrities in general, and I'll admit, I'm not much for movies and only watch a handful of TV shows a week, but I'm sure there are people out there that agree with me.

Perhaps my viewpoints come from, ironically, the media. Celebrities are touted so much by the media, their every moment captured and sent to millions of websites dedicated to such innocuous, every day occurrences as shopping for groceries, bringing their kids to the park, and eating lunch that we think they're something special for doing, when really they're just living their lives like we do, the only difference is that we don't have a talent for acting and haven't grown up in front of a camera like a weed grows up amidst its more beautiful counterparts. The media has placed celebrities on a pedestal, lashing out at them when they do anything imperfect. As much as I can't see it, they are normal people just like us. Yet why can't we get past their names? Their famous faces smiling, crying, laughing and screaming in our favorite movies? Why can't we tear ourselves away from the photos after photos of them hauling their kids, arguing with their wives/husbands? Is their really that much separating us from them apart from different careers and talents? And of course, money. Money in itself may be another underpinning of this whole thing, but I'll leave that to someone else!

Well I had intended to talk about how clothing these days - especially articles bought at major retail stores - seems to be sized and fitted for a very elite and specific type of woman, but ended up derailing on a rant about the ridiculousness of Hollywood, the over-inflated balloon of the media, and its swarming beehive of celebrities that lead normal - at least in most of the pictures plastered in websites by the salivating paparazzi - but portrayed as infinitely interesting lives. I guess you could say this rambling blog post was inspired by several summer tank-tops I've recently bought at American Eagle. Not only are the straps mysteriously a few inches too long, but my assets are never enough to fill out what apparently American Eagle has deemed as the normal amount. Well I'm sorry A.E, but not every girl between the ages of 16 and 20-something have the assets that you believe them too. Some girls are well-endowed, others aren't. Yet many major clothing stores - and minor ones too - seem to have a mysterious universal mold that they apply to every size of clothing, and leave women like me who struggle with missing parts of the mold and a way to make themselves fit said mold. Nothing is more frustrating than picking out that special piece of clothing that caught your eye, trying it on and finding that it doesn't fit. Celebrities, girls and women from every walk of life are criticized when they flaunt their curves and shapes, yet so many clothes these days lack such qualities.

I know I've never fit into any of these molds, and I'm okay with that. I don't wear make-up, my hair isn't always straight, I wear glasses, I refuse to wear those ridiculous shorts that look like the girl's ass to going to swallow them up at any time. I don't care for dressing up, I really don't like certain shades of pink, the same tank top may not look as good on me as someone else who fits the mold but I've accepted what God has given me. Isn't it time the media accepts the - gasp! - flaws in the celebrities it trails around like a black shadow skipping behind you on the sun-baked concrete? Maybe then we wouldn't have to scale the high bar every time we try on clothes, or walk in the mall, or turn on the TV. Maybe we can throw away the molds hovering overhead and make our own, one that fits only us, one that celebrates our individuality and the fact that women everywhere are no longer going to conform to anyones standards but their own. Don't get me started on the entertainment industry. :)