Sunday, April 6, 2008

The importance of Beauty

Well, I have been away from this blog for awhile. Nothing purposeful, just a little writer's block. Just figured I'd wait around till something came to me. It did of course.

My 10 year old son has entered a you tube phase. This coincided with a continuation of a concurrent Red Hot Chili Peppers phase. All in all, he is a pretty happenin 4th grader, but I'm biased:).

So he is searching the you tube collection of RHCP videos, real and independent in origin and we, since I was sitting by him at this point, came across this gem. It is a indie video of the song, Slow Cheetah..........

Take the time to watch this video. It's not a performance video by the band, it is a young filmmakers interpretation of the lyrical content of the song itself. It is definately worth a check and refreshing that others



As I have told you in the past, I work with high school students. Boy this video hit home. So many of the females in this age range, hell in all age ranges in our society try to measure up to some contrived perception of what true feminine beauty is. What is true beauty? We don't have rigid guidelines telling us what photos are worthy of us loving or what paintings should move us,do we? An interesting disconnect and a sad one also.

As a 19 year old I spent about 4 months in New Zealand surfing. You are right, life was hell;). One thing struck me was that women there seemed way more comfortable than there American sisters who torment themselves on a daily basis. I was also struck by the paucity of a concerted media bombardment saying if you aren't this well you just aren't!! That always stuck with me.

I am fortunate to live with two incredibly beautiful females. One is my brown-blonde blue eyed beauty: also known as my wife. Female #2 is a brunette with an avalanche of brown curls that surround the sweetest face a four year old girl could have,also known as my daughter. I make it a point to tell these two stunners how beautiful I think they are as many times a day that I can because I have to attempt to fight the dominant paradigm as daunting as that might be. I hope you also do likewise.

Before I close I want to also address this additional observation I have made. I have known several women that fit in the rare contrived model of what our society deems as beautiful. They likewise face pressures of the sort I could not imagine. How to maintain, its all going away so soon, etc. Generally, they have not been a very content group in many fundamental ways.

Why can't the media just stop being so misogynistic toward females? I really don't get it. This perpetual cycle of abuse cuts across age, race and all other divides. I just don't get it.

2 comments:

Me said...

The thing is..

Little girls learn from a young age (or I did) that your parents can tell you that you're pretty..

But somehow, it doesn't carry the same weight as a stranger..or a hot guy.

And then you get older..

And you see for yourself that the "pretty" girls get everything.

And if MOST girls didn't feel that way..gyms would be male dominated. And models would have no work.

It's screwed up.

But.

Well.

You know.

Kimala said...

I agree Bliss and D. It is just a sad but true societal trend - that has existed seemingly forever. :( What does that mean for our little girl? I guess we just have to do our best to help her develop a strong healthy self-concept - and what better way to go about doing that than by beating 3 brothers down :)